What's the easiest way to format a usb drive with fat32 compatibility from within windows7vista?

I ask because the disk management only lets you pick exfat (because the disk is over 32 gb i believe).

Doing it from the command line with diskpart doesn't seem to work either.

Best Answer

Formatting FAT32 volumes on the command line

This option should still be in the gui window format but it's not However, as the other answers suggest, fat32 is still an option from the command line. Please read the full instructions

Hit the Windows/Start Button -> type cmd.exe in the search box -> press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to get an Administrator Command Line. If prompted, press Yes or enter administrative credentials in the UAC pop-up box.

At the command line prompt, enter

format <drive letter>: /FS:FAT32

For a list of all command options, enter

help format

The Windows 32GB limit for formatting FAT32 volumes

After performing an experiment with a 60gb video partition in a ps3 i have discovered that windows 2000 and later have an artificial limitation in formatting fat32 partitions larger than 32gb though they will mount any valid fat32 partition

Note that although windows will not format a drive greater than 32gb as fat32, it will mount such a drive formatted elsewhere.

Formatting a >32GB FAT32 volumes on Windows

One good solution is the command-line program fat32format.exe available from Ridgecrop Consultants or their gui . It is only capable of quick formats (no zeroing/checking), but it is very fast.