
Instead of completing a simple drag-and-drop copy operation as expected, File Explorer puts up this File Too Large error message:įiles larger than 4 GB won't fit on a drive that's formatted with FAT32 If you're downloading an advance release, as I was, or if you need the previous release, you'll run into an old, familiar, and extremely annoying problem. But that page only includes the latest official release. That option works fine when you download the Windows 10 installer files using the official Windows 10 Download page, because those files are packaged specifically for use on USB flash drives. Normally, that's a simple process: First, use the Recovery Media Creator to create a bootable USB flash drive then double-click the Windows 10 v2004 ISO file in File Explorer to mount it as a virtual drive and drag the contents of the mounted drive to the bootable USB flash drive. Like many IT pros with a Visual Studio (formerly MSDN) subscription, I downloaded the ISO file yesterday and set about to copy it to a bootable USB flash drive. Then hit the Start button to begin formatting your hard drive.Microsoft has made Windows 10 version 2004 available to the developer community, a couple weeks ahead of its release to the general public. Quick Format – it’s suggested to leave this unticked if you’re not sure. Volume label – enter a name for your hard drive. Here are the options you need to specify before you can format the drive:ĭrive – choose your external hard drive from this dropdown menu.Īllocation unit size – leave it to the default values. Double-click on the downloaded file and the tool will launch.Connect your external hard drive to your computer if it isn’t already.Head over to the FAT32Format website and download the tool to your computer.A great thing about this tool is that you don’t even need to install it on your computer – it just works straight out of the box. This method is ideal for those of you who don’t like running commands and prefer tools with a simple user interface.

The FAT32Format utility has been around for a long time and it lets you quickly format any of your external hard drives to FAT32.

Use FAT32Format To Format Your External Hard Drives

In most cases, it should only take a few minutes but it also depends on how large your external hard drive is. It’ll format the drive to FAT32 and let you know when it’s done.
