Why can't I copy a 7 GB file to a 120 GB WD External USB Drive?

[andreas]

A Western Digital 250 GB USB External Drive is connected to a Windows
XP SP2 computer. There is 227 GB of unused space on the drive, yet
when I try to copy and paste a 37 GB Vware images files to the drive,
I get an error message Titled "Error Copying File or Folder" that says
"Cannot copy <filename>: There is not enough free disk space." Why
can't I copy this file to the Drive?

Thanks in advance!

andreas

 

[Ian D]

A Western Digital 250 GB USB External Drive is connected to a Windows
XP SP2 computer. There is 227 GB of unused space on the drive, yet
when I try to copy and paste a 37 GB Vware images files to the drive,
I get an error message Titled "Error Copying File or Folder" that says
"Cannot copy <filename>: There is not enough free disk space." Why
can't I copy this file to the Drive?

Thanks in advance!

andreas

Sounds like the external drive is formatted as FAT32. For files that
large, 7 GB, it should be formatted as NTSF. I think the maximum
file size for FAT32 is 4 GB.

 

[philo]

Sounds like the external drive is formatted as FAT32. For files that
large, 7 GB, it should be formatted as NTSF. I think the maximum
file size for FAT32 is 4 GB.

Yep!

 

[Ian D]

Sounds like the external drive is formatted as FAT32. For files that
large, 7 GB, it should be formatted as NTSF. I think the maximum
file size for FAT32 is 4 GB.

Oops! That should be NTFS.

 

[andreas]

Thanks Ian!

Yes, external drive is formatted as FAT32 and I don't know why! I was
with the idea that FAT32 file system was obsolete.
I will use the windows command convert.exe (http://
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx) to convert it to
NTFS.
This method keeps your files intact, unlike formatting a partition.

 

[andreas]

Thanks Ian!

Yes, external drive is formatted as FAT32 and I don't know why! I was
with the idea that FAT32 file system was obsolete.
I will use the windows command convert.exe (http://
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx) to convert it to
NTFS.
This method keeps your files intact, unlike formatting a partition.

 

[JohnO]

Yes, external drive is formatted as FAT32 and I don't know why! I was
with the idea that FAT32 file system was obsolete.

FAT32 also works with Macintosh, so a lot of manufacturers ship flash drives
with it. I don't know if the latest OSX can read NTFS, but until recently
they couldn't.

-John O

 

[David Vair]

FAT32 also works with Macintosh, so a lot of manufacturers ship flash drives with it. I don't know
if the latest OSX can read NTFS, but until recently they couldn't.

-John O

You can also run into file permission issues with NTFS that don't exist in FAT32, thats why many
external drives are preformatted FAT32.