Article ID: 192322 - Last Review: January 23, 2007 - Revision: 2.3

Description of Default Cluster Sizes for FAT32 File System

View products that this article applies to.
System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.
This article was previously published under Q192322
Expand all | Collapse all

SUMMARY

This article lists the default cluster sizes for drives using the FAT32 file system. The FAT32 file system uses smaller default cluster sizes than the FAT16 file system, resulting in a more efficient file allocation system and the conservation of drive space.
Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

The following tables lists the default cluster sizes used by the FAT32 file system. 

   Partition size           Cluster size
   -------------------------------------
   512 MB to 8,191 MB          4 KB
   8,192 MB to 16,383 MB       8 KB
   16,384 MB to 32,767 MB     16 KB
   Larger than 32,768 MB      32 KB


Note that the FAT32 file system does not support drives smaller than 512 MB.

Back to the top

REFERENCES

For more information about the FAT32 file system, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: 154997  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154997/EN-US/ )
TITLE : Description of the FAT32 File System

ARTICLE-ID: 69912  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/69912/EN-US/ )
TITLE : MS-DOS Partitioning Summary
Back to the top
APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • Microsoft Windows 95
Back to the top
Keywords: 
kbinfo KB192322
Back to the top