Fat 32 Vs. Fat 16 File Limits
- The number of clusters, or memory units, on a volume determines whether FAT16 or FAT32 is used. By default, a FAT16 device has between 4,085 and 65,524 clusters, or files, while a FAT32 system has more than 65,525 cluster. However, when formatting a volume the default size, which affects the number of clusters, can be adjusted.
- FAT16 can be used for memory devices up to 4GB (gigabytes) in size. However, for backwards compatibility with older operating systems, the recommendation is for use with devices no larger than 2GB.
- FAT32 can be used for memory devices up to 32GB) in size. The volume can hold around four million files. FAT32 cannot be used on volumes less than 512MB in size.