19 replies to this topic

[jlee928]

For those using any microSD over the size of 32GB, you probalby know Windows won't allow you to format anything over 32GB as Fat32, it only allows you to format as NTFS or exFat. One way to work around this is to use the program fat32format.exe found at the following site.

http://www.ridgecrop...fat32format.htm

I am able to format my 64GB microSD to Fat32.

[steve6375]

or RMPrepUSB ;-)

[Wonko the Sane]

or the Tokiwa thingy:
http://tokiwa.qee.jp...Fat32Formatter/

And NO, no need to move this to "News" :
http://reboot.pro/15137/
http://reboot.pro/10271/
http://reboot.pro/4539/


Wonko

[joakim]

I have not checked this particular detail, but I bet it is handled in ufat.dll. Maybe it could be patched..

[Holmes.Sherlock]

I have not checked this particular detail, but I bet it is handled in ufat.dll. Maybe it could be patched..

To my understanding, it does not touch the Windows format library, i.e. ufat.dll. Had it been so, we could be able to use "normal" Windows format utility to format a drive over 32 GB with FAT32. But, it is not so. IMHO, it writes the allocation table by accessing the raw storage device.

[Holmes.Sherlock]

For those using any microSD over the size of 32GB, you probalby know Windows won't allow you to format anything over 32GB as Fat32, ...

For those who are unaware of the fact...
http://support.micro...;EN-US;Q314463

[Wonko the Sane]

And - strangely enough - besides being a stupid limitation (the way it is implemented) the general idea is not that much wrong.
http://www.msfn.org/...tb-hard-drives/


Wonko

[joakim]

I don't know that much about fat, so it's hard to locate where in the code the limit is set.

[joakim]

To my understanding, it does not touch the Windows format library, i.e. ufat.dll. Had it been so, we could be able to use "normal" Windows format utility to format a drive over 32 GB with FAT32. But, it is not so. IMHO, it writes the allocation table by accessing the raw storage device.

I am quite sure ufat.dll is central in formatting FAT32 volumes, just as untfs.dll is for NTFS.
(I just loaded it into olly)

See attached image. Session performed on Winodws 7 x64.

Attached Files

•  olly_format_ufat.PNG   750.74KB   22 downloads

[Holmes.Sherlock]

I am quite sure ufat.dll is central in formatting FAT32 volumes, just as untfs.dll is for NTFS.

Didn't you try to mean that fat32format patches ufat.dll?

[jlee928]

no, you open administrative command prompt and go to the directory where you extracted fat32format then type the following command "fat32format <drive letter>:"

such as "fat32format d:"

[Holmes.Sherlock]

I am quite sure ufat.dll is central in formatting FAT32 volumes, just as untfs.dll is for NTFS.
(I just loaded it into olly)

See attached image. Session performed on Winodws 7 x64.

I perfectly agree with you, too.

Have a look at the PE Explorer export viewer, the highlighted parts. But, my point was something else.

[TheHive]

Thanks for the tips. Had Micro SD Card that was using exfat, needed fat32. Ended testing the first program mentioned, the gui version. Works!

I didnt know rmprep did it also.
Like the suggestion for Tokiwa thingy.

[taa]

Mac OS X 10.7.5

New SanDisk Ultra 64 GB MicroSDXC (SDSDQU-064G-AFFP-A)

 

The above SanDisk came pre-formatted as exFat.

 

Although this topic is Windows-centric, it seemed like the best place to post info about formatting a MicroSD over 32GB on Mac OS X.

 

http://reboot.pro/to...ck/#entry156918

 

The above steps provide a link to the SD Format download for both Windows and Mac, however, using the Mac version (latest is 0.91 beta as of this writing) there's no option to choose the format type -- the utility appears to support only the exFat format type.

 

I decided to use the Mac's own Disk Utility to format the card. If I choose "MS-DOS (FAT)" it will format it as FAT32 and all 64GB is available.

 

Can the steps at the above URL be modified to indicate that SD Format is only required if you're going to format on Windows?

[elegantinvention]

Thanks for pointing that out, I have linked back to this thread in the instructions.

 

I am slowly compiling all of these things into a final feature set for ISO Manager, so it can handle formatting the card, managing your ISOs, loading ISOs into isostick's optical drive, and so on for Windows, Linux, and MacOS X.

[Fredrik B]

Fat32 is not a good option atleast for me. I have a iso of Microsoft SBS2011 this is 6GB+ so it cant be placed on a FAT32 partition.

 

Can you get around this by first format it as fat32 and then use gparted to create a smaler partition that uses Xfat and put some ISO files there?

[Brito]

I confirm the same problems as @Fredrik B, on my android phone with a 32Gb MicroSDXC. 

[taa]

Fat32 is not a good option atleast for me. I have a iso of Microsoft SBS2011 this is 6GB+ so it cant be placed on a FAT32 partition.

 

Can you get around this by first format it as fat32 and then use gparted to create a smaler partition that uses Xfat and put some ISO files there?

FAT32 is required, the solution is to split the 6GB+ into multiple 4GB files. See this topic: http://reboot.pro/to...s-for-isostick/

[Fredrik B]

Thanks, will try when I get home

[elegantinvention]

Just popping in to confirm what @taa said.

ISO Manager will soon be available for linux and osx, so that will simplify the process since it splits large ISOs automatically.