http:\/\/www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk\/in…<\/a>
\n) actually does the job, but my question is about format.com<\/p>\nOr, it is about ANY tool that is standard to Windows, that can do what is being asked:
\n– format a larger than 32G device
\n– retaining all of the respective volume<\/p>\n
So, not formatting 32G partitions in a 128G device.<\/p>\n
I seriously doubt that format.com would behave differently in PowerShell, because it still is the same tool, so I had a test.<\/p>\n
This is my “CMD” run:<\/p>\n
C:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/V:TEST001 \/Q
\nInsert new disk for drive D:
\nand press ENTER when ready…
\nThe type of the file system is EXFAT.
\nThe new file system is FAT32.
\nQuickFormatting 61071M
\nThe volume is too big for FAT32.
\nC:\\><\/p>\n
This is my “Powershell” run:<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/V:TEST001 \/Q
\nInsert new disk for drive D:
\nand press ENTER when ready…
\nThe type of the file system is EXFAT.
\nThe new file system is FAT32.
\nQuickFormatting 61071M
\nThe volume is too big for FAT32.
\nPS C:\\><\/p>\n
Tried the same, but without the “Quick” option.
\nThis one takes much longer to run, but it ends in the same.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/V:TEST002
\nInsert new disk for drive D:
\nand press ENTER when ready…
\nThe type of the file system is EXFAT.
\nThe new file system is FAT32.
\nVerifying 61071M
\nThe volume is too big for FAT32.
\nPS C:\\><\/p>\n
So, all of these fail. Notice that the error message is displayed at the end of the attempt.
\nFor the non-quick runs, that means it runs for a very long time, then fails.
\nThe percentages are displayed during format, but they disappear when the error message is shown.<\/p>\n
The error message displayed by format.com (“The volume is too big for FAT32.”) thus is an incorrect statement.
\nIt should read : “This application cannot format a volume with this size in FAT32.”<\/p>\n
Somewhere on the net I read this:
\nFAT32 is limited to 2^32 sectors. With 512 byte sectors that means a 2TB drive<\/p>\n
I know that you change the maximum format volume by just changing the allocation unit size,
\nbut that is something else. The allocation unit sizes are neatly explained using<\/p>\n
format.com \/?<\/p>\n
I always assumed that you can overrule many limits, by changing the allocation unit size.
\nBut, that on itself doesn’t quite work, as this still fails:<\/p>\n
$ format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:64K \/V:TEST003 \/Q
\nInsert new disk for drive D:
\nand press ENTER when ready…
\nThe type of the file system is FAT32.
\nQuickFormatting 61071M
\nThe volume is too big for FAT32.<\/p>\n
C:\\>
\n$ format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:128K \/V:TEST004 \/Q
\nInsert new disk for drive D:
\nand press ENTER when ready…
\nThe type of the file system is FAT32.
\nQuickFormatting 61071M
\nThe specified cluster size is too big for FAT.
\nC:\\><\/p>\n
So, next is to change the cluster size, but this involves
\nsome guessing, as it states:<\/p>\n
\/N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track.<\/p>\n
So I’m basing on the above statement “With 512 byte sectors (..)”:<\/p>\n
C:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:128K \/N:512 \/V:TEST005 \/Q
\nMust enter both \/t and \/n parameters.
\nC:\\><\/p>\n
So, you must also enter \/T<\/p>\n
\/T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.<\/p>\n
Or you get error:<\/p>\n
Must enter both \/t and \/n parameters.
\nTrying with some:<\/p>\n
C:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:128K \/N:512 \/T:100 \/V:TEST006 \/Q
\nParameters not compatible.
\nC:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:128K \/N:512 \/T:10 \/V:TEST006 \/Q
\nParameters not compatible.
\nC:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:128K \/N:512 \/T:10000 \/V:TEST006 \/Q
\nParameters not compatible.
\nC:\\> format.com D: \/FS:FAT32 \/A:128K \/N:512 \/T:10000000 \/V:TEST006 \/Q
\nParameters not compatible.
\nC:\\><\/p>\n
Looking on Google for this, a lot is referring to ancient MS-DOS usage.
\nBut I’m left with the question:
\nHow do you make this command work ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"iawp_total_views":11},"question-category":[42],"question_tags":[],"class_list":["post-1866","question","type-question","status-publish","hentry","question-category-windows-7"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/question\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/question"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/question"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"question-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/question-category?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"question_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.net\/answers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/question_tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}