Microsoft has finally broken out one of the most significant updates to FAT32 partition size limits in Windows 11, launching via the release of Insider Preview Build 27686 for the Canary Channel. It was a big step from a limit of 32 GB that has been in place since Windows 95, according to The Verge.
FAT32 partitions were previously limited to 32 GB—that was a heritage of nearly 30 years of development history. Well, with the new update, that’s been bumped all the way up to 2 TB for formatting disks from the command line using the ‘format’ command.
The command line tool has been updated to remove the limit of 32 GB for format dialog in Windows 11. However, this change only applies to the command line tool and not the GUI format dialog. To create larger FAT32 partitions through the GUI, users will have to resort to third-party tools or command line interfaces.
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Former-Windows developer Dave Plummer set the 32 GB limit years ago and commented on it on X (formerly Twitter). According to Plummer, the format dialog has stayed the same for years, which contributes to the 32 GB limit persistence.
FAT32 partition size availability for stable users
The enhanced FAT32 partition size limit is now made available to all Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27686 users. The feature will roll out to all Windows 11 users once it’s further tested and validated in the stable channel.
For now, users needing big FAT32 partitions can use command line or third-party tools until the GUI tool is updated.