FAT32 formatting of USB drives over 32Gig

DJ Gear & Hardware CDJ & Vinyl DJing
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Greetings, everyone! I searched the forum for a similar-looking discussion, but could not locate one, so I am creating a post.

My trusty 32Gig SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash thumb drives have served me dutifully for a long time. I prep my DJ sets in RekordBox and use the thumb drives at the gig. I want to replace them but the FAT32 formatting becomes the issue:

  • FAT32 formatting is required but, by default, only works on drives up to 32Gig max.
  • Most DJ thumb drives are well over that capacity nowadays.

Question: How do DJs get around this and still format their higher-capacity thumb drives in FAT32 to retain readability of the thumb drive?

-DJRDB

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You can absolutely format larger USB sticks as FAT32 — the 32GB limit is mostly a Windows formatting-tool limit, not a FAT32 filesystem limit.

A lot of DJs use a third-party formatter on Windows, or Disk Utility/terminal tools on macOS, to format 64GB/128GB sticks as FAT32. Commonly recommended options are tools like guiformat/FAT32 Format on Windows, or using Disk Utility with “MS-DOS FAT” on Mac if it allows it for that drive. Just make sure you back up first, use MBR rather than GUID if the player is picky, and test the stick on the actual CDJs/XDJs before relying on it at a gig.

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