File limitations for flash drives
USB flash drives have become very inexpensive and widely used so I think it’s worth repeating and enlarging on the very first tip that I gave on this blog. Flash drives very often come formatted with the FAT16 (also called just FAT) file system. I have bought even 1 GB drives that are formatted with this old and limited system. Users can check to see what file system is on a flash drive by opening My Computer and right-clicking on the drive entry. In the context menu that opens, choose “Properties.” The properties sheet will open and the entry “File System” will tell you what format the drive has.
Anyone with a drive in FAT format should be aware that the root directory of a FAT system can hold 512 filenames at most. If any file names are longer than the old 8.3 convention, even fewer entries are possible. What this means is that if you have no folders on your drive, you can’t put many files on it, irrespective of the space available. The solution is simple enough; create folders to hold most of your files. There is still a limitation on how many files the drive can hold, however, because FAT systems can have at most 2^16 or 65,517 entries. In practice, the limit is likely to be less because of long file names.
You can consider reformatting a drive to FAT32 or even NTFS for large drives but keep in mind that many USB drives have special software installed on them for various purposes and reformatting will destroy any preinstalled software. Both the performance and the function can be affected. Special drives like those with U3 capability should not be reformatted.
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