Windows 11 Beta will increase limit for FAT32

[FrankB]

According to this post MS will increase the limit for FAT32 from 32GB to 2TB. If my understanding is correct that could make life easier when formatting large SD cards for the Zumo.

Scroll down to Storage
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insid ... y-channel/

@Rofor
@rbentnail
And yes I know by now that the Zumo is capable of doing that also.

[lkraus]

[Storage]
When formatting disks from the command line using the format command, we’ve increased the FAT32 size limit from 32GB to 2TB.

That's a step in the right direction, but I'm concerned that MS says that the new capability is for formatting from the command line. I'd guess that few of us would know what parameters to use without a GUI formatter, or would want to learn.

I think I'll hang on to RUFUS for now.

[sussamb]

Well the limit is at the Garmin end so doubt it'll make any difference for current devices.

[FrankB]

@sussamb
Not sure what you mean. My XT is capable of handling a 64 Gb sdcard. But it needs to be formatted with a 3rd party tool on Windows, like Rufus. Or insert the card while the XT is powered on.

[danham]

From my newsroom days, I recall that best practice is to use a formatting method other than the operating system, regardless of Windows or Mac. We could not afford data errors on the cards in our cameras, so the drill was to re-format the cards after the photos were safely transferred and backed up on our servers. Directory corruption on the cards, caused by multiple write/erase operations in the camera, could make all the files inaccessible. Our experience was that formatting apps, not the OS, did the best job of rebuilding a clean directory structure.

-dan

[sussamb]

@sussamb
Not sure what you mean. My XT is capable of handling a 64 Gb sdcard. But it needs to be formatted with a 3rd party tool on Windows, like Rufus. Or insert the card while the XT is powered on.

Correct. My point was it doesn't matter what Microsoft do, current Garmin devices limit file sizes to under 4Gb to stay within the FAT32 limit. That won't change regardless.

[FrankB]

Ah now I understand.
The 4Gb limit for files will indeed not be removed. So this is not a solution for large maps, like CN Europa. They still need to be split up.

This will only address the fact that a card > 32Gb can not be used at all, when formatted with Windows.