FAT32 > 4GB?

[AZRedhawk44]

I just popped in a new Verbatim thumb drive (16GB) into my Linux box.  Copied over 1.5GB of music to it, which I then transported to my work Win7 laptop.  Copied off.

Back home now, plug in that thumb drive into my personal laptop to copy some utility SQL/VBS/BAT scripts.

It won't write.

Look at its properties and it was initially formatted as FAT32.

I thought the limit on FAT32 was 4GB?

Anyways, I'm reformatting as NTFS, which my linux box can mount.

Odd.

[TechMan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

Cluster values are represented by 32-bit numbers, of which 28 bits are used to hold the cluster number. The boot sector uses a 32-bit field for the sector count, limiting the FAT32 volume size to 2 TB for sector size of 512 bytes and 16 TB for sector size of 4,096 bytes.[17][18]

The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte or 4 294 967 295 (232−1) bytes. This limit is a consequence of the file length entry in the directory table and would also affect huge FAT16 partitions with a sufficient sector size.[1] Video applications, large databases, and some other software easily exceed this limit. Larger files require another filesystem.

[KD5NRH]

Anyways, I'm reformatting as NTFS, which my linux box can mount.

You should use 8 HPFS partitions instead, then set up your backup software to mirror the first one to all the others to protect your data.

[AZRedhawk44]

None of this data is single-sourced.

The 16GB size was chosen deliberately to give me access to several ISO files and some software installations.

Thx.  I knew 4GB was in my head for some reason.

[Harold Tuttle]

There's also issues with max file size in fat32

I move some 2 gig files about

[Regolith]

I don't use FAT32 a whole lot because of the 4gb file ceiling. About the only reason I can think of to use it is if your storage device is below the max file limit anyway or you absolutely need the drive to be compatible between Mac and Windows systems.