Weird standard for FAT32 >4gb files

Question

I have recently encountered an embedded system with IDE drives that are FAT32 but have >4gb files. It appears to do this by setting the file size in the 32byte directory entry to how many bytes the final cluster uses - instead of being the actual file size. This allows the the files to have arbitrary FAT chains. The downside is the only way to know the file sizes are to stream through the chains, which are enormous.

I have never seen this before. Is this a known standard or variation and does anything on windows or linux support it?

Are there any 'quirky' FAT32 modifications that are more standard that allow files greater than 4GB?

Answer 1

Probably exFAT

Answer 2

You could use some virtual filesystem which splits it to x GB chunks and then you have virtual drive which can hold over 4 GB files. For example TrueCrypt does this (2 GB chunks).

Answer 3

This I think is a complete hack.

I've implemented FAT32 and I've never seen or heard of anything like this. I will be very surprised if there is any support anywhere for this.