Format USB flash drive to FAT when there is no FAT option on format window.

Step 1: Why There Is No FAT Option on Format Window.

When you need to format your USB to FAT/FAT16 because your device (like DVD player or digital decoder etc) only support FAT file systems. But there is no option FAT on format window, so you cant change it to FAT. So why it happened?

Because your USB size is more than MAX Volume size of FAT.

FAT/FAT16: Max volume size 4GB, Max file size 2GB.

FAT32: Max volume size 2TB, Max file size 4GB.

exFAT: Max volume size 128PB, Max file size 16EB.

It mean if your USB flash drive is 8GB or more, it will not support FAT format.

So what you need is resize it to 4GB.

Step 2: Use DISKPART to Resize USB

Put your USB on.

Press Window+R to open Run.

DISKPART ↵

DISKPART> list disk ↵

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---

Disk 0 Online 40 GB 0 B

Disk 1 Online 7538 MB 0 B

#Your USB is Disk 1 (7538 MB) ,select it:

DISKPART> select disk 1 ↵

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

Partition ### Type Size Offset

------------- ---------------- ------- -------

Partition 1 Primary 500 MB 1024 KB

DISKPART> clean ↵

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

# resize USB to 4000MB

DISKPART> create part primary size=4000

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> active ↵

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

Close window then Format again. You will see FAT option there.

Step 3: Change Back to Default Size.

Now your USB is 3.9GB. To change it back to original size do this.

Open DISKPART

DISKPART> list disk ↵

DISKPART> select disk 1 ↵

DISKPART> list partition ↵

DISKPART> clean ↵

DISKPART> list partition ↵

DISKPART> create partition primary ↵

DISKPART> list partition ↵

DISKPART> format fs=fat32 quick ↵

DISKPART> list partition ↵

exit ↵

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13 Comments

milcycles

Question 10 months ago on Step 2

HI - my dvd player wants me to use a USB drive formatted FAT "up to 32 Gb" to update the firmware. Can I use this workaround safely? I'm worred the update needs more than 4Gb storage space so will get stuck/crash.