Partition A Fat32 Hard Drive - D-Link DSM-120 User Manual

DSM-120 User's Manual Appendix
Partitioning a FAT32 Hard Drive
The 127.5 GB limit on FAT32 volumes imposed in Windows 98 no longer applies to Windows
ME. In Windows ME, using a cluster size of 32 KB, a FAT32 volume can theoretically be
about 8 terabytes. However, the 32-bit fields in the partition table (and in the FAT32 boot
sector) limit the size of an individual volume (regardless of file system) on a basic MBR
disk using a sector size of 512 bytes to approximately 2 terabytes.
FAT32 file system cluster sizes
Partition Size Cluster Size
less than 260MB 512 Bytes
260MB through 8GB 4KB
8GB through 16GB 8KB
16GB through 32GB 16KB
32GB through 2TB 32KB
However, as Windows 2000 or Windows XP fully supports using a FAT32 partition over
32GB, and only does not permit formatting a FAT drive over 32GB, it is possible to use a
Windows 98 or Windows Me boot diskette to get a larger FAT partition formatted. Just be
extremely careful that the correct partition is formatted when booting from a diskette.
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