Microsoft recently announced in their latest Windows 11 Insider Canary Preview Build that they have increased the maximum FAT32 partition size limit from 32GB to 2TB when using the command line, correcting an age-old limitation that had been in place for 28 years. However, FAT32 is not widely used today as most devices have transitioned to exFAT, making this change more of a historical correction than a practical modification for current users. The decision to implement the 32GB cap in the first place was explained by Dave Plummer, a retired Microsoft system engineer, who believed it would be a short-lived restriction and never intended for it to last so long. Plummer also dispelled the myth that the cap was imposed to promote Microsoft’s NTFS format, stating it was more about preventing wasted space. If you are interested in delving into the details of this decision and the history of disk formats from the ’90s, Plummer’s video provides additional insights into this decades-long limitation.
