JSI Tip 9225. What is the maximum file size, volume size, clusters per volume, and number of files per volume for the FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file systems?

Jerold Schulman | Apr 04, 2005

The following table contains the subject limits:

	FAT16	FAT32	NTFS
Maximum File Size	2³² - 1 bytes	2³² - 1 bytes	2⁶⁴ bytes - 1 KB (Theoretical) 2⁴⁴ bytes - 64 KB (Implementation)
Maximum Volume Size	4 GB	32 GB	2⁶⁴ allocation units (Theoretical) 2³² allocation units (Implementation)
Clusters per Volume	65,535 Max.	65,527 - 4,177,918	2⁶⁴ (Theoretical) 2³² (Implementation)
Maximum Files per Volume	2¹⁶	2²² (~4 million)	2³² - 1

NOTE: See default allocation unit sizes.

NOTE: The current practical limit for an NTFS volume is 2 terabytes (2³² * 512 byte sectors) because the industry standard partition table maximum is 2³² sectors.

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