Misleading error when copying large file to FAT32

[Sachin]

I have a huge file(of size ~6GB). It is residing on my PC's NTFS drive,
My system is Windows XP SP2.

When I try to copy the file to a USB disk, which is formatted as FAT32 -
then it gives me error as "There is no enough disk space available"
(The wording might not be correct, but it said this thing).

While in fact, the problem is with the underlying file system.
One of my friend who is not expert, could not get the real root cause, and
unnecessarily deleted all the files on the drive thinking that it is really
'out of space'.

It would be great if Windows can flash the correct error; something like
"Underlying filesystem does not support such a big file" or something like
that - instead of saying "There is no disk space" which is actually a
misleading message.

Cheers,
-Sachin

 

[Leonard Grey]

Which file system was created first?

 

[Sachin]

Which file system was created first?

Actually the USB disk was purchased a year ago, and it was by default
formatted as FAT32, I didnt change it.

The XP machine was also setup 8-9 months back.
I tried on a freshly installed machine also (filesystem was created fresh)

As such, the USB disk was not always connected to my PC.

I didnt get what you are trying to ask, but to answer your question: "The
FAT32 file system on my USB disk was created first."

I tried copying from a pen drive(which was formatted to NTFS after I got
this error, and copied the file from PC's hard drive) to the USB disk(FAT32),
but same error.

 

[Touch Base]

I have a huge file(of size ~6GB). It is residing on my PC's NTFS drive,
My system is Windows XP SP2.

When I try to copy the file to a USB disk, which is formatted as FAT32 -
then it gives me error as "There is no enough disk space available"
(The wording might not be correct, but it said this thing).

While in fact, the problem is with the underlying file system.
One of my friend who is not expert, could not get the real root cause, and
unnecessarily deleted all the files on the drive thinking that it is really
'out of space'.

It would be great if Windows can flash the correct error; something like
"Underlying filesystem does not support such a big file" or something like
that - instead of saying "There is no disk space" which is actually a
misleading message.

Cheers,
-Sachin

==============================================================


Your flash drive/usb drive needs to be formatted using NTFS
as the file system. A FAT32 drive cannot handle the
transfer of files exceeding 4GBs.


--
Regards,
Touch Base
Report back on the results, good or bad so others may benefit

"There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy
to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know
how to use my telephone." (Bjarne Stroustrup, computer scientist and creator
of the C++ programming language.)

 

[Sachin]

Your flash drive/usb drive needs to be formatted using NTFS
as the file system. A FAT32 drive cannot handle the
transfer of files exceeding 4GBs.

Thanks for the info.
I agree with what are you saying and ultimately did the same thing.

But my concern is that, the error message shown by Windows is misleading.
It does not talk(or gives hint) about what you have correctly explained.
So unless one has previous knowledge about this or does a search on it, he's
confused(thinking that, even though my device has enough space why does
windows complain?)
Hope I made it clear!

 

[Olórin]

Thanks for the info.
I agree with what are you saying and ultimately did the same thing.

But my concern is that, the error message shown by Windows is
misleading. It does not talk(or gives hint) about what you have
correctly explained.
So unless one has previous knowledge about this or does a search on
it, he's confused(thinking that, even though my device has enough
space why does windows complain?)
Hope I made it clear!

Fair enough point. What is the purpose of your post - are you trying to get
Microsoft to change the message? If so, this newsgroup isn't the route you
need. Not that they'd make such a change for a system like Windows XP at
this stage of its life, anyway.

 

[Sachin]

Fair enough point. What is the purpose of your post - are you trying to get
Microsoft to change the message? If so, this newsgroup isn't the route you
need. Not that they'd make such a change for a system like Windows XP at
this stage of its life, anyway.

Ok, I get it
Hopefully Vista/Win7 is flashing some useful message(if at all they have
worked on this )

Anyways, sorry for putting this in wrong place

 

[Leonard Grey]

You missed the point.

 

[David B.]

Not at all unusual for Windows. with your friend being a novice PC user he
should learn to research issues he runs into. Rather than deleting files
from the USB drive, it takes 3 seconds to check the amount of free space on
it, he then would have determined that what the error was saying wasn't what
the actual problem was.

 

[David B.]

Oops, posted too soon, here is an example of a search he could have done.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...sk+space+available+copying+file&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

 

[Touch Base]

Your flash drive/usb drive needs to be formatted using NTFS
as the file system. A FAT32 drive cannot handle the
transfer of files exceeding 4GBs.

Thanks for the info.
I agree with what are you saying and ultimately did the same thing.

But my concern is that, the error message shown by Windows is misleading.
It does not talk(or gives hint) about what you have correctly explained.
So unless one has previous knowledge about this or does a search on it, he's
confused(thinking that, even though my device has enough space why does
windows complain?)
Hope I made it clear!

======================================================

Hi Sachin,

You might find this interesting.

I don't know whether you have heard of Mark Russinovich but he came across a
similar problem
where a friend had trouble copying a large amount of files to a USB drive
that was formatted as FAT
not FAT32 and he commented that the error message the user got did not make
sense and ended his investigation of this with the comment;

"I'd consider this case closed, but I have two loose ends to follow up on:
see if I can get the error message fixed so that it's more descriptive, and
lobby to get the default format changed to FAT32. Wish me luck."

See the full story here:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/comments/2087460.aspx

Who is Mark Russinovich?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russinovich

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a huge file(of size ~6GB). It is residing on my PC's NTFS drive,
My system is Windows XP SP2.

When I try to copy the file to a USB disk, which is formatted as FAT32 -
then it gives me error as "There is no enough disk space available"
(The wording might not be correct, but it said this thing).

While in fact, the problem is with the underlying file system.

Actually, no, there isn't really any problem at all. FAT32 has a
maximum size of 4GB and you tried to exceed that maximum.

One of my friend who is not expert, could not get the real root cause, and
unnecessarily deleted all the files on the drive thinking that it is really
'out of space'.

Ouch!


It would be great if Windows can flash the correct error;

You are absolutely right. The error message is terribly misleading,
and you are not the first person to be confused by it.

 

[Sachin]

Thanks for sharing, that was interesting stuff

 

[Sachin]

Thanks all for your comments.
Just one question still troubles me; if this has been experienced by lot of
people, why it has not been taken care of?
How does MS work on such things?
This(and one above in Mark's blog) seems quite straightforward problem to me.

 

[David B.]

It has been taken care of, with the NTFS file system, which every NT based
Windows OS supports. exFat also doesn't have the 4GB limitation.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks all for your comments.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

Just one question still troubles me; if this has been experienced by lot of
people, why it has not been taken care of?
How does MS work on such things?

Sorry, I can't answer either of those questions. I know nothing about
how Microsoft works on such things nor how they decide what to work
on.

 

[Anteaus]

It has been taken care of, with the NTFS file system, which every NT based
Windows OS supports. exFat also doesn't have the 4GB limitation.

Unfortunately this isn't an option for memory used with cameras, MP3
players, etc which typically do not understand NTFS.

exFat is likewise a good idea in theory but lacks widespread support.

A better solution, IMHO, would be the adoption of an opensource format such
as ext3, XFS or Reiser as a standard for removeable devices. Ext3 would be
attractive since low-powered devices could treat it as ext2 without the
journalling for the sake of simpler drivers.

However, I can forsee hell freezing over before Microsoft conceded to such
an idea ;-)