How to Fix Windows 11 Format FAT32 not Available

What is FAT32?

FAT32 is a disk format, it's also known as a file allocation table, and it's the operating system's (OS) way of keeping track of cluster allocations, which is how filesystems allocate disk space for everything. In simple terms, you can clearly know how the files are organized. When you format a drive, FAT32 is one of the options. 32 refers to the number of bits the filesystem uses to store the addresses of these files. FAT32 has the following characteristics.

• Compatible with a large number of devices.
• Work across platforms or operating systems.
• The maximum file size is 4GB and the partition size is 8TB.
• Not as efficient as NTFS, and less secure.

Why FAT32 Option not Available?

When you need to format a drive, many devices only recognize FAT32 and not exFAT/NTFS. Therefore, many users want to format their hard drives as FAT32. In general, you can easily and successfully format it as a FAT32 file system in Disk Management. But sometimes you may find that the FAT32 option is not available in Disk Management. So why does this happen?

This is usually due to your partition being larger than 32GB. Because the default Windows formatting options only allow FAT32 partitions on drives that are 32GB or less. In other words, Windows' built-in formatting tools like Disk Management, File Explorer, or DiskPart won't allow you to format a 64GB SD card as FAT32. And that's why there is no FAT32 format option in Windows 11 or other versions.

Backup Your Disk before Formatting

Before you start to fix the problem that Windows 11 formatted FAT32 is not available, in order to prevent data loss after formatting z, it is recommended that you back up your disk data in advance before starting to format. You need to choose a safe and reliable backup software, such as AOMEI Backupper Standard, which not only helps you back up disks for free, but also provides various backup functions to fully protect your data. It is suitable for many kinds of Windows OS, including Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista, etc.

• Incremental backup: You can choose the incremental backup method to perform your backup tasks. Incremental backup will only back up the changed part, so this method will help you save backup time and storage space
• 2 backup services: It supports Microsoft's VSS and AOMEI's backup services, so it can ensure that your backup tasks will not be interrupted in the middle.
• Different paths: You can backup your disk to different destinations, such as local disk, external disk, HDD, SSD, USB drive, NAS, etc.

You can download and install this professional backup software, and then start backing up the disk that you want formatted according to the graphic tutorial below. If you are a Windows Server user, you can choose the AOMEI Backupper Server version.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Backupper Standard. Open the software, click Backup > Disk Backup.

Step 2. Click Add Disk to choose the disk that you want formatted.

Step 3. You need to select the destination for your disk backup and then click Start Backup.

Notes:

• Schedule Backup: You can set the fixed intervals to run the disk backup task automatically such as daily, weekly, monthly event trigger or USB plug in. The last two are available in the Pro version.
• Backup Scheme: You can select 3 different backup methods (Full/Incremental/Differential). You can also enable automatic backup cleanup feature to save disk space. Differential backup and cleanup features are available in the professional version or higher versions.

How to Fix Windows 11 Format FAT32 not Available

After backing up the data, you can start to format FAT32. The specific steps will be described in detail next. You can start by following the graphic steps below.

Step 1. Press Windows + R key to open the Run window. In the Run box, type "cmd" and press Enter.

Step 2. In the cmd window, type "diskpart" and press Enter. The diskpart tool will be opened.

Step 3. Enter "list disk" and press Enter.

Step 4. Enter "select disk #", where # is the number of your selected disk. Then, press Enter.

Step 5. Enter "list partition" and press Enter.

Step 6. Enter "select partition *" and press Enter.

Step 7. Enter "format fs=fat32" and press Enter.

Summary

This article explains what FAT32 is and why the FAT32 option is not available. After understanding these, you can learn how to backup data before formatting the disk and how to perform formatting FAT32 in the article. The safe and reliable backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard not only helps you back up disks for free, but also provides various backup functions to fully protect your data.

In addition, as a professional backup software, it also provides functions such as system backup, partition backup and file backup. You can choose according to your needs. You can download this software now to explore more.