Windows XP and 64GB flash drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel Prince
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Daniel Prince

Someone told me that Windows XP will not work with 64GB flash
drives. Is that true? Thank you in advance for all replies.
 
If it is not pre-formatted, you can either paritition the
64GB drive or format it with something else, e.g. a Linux
life-CD. While XP cannot format larger than 32GB it has
no trouble using them when formatted.

Chances are that a new 65GB flash drive is formatted
with VFAT and works with XP.

Arno



R.Wieser said:
Daniel,
Click to expand...
The problem seems to lie in the fact that XP cannot *format* a drive larger
than 32 GB.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough w98 had no problems with that, but that one FDISK could not
handle such a large storage ...
Click to expand...
 
Daniel,

The problem seems to lie in the fact that XP cannot *format* a drive larger
than 32 GB.
Click to expand...

Not true, it just cannot format (Without a third party app) using FAT32. I
have formatted a 64GB flash drive repeatedly on Windows XP Pro SP3 both with
NTFS or using a 3rd party app in FAT32 for use in an old media player.
 
GMAN,

My apologies, I should have been more clear in the specifics of it.

Luckily I provided a link to an MS webpage with all the details .... :-)

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:
 
Someone told me that Windows XP will not work with 64GB flash drives.
Is that true? Thank you in advance for all replies.
Click to expand...

It works after installing the Exfat IFS driver (KB955704) via Windows
Update.

Joseph
 
Joseph,

From the MS webpage to that update:

"The exFAT file system is the *successor* to FAT32 in the FAT family of file
systems"

That could mean that exFAT is only usable on other machines having that
patch. It would be a good idea to check ....

Also read other posts here: Although XP cannot format drives larger than 32
GB with FAT32 there are other programs (including w98's FORMAT) which does
not have that limitation.

Regards
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:
 
Vanguard,
The format command in Windows XP won't *create*
a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in size;
Click to expand...

FORMAT does not *create* such a partition, FDISK(/the equivalent on XP)
does.
that doesn't preclude you from using 3rd party partition
managers to enlarge that partition to encompass the rest
of the available free space on the device
Click to expand...

The other way around I'm afraid. Parititioning on an XP machine will
succeede, its the formatting that needs to be done either by a third-party
program or somewhere else.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:
 
GMAN,

My apologies, I should have been more clear in the specifics of it.

Luckily I provided a link to an MS webpage with all the details .... :-)

Regards,
Rudy Wieser
Click to expand...


Hey, no need to appologise, we are all here to put our 2 cents in and help
eachother.
 
That's a limitation of formatting using FAT32 on the flash drive. The
format command in Windows XP won't *create* a FAT32 partition larger
than 32GB in size; however, that doesn't preclude you from using 3rd
party partition managers to enlarge that partition to encompass the rest
of the available free space on the device. Even if you create and then
enlarge a FAT32 partition, you will still have the limit of 4GB for the
maximum size of a file.

If you convert to NTFS then there is no such limit. If you format as an
NTFS partition on the flash drive, there isn't the 32GB limitation.
Under NTFS, you also won't incur the 4GB maximum size for a file.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/format-usb-drive/
Click to expand...
Exactly, so basically if you are going to use that flash drive on any system
Xp or newer, you might as well format it NTFS
 
From the MS webpage to that update:

"The exFAT file system is the *successor* to FAT32 in the FAT family of
file systems"

That could mean that exFAT is only usable on other machines having that
patch. It would be a good idea to check ....
Click to expand...

For specific flash media like SDXC you need that patch anyway.
Also read other posts here: Although XP cannot format drives larger than
32 GB with FAT32 there are other programs (including w98's FORMAT) which
does not have that limitation.
Click to expand...

Windows 98's FORMAT is actually a DOS program and it cannot format flash
drives, because Microsoft DOS doesn't support them.

So digging out tools from the stone age doesn't help. But of course there
are mkdosfs and others.

Joseph
 
Hello Joseph,
Windows 98's FORMAT is actually a DOS program
and it cannot format flash drives, because Microsoft
DOS doesn't support them.
Click to expand...

Simple solution: don't boot into DOS. :-)

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional mesage:
 
Windows 98's FORMAT is actually a DOS program and it cannot format flash
drives, because Microsoft DOS doesn't support them.
Click to expand...

I use Win98Se, and it FDISKs and FORMATs USB drives just fine. In fact
I set up a 320GB USB HDD using Win98SE. And, BTW, DOS drivers for USB
storage devices do exist. I use them. :-)

- Franc Zabkar
 
R.Wieser said:
Vanguard,


FORMAT does not *create* such a partition, FDISK(/the equivalent on
XP) does.
Click to expand...

Yep, you're right. It's the FDISK command that creates partitions. It
is the FORMAT command (that you use to layout a particular file system
within a partition), as you noted via the MS KB article, that won't
structure a partition larger than 32GB.
 
R.Wieser said:
Joseph Terner ...
Click to expand...
From the MS webpage to that update:

"The exFAT file system is the *successor* to FAT32 in the FAT family of file
systems"

That could mean that exFAT is only usable on other machines having that
patch. It would be a good idea to check ....
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exfat#Disadvantages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exfat#Support_on_other_platforms

The OP is asking about removable storage media. exFAT is usable only if
using the flash drive on other Windows or mobile hosts where exFAT is
supported or support has been added. Good luck with that.
 
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