Microsoft KB Archive/238894

= How To Format Storage Cards As FAT32 and Readable on CE and NT and Windows 95 and Windows 98 =

Article ID: 238894

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows CE 2.0 for the Handheld PC
 * Microsoft Windows CE 2.11 for the Handheld PC
 * Microsoft Windows CE 2.0 for the Handheld PC
 * Microsoft Windows CE 2.10 Enhancement Pack for Windows CE Embedded Toolkit for Visual C++ 5.0

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This article was previously published under Q238894



SUMMARY
Storage cards formatted as FAT32 on Windows CE will not be readable on Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT. When using storage cards with capacities that exceed the calculated maximum FAT16 disk size, we recommend that the card be formatted using Windows 95 and Windows 98 before use on a Windows CE device to ensure interoperability.

The maximum FAT16 size can be determined as follows:
 * Most PCMCIA storage cards use 512 (0x200) byte sectors
 * FAT will default to assume cluster size = sector size (512 bytes)
 * Maximum number of clusters for FAT16 = 0xFFFF
 * Maximum FAT16 disk size = 0xFFFF * 0x200 = 0x1FFFE00 (32 MB)
 * If the sector size is something other than 512 the maximum disk size for FAT16 can be calculated using the equation above

Also note:


 * Windows 95 and Windows 98 will format all cards up to 2 GB using FAT16
 * Windows CE is capable of reading cards formatted using FAT16 up to a 2 GB capacity
 * Windows CE supports cluster sizes up to 32 KB
 * Windows NT is capable of formatting disks with cluster sizes greater than 64 KB but these are not MS-DOS compatible and are not supported by Windows CE
 * Windows 95 and Windows 98 formatted cards will not exceed the 32 KB cluster size limit

Additional query words: flash fat32 storage card pcmcia

Keywords: kbhowto KB238894

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