The FAT32 file system appeared in Windows 95 OSR2 and is also supported in Windows 98/ME and Windows 2000/XP (it works with all versions of Windows, Mac and Linux). FAT32 is based on the FAT16 system.
Today, the FAT32 file system is found mainly on USB flash drives and external drives to maintain compatibility with older versions of Windows or Linux.
The main differences between FAT32 and FAT16 are 28-bit cluster numbers and a more flexible implementation of the root directory, whose size is not limited. The reason for creating the FAT32 system was the need to support large hard drives (larger than 8 gigabytes) and the inability to build a more complex file system into MS-DOS, which remains the basis for Windows 95/98/ME.
The maximum size of the FAT32 file system is 2 TB.
FAT32 does not offer the permissions and security features found in the NTFS file system.