Description of Default Cluster Sizes for FAT32 File System (192322)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.1
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.5

This article was previously published under Q192322

SUMMARY

This article lists the default cluster sizes for drives using the FAT32 file system. The FAT32 file system uses smaller default cluster sizes than the FAT16 file system, resulting in a more efficient file allocation system and the conservation of drive space.

MORE INFORMATION

The following tables lists the default cluster sizes used by the FAT32 file system.

   Partition size           Cluster size
   -------------------------------------
   512 MB to 8,191 MB          4 KB
   8,192 MB to 16,383 MB       8 KB
   16,384 MB to 32,767 MB     16 KB
   Larger than 32,768 MB      32 KB

Note that the FAT32 file system does not support drives smaller than 512 MB.

REFERENCES

For more information about the FAT32 file system, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 154997
TITLE : Description of the FAT32 File System

ARTICLE-ID: 69912
TITLE : MS-DOS Partitioning Summary

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	12/16/2004
Keywords:	kbinfo KB192322