hard drive space calculation between NTFS and FAT32

[namsilat]

I have one drive using NTFS and one drive using FAT32 system. There is
a file that's 4.5 GB on NTFS drive, seeing that I have a 5.3 GB of
free space on FAT32 drive, I moved the file to FAT32 drive. To my
surprise, the FAT32 drive ran out of space, unable to hold that 4.5 GB
file. Is there a difference in calculation of hard drive free space?
That looks like a huge difference.

I also wonder if there is a way to transform the FAT32 drive to a NTFS
drive without erasing the data.

 

[Don Burnette]

I have one drive using NTFS and one drive using FAT32 system. There is
a file that's 4.5 GB on NTFS drive, seeing that I have a 5.3 GB of
free space on FAT32 drive, I moved the file to FAT32 drive. To my
surprise, the FAT32 drive ran out of space, unable to hold that 4.5 GB
file. Is there a difference in calculation of hard drive free space?
That looks like a huge difference.

I also wonder if there is a way to transform the FAT32 drive to a NTFS
drive without erasing the data.

Most likely the difference is in the cluster size being used by Fat32 versus
NTFS, causing the same file to take up more space on Fat32.

 

[davexnet02]

Most likely the difference is in the cluster size being used by Fat32 versus
NTFS, causing the same file to take up more space on Fat32.

Could be, but more like the file is just too big.
In Fat32, the largest file size allowed is 4GB, regardless of the
amount of free space.

DAve

 

[Tom]

I have one drive using NTFS and one drive using FAT32 system. There is
a file that's 4.5 GB on NTFS drive, seeing that I have a 5.3 GB of
free space on FAT32 drive, I moved the file to FAT32 drive. To my
surprise, the FAT32 drive ran out of space, unable to hold that 4.5 GB
file. Is there a difference in calculation of hard drive free space?
That looks like a huge difference.

That's a file size limitation of FAT32, as the file sytem can handle 4GB file size at one time. NTFS has no such limitation (in practical Windows usage anyway).

I also wonder if there is a way to transform the FAT32 drive to a NTFS
drive without erasing the data.

Yes, open Help and Support, and type CONVERT in the search engine, read the first listed result in the left column. Before you do that (perform the conversion), read here for good advice regarding conversion of (Windows) filing systems.

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

 

[Tom]

Most likely the difference is in the cluster size being used by Fat32 versus
NTFS, causing the same file to take up more space on Fat32.

This *may* somewhat apply for the OP, since he seem to state the FAT32 partition is less than 8GBs. The FAT32 filing system will use the same (default) cluster size as NTFS when partitions are created between 2 and 8GBs in size. His problem is simply the limitation of a "total" file size that FAT32 has in limitation.

In any case, even if the cluster size were different, the end result would be way to small to apply to your thinking. Even if the cluster sizes were 32KBs, the file (if could possibly be placed) would use full contiguous space of the clusters until the end cluster, where the waste would be determined there.

 

[Don Burnette]

This *may* somewhat apply for the OP, since he seem to state the
FAT32 partition is less than 8GBs. The FAT32 filing system will use
the same (default) cluster size as NTFS when partitions are created
between 2 and 8GBs in size. His problem is simply the limitation of a
"total" file size that FAT32 has in limitation.

In any case, even if the cluster size were different, the end result
would be way to small to apply to your thinking. Even if the cluster
sizes were 32KBs, the file (if could possibly be placed) would use
full contiguous space of the clusters until the end cluster, where
the waste would be determined there.

Aha, makes sense. I forgot about the fat32 file size limitation.
Thanks for the heads up guys.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have one drive using NTFS and one drive using FAT32 system. There is
a file that's 4.5 GB on NTFS drive, seeing that I have a 5.3 GB of
free space on FAT32 drive, I moved the file to FAT32 drive. To my
surprise, the FAT32 drive ran out of space, unable to hold that 4.5 GB
file. Is there a difference in calculation of hard drive free space?
That looks like a huge difference.

FAT 32 has an absolute upper limit of 4GB (less a couple of bytes) for
the size of any file. If you try to make a bigger one it is reported as
'out of space'