Can't Move Large Video File (5.24GB) to External Drive

[Beejaysoo]

I have a video on my C drive that I would like to move to my external drive
but when I try to do this I get a message saying "file is too large for the
destination file system". The external drive is 120GB, has lots of room on
it, and I have moved other smaller videos to it.

Could anyone expand on what this may mean, besides the obvious, and if there
is anyway around it.

Thanks,

 

[Bob Campbell]

I have a video on my C drive that I would like to move to my external drive
but when I try to do this I get a message saying "file is too large for
the
destination file system". The external drive is 120GB, has lots of room
on
it, and I have moved other smaller videos to it.

Sounds like the drive is formatted as FAT32. FAT32 has a 4GB file size
limit. Copy everything off of it and reformat it as NTFS.

 

[John Inzer]

I have a video on my C drive that I would like to move to my external
drive but when I try to do this I get a message saying "file is too
large for the destination file system". The external drive is 120GB,
has lots of room on it, and I have moved other smaller videos to it.

Could anyone expand on what this may mean, besides the obvious, and
if there is anyway around it.

Thanks,

=====================================
Just a thought but if the external drive is
FAT32...it may help to convert it to NTFS.

Maybe the following articles will offer some
ideas:

Proceed at your own risk.......

Why Can't I Copy a Large File Despite Having Larger Free Space?
http://www.cknow.com/faqs/Why/CantCopyLargeFile.html

Convert a FAT32 Disk to NTFS in Windows Vista
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Convert-a-FAT32-Disk-to-NTFS-in-Windows-Vista-51792.shtml

--

John Inzer
Digital Media MVP

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Bob Campbell" <[email protected]>


|
| Sounds like the drive is formatted as FAT32. FAT32 has a 4GB file size
| limit. Copy everything off of it and reformat it as NTFS.

You don't have to move data off the drive and reformat.

Just use the CONVERT.EXE utility on that drive to convert it from FAT32 to NTFS.

 

[kookieman]

convert yields 512 byte clusters, which is not good for fragmentation,
especially if the average file sizes are large. 4KB clusters would be far
better with large files.. if they are all that size, he could go higher.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "kookieman" <[email protected]>

| convert yields 512 byte clusters, which is not good for fragmentation,
| especially if the average file sizes are large. 4KB clusters would be far
| better with large files.. if they are all that size, he could go higher.
|

Good point.

 

[Beejaysoo]

Thanks to all,

I appreciate and understand your answers but being a bit of a novice I think
I'll just leave my video on the C drive. I've got too much stuff on the
external drive to start fooling around with it....ie. formatting etc.

Thanks again,

bj

 

[kookieman]

Good choice. Just split the file into 2 parts and you should be able to
copy it.. if you want to.

 

[Ken Blake]

convert yields 512 byte clusters,

Usually, but not always.

which is not good for fragmentation,

It's not good for performance in general.

especially if the average file sizes are large. 4KB clusters would be
far better with large files.. if they are all that size, he could go
higher.

However it's possible to covert to FAT232, *and* endure that you get the
default 4K clusters. Read here: http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm
Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your drive.
When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is always possible
that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's prudent to make sure
you have a backup of anything you can't afford to lose before beginning.