FAT vs FAT32

[Pcnuttie]

Is FAT the same as FAT32 or is it different? I wanna do a bios update. I got befuddled a bit and I am up so LATE and I should be in bed rofl. Makes me wonder if I can just format the usb to FAT file and just upload the bios into it. I HAVE done this countless times and I don't know why I am confused it's not showing FAT32? LOL.. Shouldn't the USB show FAT32 to format not just FAT instead of that? Help a gamer here? lol.

[Cathulhu]

Generally FAT32 is used by default. It's available since 1996 so it's proven technology. There is no reason to use FAT16 these days. Especially since FAT16 only supports volumes of up to 512 MiB.
So, if your USB drive has a larger volume size and you can actually use it, you are most likely using FAT32 or exFAT. The latter is unlikely though.

[Pcnuttie]

So I can just go ahead and use FAT anyways? Like it's no big deal? I feel air headed tonight lol. Thanks for the information. Someone was right. I need sleep soon rofl but I rather have coffee!

[Cathulhu]

Yeah, no big deal.

[ReBoot]

No big deal. In theory, you'd want to use exFAT for data storage and FAT32 if exFAT isn't an option but in practice, you're gonna use it once anyway so doesn't matter.

[NeXuS23]

FAT12 vs. FAT16 vs. FAT32 vs. exFAT vs. NTFS vs. NTFS5

Filesystem	Max Volume Size	Max Files on Volume	Max File Size	Permissions
FAT12	16MB	N/A	16MB	No
FAT16	2GB (4GB some OS)	65536	2GB	No
FAT32	32GB (2TB some OS)	4194304	4GB minus 2 Bytes	No
exFAT	128PB	~Unlimited	16EB	Yes
NTFS	256TB	4294967295	16TB minus 64KB	Yes
NTFS5	65536TB	4294967295	16EB minus 1KB	Yes

[Satoru]

Originally posted by pcnuttie:

So I can just go ahead and use FAT anyways? Like it's no big deal? I feel air headed tonight lol. Thanks for the information. Someone was right. I need sleep soon rofl but I rather have coffee!

If you use FAT then you wont e able to install some games as fAT as a file size limitation

You might as well go wtih FAT32, there's no real good reason to be on FAT

[tacoshy]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by pcnuttie:

So I can just go ahead and use FAT anyways? Like it's no big deal? I feel air headed tonight lol. Thanks for the information. Someone was right. I need sleep soon rofl but I rather have coffee!

If you use FAT then you wont e able to install some games as fAT as a file size limitation

You might as well go wtih FAT32, there's no real good reason to be on FAT

for USB sticks it is for creating botoable USB sticks espacially combined with odler hardware. Otherwise you're right there is nor eason to get FAT and not just simply use NTFS.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by tacoshy:

Originally posted by Satoru:

If you use FAT then you wont e able to install some games as fAT as a file size limitation

You might as well go wtih FAT32, there's no real good reason to be on FAT

for USB sticks it is for creating botoable USB sticks espacially combined with odler hardware. Otherwise you're right there is nor eason to get FAT and not just simply use NTFS.

NTFS is, as a matter of fact, not suited for flash drivers. First, due to it's journal, there's the issue with write amplification. Second, it's access privileges system, while bypassable, is annoying as hell when sharing files via flash drives and third, exFAT is actually a decent modern file system meaning it's a viable alternative.

[Majestic Turkey]

exfat is a pain on linux