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DashiellCove's avatar
DashiellCove
Iron Contributor
Jul 04, 2025

Can't Format SD Card to FAT32 on Windows 11

It is a new 128GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SD card. When I try to format it using File Explorer or Disk Management, FAT32 isn't even an option. Only exFAT or NTFS show up.  I tried a few different method...
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LennoxFord's avatar
LennoxFord
Iron Contributor
Jul 04, 2025

Formatting large SD cards (like 128GB) to FAT32 on Windows can be tricky because Windows natively doesn't offer FAT32 formatting options for drives larger than 32GB through File Explorer or Disk Management. This is due to Microsoft’s own design decisions, this is the reason why you can't format SD crad to FAT32 performance and practicality of smaller drives with FAT32.

What should you do if can't format SD card to FAT32

1. You mentioned using diskpart and format, but these may fail due to size restrictions. However, some command-line tools like fat32format (from Ridgecrop) can handle larger drives.

2. Use a Linux live USB or macOS
- If you're comfortable with Linux or macOS, you can:
- Boot into Linux (via Live USB)
- Use GParted to format the SD card to FAT32
- Or use Disk Utility on macOS

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