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==== Maximal sizes ====
The FAT32 boot sector uses a 32-bit field for the sector count, limiting the maximal FAT32 volume size to 2 [[terabyte]]s with a sector size of 512 [[byte]]s. The maximum FAT32 volume size is 16 TB with a sector size of 4,096 bytes.<ref name="Microsoft_2007_KB184006" /><ref name="Microsoft_2007_KB314463" /> The built-in [[Windows shell]] disk format tool on Windows NT arbitrarily only supports volume sizes up to 32 GB,{{refn|group="nb"|This was a decision taken by the developer in question, who assumed his decision would be revised later, something that never happened.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/04/windows_format_fat32/ | title=Explained: The thinking behind the 32GB Windows Format limit on FAT32 }}</ref>}} but Windows supports reading and writing to preexisting larger FAT32 volumes, and these can be created with the [[command prompt]], [[PowerShell]] or third-party tools,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Glenn |first=Walter |title=How to Format USB Drives Larger Than 32GB With FAT32 on Windows |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/ |access-date=2021-01-26 |website=How-To Geek |date=July 20, 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=2021-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126003213/https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/ |url-status=live }}</ref> or by formatting the volume on a non-Windows system or on a Windows 9x system with FAT32 support and then transferring it to the Windows NT system.
The maximal possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 [[gigabyte|GB]] minus 1 byte, or 4,294,967,295 (2<sup>32</sup> − 1) bytes. This limit is a consequence of the 4-byte file length entry in the directory table and would also affect relatively huge FAT16 partitions enabled by a sufficient sector size.
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