Backup to external drive stops at 4.2 GB

[Guest]

I just installed an external USB 250 GB Western Digital MyBook hard drive.
Windows XP recognizes it as drive H and properties show that it has approx
250 GB free space. Yet when I use WIndows Backup it stops transferring to the
external drive just short of 4.2 GB and gives me and error notice to the
effect that I have run out of room.

Any suggestions as to what the problem may be and how to get around it?

 

[HillBillyBuddhist]

I just installed an external USB 250 GB Western Digital MyBook hard drive.
Windows XP recognizes it as drive H and properties show that it has approx
250 GB free space. Yet when I use WIndows Backup it stops transferring to
the
external drive just short of 4.2 GB and gives me and error notice to the
effect that I have run out of room.

Any suggestions as to what the problem may be and how to get around it?

It must be formatted FAT32 which has a 4GB file size limit. Right click the
drive in Explorer and choose Properties to verify. (where it says "File
System.")

If that is the case convert it to NTFS.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

(if it's empty you could always just reformat it through Disk Management
too)
--
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I was just trying to help.
Please use your own best judgment before implementing any suggestions or
advice herein.
No warranty is expressed or implied.
Your mileage may vary.
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[Richard in Va.]

Hello NewMexiKen,

I'm not familiar with Windows Backup, but it might be a memory issue as apposed to a disk
space issue.
I ran into a similar problem using xcopy.exe to backup the contents from one hard drive to
another. I broke the job in half and ran two backup routines and it solved my problem.
When I got a new computer with 1gig of ram, I was able to put the jobs back together.

Break the job in half, if that fails, break it into quarters. 4.2gig is alot.

If that fails, maybe someone listening in will offer a better answer.

Hope to be helpful .

Best regards,

Richard In Va.
++++++++++++++++++

 

[Guest]

HBB--

Great advice-- I followed it-- it was FAT and I re-formatted to NTFS and it
works like a charm.

Thanks for the speedy and pertinent advice!

NMK

 

[Rock]

Hello NewMexiKen,

I'm not familiar with Windows Backup, but it might be a memory issue as apposed to a disk
space issue.
I ran into a similar problem using xcopy.exe to backup the contents from one hard drive to
another. I broke the job in half and ran two backup routines and it solved my problem.
When I got a new computer with 1gig of ram, I was able to put the jobs back together.

Break the job in half, if that fails, break it into quarters. 4.2gig is alot.

If that fails, maybe someone listening in will offer a better answer.

Hope to be helpful .

Best regards,

Richard In Va.
++++++++++++++++++

It's the 4GB limit of FAT32 - not a memory issue or issue with ntbackup.

 

[NoStop]

HBB--

Great advice-- I followed it-- it was FAT and I re-formatted to NTFS and
it works like a charm.

Thanks for the speedy and pertinent advice!

NMK

Well MickeyMouse has just reduced the flexibility of your external drive.
Let me explain. The "backup program" provided with XP should be smart
enough to create spanned backup files if it encounters a FAT32 drive as so
many other backup programs do. By placing a half-baked "backup program" in
XP, MickeyMouse pretty much forces you to convert your external hard drive
from FAT32 to NTFS. The end result is that this external hard drive of
yours has now lost the flexibility to be attached to other types of
computers and have full functionality, such as Macs or those running Linux.

As in true MickeyMouse fashion the only viable option you had if you were to
maintain the flexibility that device was originally configured to have was
to go out and purchase a better backup program from some other third-party
developer.

MickeyMouse sucks and XP sucks.


--
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