Ventoy USB-stick takes long to recognize due to FAT16

[Jordiekk]

Hello.

I have recently started using Ventoy with succes.

However there is one very nuisance. A Ventoy prepared USB-stick (under Windows 10), if a extra ISO is to be added, takes maybe 4 minutes before recognized by the PC (with Windows 10). Before recognizing, all USB-related programs (and Windows Explorer), fail to start. After recognizing, all functions well and normal. Even unplugging and replugging the USB-stick gives then no problem (untill replugging in a new started PC).
The are many reports from different peaple about the same problem.

I found that the Ventoy-stick has a FAT16 Ventoy-system partition. 
I have earlier found, on my PC with Windows 10, that memory-cards which are FAT16 formatted (so 2GB or 4GB cards) give serious confusing recognizing problems. Probably because there are several different recognizing ID-'s for FAT16. When I applied FAT32 for those cards all problems were over.

So I suggest to the developer of Ventoy to change the Ventoy-system partition to FAT32, in my expectation that then the long recognizing problem under Windows10 is over.

[Steve2926]

Most people do not have these issues.
1. Have you updated windows 10 ?
2. Try running usbdeview program and delete or uninstall all usb mass storage devices.

[Jordiekk]

Most people do not have these issues.
1. Have you updated windows 10 ?
2. Try running usbdeview program and delete or uninstall all usb mass storage devices.

My Win10 is always perfect updated. I regularly run DeviceCleanup of Uwe Sieber, so almost never an obsolete device driver.

There is a long list on this problem:
https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1975

[Steve2926]

I think the problem is that the minimum size for a fat32 partition is just over 32MB but Ventoy must have ptn2 of exactly 32MB so it is not easy to change.
The issue seems to be to do with USB 3 and the bridge chip firmware and Windows usb drivers. i.e. not a Ventoy issue.

P.S. Windows can get confused if you clone SD cards or flash drives (i.e. make exact copies).

[Jordiekk]

Hello.

Thank you for your explanation concerning the problem with FAT32 for Ventoy.
However I sense that you are not 100% sure about that.

Maybe a possible try-out of FAT32?

I have just again had to wait 2x times to get the prepared USB-stick ready (probably it is longer than te 4 minutes I earlier mentioned). It is becoming a burden.

[GCMartin]

Why is ptn2 restricted to NOT afford a partition format size (aka fat32) greater than 32MB? This does NOT seem to be a univeral problem with GRUB2 usage.

If it will make use issues that developers need to address go away, would it be worth review?

Curious

[Steve2926]

Using Disk Manager, Diskpart or a 3rd party utility, you can easily reformat the 2nd partition (or try). Also you can experiment by wiping, repartitioning and reformatting new ptn1 and ptn2 to different sizes and different filesystems (e.g. exFAT, NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, etc.) and see how your Windows reacts.
First try just
1 primary exFAT
2 primary FAT16 32MB

and see how Windows reacts.