Every major operating system and most devices support it, making it great for drives you need to access from different systems. The advantage to using FAT32 is portability. If you do need those larger file sizes, you’ll need to stick with something like NTFS or exFAT. RELATED: What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?įAT32 is a solid file system for external drives, so long as you don’t plan to use files over 4GB in size. Swap 'X:' for the drive letter assigned to your USB drive.įor whatever reason, the option to format USB drives larger than 32GB with the FAT32 file system isn’t present in the regular Windows format tool. Alternatively, launch PowerShell as an Administrator and run 'format /FS:FAT32 X:' in the Window to format the 'X:' drive as FAT32. To get both systems to read the drive, we suggest formatting as FAT32 or MS-DOS using the steps mentioned below.Use a third-party utility, like 'FAT32 Format,' to format larger USB drives with FAT32. If the thumb drive is working with one operating system, but not the other, it may have been formatted using either NTFS or HFS, causing compatibility issues. There can be compatibility issues when attempting to read a PC formatted thumb drive on a Mac, or vice versa. You can identify the generation of USB your computer uses through the following link. If you are connecting to a port on the front of the computer, try using one on the back instead.Ĭomputers that are using USB 1.0 may not be compatible with some thumb drives meant for USB 2.0 and beyond. Front USB ports are often passive, which causes compatibility issues with some devices.If you are using a USB hub, try removing the hub and connecting the thumb drive directly to the computer instead of the hub.If any of them work, you have a bad USB port. Try your thumb drive in multiple USB ports on the original computer.If one computer can read the USB thumb drive, but another cannot, try the suggestions below.

If it works, you know that the thumb drive is functional, and that the issue is related to a bad hardware or outdated drivers. USB port issuesĪ good initial step is to try the thumb drive on a different computer. See: How to update a Microsoft Windows computer. Many software issues can be fixed by keeping Microsoft Windows up-to-date.

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