Is It Possible to Format 3TB Hard Drive to FAT32 in Windows 10, 8, 7?

The Scenario

Format 3TB hard drive to FAT32

Hi, I need help in formatting a 3TB external drive to Fat32. It is for my PS4 . I have tried to look for hours and but no success. Appreciate all the help , Thanks."

- Question from forums. tomshardware.com

Is it possible to format 3TB hard drive to FAT32?

As we know, PS3, PS4, Xbox one, XBox360 don't support NTFS file system.  Lots of player will format their external hard drive or SSD to FAT32 file sytem. But when you have a 3TB NTFS hard drive you may wonder if it is compatible with FAT32.

Actually, FAT32 supports 2TB drive at most. But for formatting 3TB hard drive to FAT32, you can create two or more partitions less than 2TB and format them to FAT32 file system. 

✍ Note: But before formatting 3TB hard drive to FAT32, you should know the FAT32 can't support individual file larger than 4GB. So if the limitation matters, you can format the drive to exFAT, which is a new file sytem for PS3, PS4, and other game consoles.  And it supports much larger files than FAT32 does. 

How to format 3TB hard drive to FAT32 in Windows 10, 8, 7?

To complete this operation, you can turn to AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, which is a good partition manager that can partition your hard disk safely and quickly. It helps you to format a external or internal hard drive to FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and other file systems.

When you have a NTFS hard drive, it is able to shrink the partition on it to 2TB or less than 2TB. And create partition on free space with FAT32. You can download the software and follow the steps below to see how it works:

✍ Note: If there are some important data on the partition, back them up first because once you format the partition, all the data on it will be destroyed.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, you will see its main interface. Right click on the 3TB hard drive and choose "Resize/Move Partition"

Step 2. Drag the border leftward to make the partition less than 2TB.

Step 3. Now create a new FAT32 partition on the shrunk space. Right-click on unallocated space, and choose "Create Partition"

Step 4. Now you have 2 partitions on the hard drive. Right-choose the NTFS partition, and choose "Format Partition".

Step 5. Choose "FAT32" file system on the pop-up window.

Step 6. Then click "Apply" > "Proceed" on the main interface to commit the operation.

Conclusion

With this method, you can easily format a 3TB hard drive to FAT32 file system in Windows 10, 8, 7. Like mentioned before, FAT32 can't store a file larger than 4GB. Ensure your game can smoothly run under this file sytem. Otherwise, exFAT is better for you.  

If the file system of the 3TB hard drive is NTFS, or it has many important data on it, the AOMEI Partition Assistant can help you convert NTFS to FAT32 without losing data, which can save a big trouble for you. And you can upgrade to professional edition, you can split a large hard drive to two or more partitions.