Put the memory stick into your computer(duh!) open command prompt ( start all programs accesories command promt. Or start run cmd) type: format x: /fs:FAT PLEASE NOTE X IS WHERE YOU. FAT16: FAT32: exFAT: NTFS NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003.
-->This article provides a workaround to solve the issue that the computer startup fails when you use a USB flash drive that's formatted to use the FAT32 file system.
Original product version: Windows Server 2012 R2
Original KB number: 954457
Symptoms
You format a USB flash drive to use the FAT32 file system. When you try to start the computer from this USB flash drive, the startup process stops responding, and the screen is black.
Cause
This issue occurs because the USB flash drive is listed as removable media. Therefore, the Windows operating system does not create a master boot record (MBR) on the USB flash drive when you format the flash drive to use the FAT32 file system. The USB flash drive is treated as a super floppy disk. The FAT32 startup code does not support starting a computer from a super floppy disk without an MBR.
Fat Or Fat32 Memory Cards
The BIOS tries to transfer the control of the startup from the USB flash drive to the FAT32 startup code, even though the FAT32 startup code doesn't support this scenario.
Workaround
To work around this issue, use the Diskpart command prompt utility to create and format the boot partition on the USB flash drive.
Wii Fat Or Fat32
For more information about how to use Diskpart, see DiskPart Command-Line Options.
How to differentiate between the MBR and the boot sector
Currently, the Windows operating system uses signatures at offset 3 in the boot sector to determine whether the sector is a boot sector. These signatures don't appear in the MBR. The signatures are as follows:
- FAT16: MSDOS5.0
- FAT32: MSDOS5.0
- NTFS: NTFS
How to determine whether the boot sector is FAT32, FAT16, or NTFS
Is Fat Same As Fat32
To determine whether the USB flash drive was formatted by using the FAT32, FAT16, or NTFS file system, you must check two strings in the boot sector. If the strings contain FAT32, FAT16 or NTFS, the boot sector was formatted in that particular file system format.
FATFile Allocation Table is a primary computer file system for various operating systems, mostly DOS, including DR-DOS, OpenDOS, freeDOS, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows (up to and including Windows Me). FAT is also used for removable flash drives and memory cards.
File system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. The chart below shows in what FAT system a flash drive or memory card should be formatted.
| up to 2GB | 4GB-32GB | 64GB and above | |
| Default format for memory cards and flash drives | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT |
NTFS
NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8. NTFS is intended for use in Windows system drives (Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives).
NTFS has several improvements over FAT such as improved support for metadata and the use of advanced data structures for reliability, and disk space utilization, plus additional extensions such as security access control lists and file system journaling.
Notes for Flash Drives:
- Formatting the flash drive as NTFS will make it unwriteable on a Mac computer. Most Mac computers can read NTFS, but not write.
- NTFS is a journaled file system, this creates more read/write activities. Therefore, it MAY decrease life expectancy of your flash drive.
- Once the device is formatted as NTFS, you MUST use 'Safely Remove Hardware' to remove your device.
