Earlier this week, Microsoft addressed a long-standing quirk that’s been a topic of discussion among tech enthusiasts for years. With the latest Windows 11 Insider Canary Preview Build, the company has increased the maximum partition size for FAT32 from 32GB to 2TB when using the command line. This change marks a significant shift from the previous limit, which was initially set 28 years ago, during the era of Windows NT 4.0, and was expected to be a temporary measure.
Although FAT32 is no longer widely utilized—most modern storage devices, including SD cards, have transitioned to the exFAT format due to its fewer limitations (such as FAT32’s 4GB file size cap)—this update feels more like Microsoft correcting a historical oversight than introducing a feature with immediate practical benefits. The fact that the graphical user interface (GUI) partitioning tool in Windows still enforces the 32GB limit further suggests that this change is more symbolic than functional for most users.
In a 2021 video on his “Dave’s Garage” YouTube channel, Dave Plummer, a former Microsoft system engineer, discussed why he originally set the 32GB partition limit. He explained that the decision was made somewhat casually “on a rainy Tuesday morning” in the mid-90s, with the expectation that it would be temporary and soon adjusted in subsequent updates. “I picked the number 32GB as the limit and went on with my day,” Plummer recalled. It wasn’t until years later, when SD cards began to approach the 32GB capacity, that he began to regret that choice.
Plummer also debunked the misconception that Microsoft imposed the 32GB cap to encourage the adoption of the NTFS format. He clarified that NTFS was already well-established at the time and that Microsoft did not profit from licensing it. Instead, the 32GB cap in FAT32 was intended to minimize wasted space, particularly with smaller files, rather than serve any ulterior corporate motive.
For those interested in the finer details of ‘90s disk formats, Plummer’s video delves deeper into the reasoning behind what turned out to be a decision with much longer-lasting consequences than he had anticipated.
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