Thread: Using huge USB-memory sticks in XP as well

Big USB drives or those formatted under Vista cannot be read on your XP computer. How do you use your data?

In Windows-XP, the widespread file-system FAT32 by Microsoft is arbitrarily restricted to a maximum size of 32 GB for every data carrier. Larger USB sticks can therefore not be formatted without any additional tools. In addition, XP cannot read data carriers formatted with the new exFat (Vista) without extra help. While you can fix the problem only with Tools like Partition Magic, the second problem can be easily solved by manually playing an update. Go to the website 'support.microsoft and then to the link 'Download the Windows XP update package now'. Check the file name 'Windows XP-KB955704-x86-ENU.exe' and click on 'Download'.

Attention: If the language version of the update does not match,that of your Windows, the installation will not work. To install, start the program, follow the steps through the set-up and reboot the computer after that. The exPAT file system is a further development of FAT32. with its 64-Bit addressing, it can take care of very big drives and files of up to 18.4 Exabytes. Furthermore, it provides improvements for faster access and an optimized arrangement of the data on Flash-drives.

The implementation in XP is however restricted. While formatting, you can only use a default size for the allocation units. Besides, there is no support for the data carrier management. The drive is not displayed here. You should use this file system in XP only if needs the size of the data carrier. The main advantage of the updates is the smooth cooperating with the USB-data carriers, which have been formatted in Vista or Windows 7 with ex FAT, as well as the unrestricted usage of very big drives.