It is included as one of the examples, SdFormatter.pde, in the 20110414 beta of SdFat: I finally decided to write a sketch to format SD cards. Note that not all Android installations come with the same set of drivers, so it's always wise to check first.For three years I have been trying to find an easy way to correctly format SD cards for optimal use on the Arduino. (There are no previous versions the 3.1 designation was to align Windows NT version numbering with Windows on DOS versions.) Thanks to NTFS-3G, NTFS is a viable alternative to the various FAT filesystems hen moving files between Windows and Linux/Android systems. NTFS first appeared on the first Windows NT release: Windows NT 3.1. NTFS was 64-bit from the start, which has absolutely nothing to do with the 'bitness' of applications programs.

NTFS is NOT compatible with FAT or vice versa. Like Windows NT and its descendents using other names, NTFS' origins come from Digital Equipment Corporation and the VMS operating system.

This should be fine for most people.įYI the NT filesystem (NTFS) was developed for Windows NT around 1990.

SD cards of 64GiB capacity and above typically come formatted with the exFAT filesystem.

My advice: use what's most convenient for you. This can be overcome by formatting the card with the exFAT, NTFS or one of the several other filesystems that Linux supports, and which don't have the 4GiB file size limit. The largest file size that FAT32 supports is 4GiB, so you may not be able to save a MPEG2 encoded movie on many SD cards as formatted.

SD cards up to and including 32GiB capacities typically come formatted for FAT32.

Microsoft charges license fees to use its exFAT filesystem, and IME quite a few Android device manufacturers are licensing exFAT for use on their products. The NTFS-3G driver provides full NTFS support, including ACLs and journaling in Linux/Android.

FOSS drivers support the FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 filesystems, with long filename support when it's possible.

That does NOT mean that using an ext? filesystem with Android is necessary, or even desirable. The native Linux filesystem is the ext2 filesystem (the original ext filesystem and the Minix filesystem are deprecated for Linux, although the Minix filesystem is still supported.) and improved versions like ext3 and ext4. Looks like there's a need to set some misconceptions straight.

How to format sd card to fat 32