Gurus,

Running Windows XP Pro SP3, with NTFS. I remember having a conversation
with a Microsoft tech about this way back, but never encountered it before
until today. The basic question is, how come I can't copy a 4gb VMware
image file onto an 8gb USB drive? Basically, I want to copy a VM image (4GB
in size) from machine to another. to do that I want to use an 8GB USB drive
as the transport medium. However, every time I try to copy, I get an error
message indicating the destination drive is full. But destination drive is
in fact totally empty!!!

--
Spin

Spin wrote:
> Gurus,
>
> Running Windows XP Pro SP3, with NTFS. I remember having a conversation
> with a Microsoft tech about this way back, but never encountered it
> before until today. The basic question is, how come I can't copy a 4gb
> VMware image file onto an 8gb USB drive? Basically, I want to copy a VM
> image (4GB in size) from machine to another. to do that I want to use
> an 8GB USB drive as the transport medium. However, every time I try to
> copy, I get an error message indicating the destination drive is full.
> But destination drive is in fact totally empty!!!
>

Is the USB drive formatted NTFS? That you're using NTFS on both of your
XP boxes has no bearing on how the USB drive is formatted.

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html

Spin wrote:
> Gurus,
>
> Running Windows XP Pro SP3, with NTFS.

Irrelevant.

> I remember having a
> conversation with a Microsoft tech about this way back, but never
> encountered it before until today. The basic question is, how come I
> can't copy a 4gb VMware image file onto an 8gb USB drive? Basically,
> I want to copy a VM image (4GB in size) from machine to another. to
> do that I want to use an 8GB USB drive as the transport medium. However,
> every time I try to copy, I get an error message indicating
> the destination drive is full. But destination drive is in fact
> totally empty!!!

A USB "drive", assuming you mean those memory stick things, are formatted
FAT, not NTFS. The maximum file size for FAT is 4GB minus one byte.

On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:00:52 -0400, "Spin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


> Running Windows XP Pro SP3, with NTFS.


Note that it is not Windows XP that is NTFS, it is (or is not) a
particular drive that is using NTFS.


> I remember having a conversation
> with a Microsoft tech about this way back, but never encountered it before
> until today. The basic question is, how come I can't copy a 4gb VMware
> image file onto an 8gb USB drive? Basically, I want to copy a VM image (4GB
> in size) from machine to another. to do that I want to use an 8GB USB drive
> as the transport medium. However, every time I try to copy, I get an error
> message indicating the destination drive is full. But destination drive is
> in fact totally empty!!!


The error message you get is a terribly misleading Microsoft
message--one of their worst. What it is really saying--very poorly--is
that you are trying to write a file bigger than 4GB to a FAT32 drive.
FAT32 has a 4GB limit and you are running up against it.

Simply reformat the 8GB external drive as NTFS and the problem will go
away.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Spin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Gurus,
>
>Running Windows XP Pro SP3, with NTFS. I remember having a conversation
>with a Microsoft tech about this way back, but never encountered it before
>until today. The basic question is, how come I can't copy a 4gb VMware
>image file onto an 8gb USB drive?

Most likely because the USB drive is using the FAT32 file system,
which can't handle files larger than 4GB. NTFS can handle files that
are larger than currently available drives.

>However, every time I try to copy, I get an error
>message indicating the destination drive is full. But destination drive is
>in fact totally empty!!!

Yes, the error message is misleading (at least).

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)
(E-Mail Removed)
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt