XP doesn't like my externa; HD

[Guest]

I bought a 250GB Seagate USB 2.0 external hard drive to free up my internal
HD. XP does not seem to like it. I have copied many small files to the new
drive with no problem. However I just tried to copy some large video files to
it for the 1st time without success. The external drive has 230GB free.
However when I try to copy a 12.4GB file from my system to the external HD,
XP tells me there is not enough room and that I should delete files beore
trying again. There is plenty of room on th external HD and XP has got it
wrong. The weird thing is that when I right click on the external drive's
(F icon and view it's properties, XP tells me there is 230GB free. How can
I solve this problem?

 

[Rock]

I bought a 250GB Seagate USB 2.0 external hard drive to free up my internal
HD. XP does not seem to like it. I have copied many small files to the new
drive with no problem. However I just tried to copy some large video files
to
it for the 1st time without success. The external drive has 230GB free.
However when I try to copy a 12.4GB file from my system to the external
HD,
XP tells me there is not enough room and that I should delete files beore
trying again. There is plenty of room on th external HD and XP has got it
wrong. The weird thing is that when I right click on the external drive's
(F icon and view it's properties, XP tells me there is 230GB free. How
can
I solve this problem?

Is the drive formatted FAT32? If so that has a limit of 4GB for the size of
a single file. You can convert it to NTFS. See this link:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

 

[Guest]

Thanks. How do I check how it is formatted? Will converting to NTFS cause me
to lose the files that have already been saved on th external HD?

 

[Guest]

I would seem strange to me if a drive sold as a solution for archiving video
files was formatted in a way so that the maximum file size is 4GB.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I would seem strange to me if a drive sold as a solution for archiving video
files was formatted in a way so that the maximum file size is 4GB.

Most disks are sold unpartitioned and unformatted. The seller
assumes rightly that if someone is able to install a new disk then
he also knows how to partition / format it.

Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc to check, delete or create
new partitions. Note that deleting a partition will destroy all
all data on it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks all. Yes it is FAT32. So gather I will have to reformat to NTFS and
lose everything before starting over.

 

[Guest]

Thanks all. Yes it is FAT32. So gather I will have to reformat to NTFS and
lose everything before starting over.

Converting to NTFS will retain all your current data on the drive. Simply
follow the instructions in the article which Rock linked for you (you can
ignore the part about the volume serial number, since this is not the drive
that Windows is installed on). Alternatively, if you don't mind losing the
information on the drive (or don't mind copying it back to your internal
drive temporarily), simply re-format it as NTSF (this skips the need to
prepare the drive before converting to NTSF).

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

 

[Guest]

If you tend to forget the sequence in the abbreviation, just think of NT
File System (NTFS).

Thanks. I didn't forget, I just get tired and lazy -- I'm normally
meticulous with things like spelling.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

 

[Noncompliant]

Most disks are sold unpartitioned and unformatted.

And externals are sold that way? Nope. Traditionally FAT32 from the maker.
See original post: "250GB Seagate USB 2.0 external hard drive"

 

[Noncompliant]

Converting to NTFS will retain all your current data on the drive. Simply
follow the instructions in the article which Rock linked for you (you can
ignore the part about the volume serial number, since this is not the
drive
that Windows is installed on). Alternatively, if you don't mind losing
the
information on the drive (or don't mind copying it back to your internal
drive temporarily), simply re-format it as NTSF (this skips the need to
prepare the drive before converting to NTSF).

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

If you tend to forget the sequence in the abbreviation, just think of NT
File System (NTFS).

 

[Rock]

Thanks all. Yes it is FAT32. So gather I will have to reformat to NTFS and
lose everything before starting over.

No, you don't have to reformat. I gave you link for how to convert to NTFS
in the first reply. It retains data, but make sure you have a backup of the
data on it just in case.