This guide show how to format a USB drive to FAT32 file system using File Explorer and Disk Management tool on a Windows 11/10 PC.

If Windows won't format your USB drive to the FAT32 file system, remove the write protection or use CMD, PowerShell, or free software to do the same.

Depending on your digital assets, it may be optimal to use a specific file storage format type. Learn about FAT32 & NTFS formats, & find what’s right for you.

The current preview version of Windows 11 breathes new life into the FAT32 file system. It also updates the Windows Sandbox Client.

While most modern hard drives make use of the NTFS file system on Windows and APFS on macOS, both of which offer a wide array of features — when it comes to compatibility, FAT32 reigns supreme ...

FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32) is an older file system that both Windows machines and Macs still support.

Always the right file system Watch out for data loss! Technically, it has never been a problem to format USB drives with a storage capacity of more than 32GB with the FAT32 file system.

If you need to exchange files (even occasionally) with a non-Windows system like a Mac or Linux box, then FAT32 will give you less agita, as long as your file sizes are smaller than 4GB.

Virtually all cameras and videocameras support FAT32, too. It's the closest thing we have to a universal file system format, which is why most flash drives are formatted this way right out of the box.