You can learn what’s FAT32 and why FAT32 option not available. You can also learn how to back the disk before formatting and how to fix the problem. Keep reading and scroll down for more details.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.