Why Can't I Copy a Large File Despite Having Larger Free Space? In these days of extra large hard disks many try to copy large files from a DVD but find that can’t even though there is plenty of free space on the hard disk. Why not? The most likely cause for this is not some sort of copy protection but that the file being copied is too large for the file system to handle. Windows XP allows you to format a hard disk in two different file system formats: FAT3. NTFS. These file systems differ in the size of file they can handle. FAT3. 2, for example, can only handle files up to 4. GB in size. When it was developed, that size file was almost unheard of but now, a DVD can have files that large or larger routinely. So, if you are trying to copy a movie from a DVD onto your FAT3. GB. FAT3. 2The original File Allocation Table (FAT) file system was introduced in 1. It was later modified to work with hard disks and other removable media. FAT had a problem however; it could only manage spaces up to 2. GB in size. As Windows came into being and programs became larger, the 2. Download Site 1 + New Features for v5.5(build 276) Can open/extract/convert GBI file.GB barrier became a serious problem. Thus, in 1. 99. 6, with the OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) of Windows 9. Windows 9. 5b) came a FAT enhancement known as FAT3. The two major features of FAT3. FAT (or FAT1. 6 as it’s sometimes known) are the disk efficiency and size of the disk supported. Files are stored in clusters on the disk. The size of the clusters depends on the size of disk. Under FAT, drives over 1. GB used clusters that were 3. K in size as the file allocation table itself could not track more clusters because of it’s 1. The 3. 2- bit structure in FAT3. K per sector. This improves efficiency as a file, no matter how small, will always use at least one cluster and the space in the cluster not used is wasted. FAT3. 2 doesn’t start to use 3. K clusters until the disk goes over 6. GB in size and can handle disks up to 2. TB (terabyte or trillion bytes); though not all operating systems can deal with disks that size even if the file system can. There are many other features changed between the two but these are the major ones to be concerned with. The problem that many encounter now is one of the limits of FAT3. The original FAT (FAT1. MB, FAT1. 6 has a maximum file size of 2. GB, and despite the much larger hard disk size supported by FAT3. GB. This is largely why a movie file larger than 4. GB in size might not be able to be copied to a hard disk with lots of space. The hard disk is probably formatted using FAT3. There is no quick solution short of converting the hard disk to the NTFS file system. NTFSThe New Technology File System (NTFS) was introduced in Windows NT (mid- 1. Windows 2. 00. 0, Windows XP, Windows Server 2. Vista. It replaces FAT and FAT3. FAT3. 2 or NTFS. You can convert FAT3. NTFS with little problem however going back from NTFS to FAT3. FAT3. 2 limitations that NTFS does away with (e. NTFS makes a number of improvements over FAT- based file systems. It uses advanced data structures, has a B+ tree directory structure, has improved reliability and use of disk space, allows for extensions such as security control, and has both a hard disk and file size of 1. Ei. B (Ei. B = exbibyte; a contraction of exa binary byte, and equaling 1,1. So, if you need to copy files larger than 4. GB, you need to make certain that the file system on the hard disk you are copying to is NTFS and not FAT3. Unfortunately, many portable USB hard disk drives come formatted as FAT3. Converting Windows partition files system, Kungsoft NTFS to FAT32 Editor is the best choice. It helps you change/modify FAT12/16/32 partition to NTFS or convert NTFS. Free raw to ntfs cnverter iCare Recovery Pro Free Edition is to repair fix RAW drive when hard disk phone memory card usb flash drive reports raw blank or raw file. Open a Command Prompt window (Start . To see the full syntax of the command and to verify that the command is present in your version of Windows type (no quotes) “CONVERT /?” at the command prompt and hit Enter. This should give you the help and if it comes up you have the command available to use. The command to convert any drive from FAT to NTFS would then be: CONVERT d: /FS: NTFS where d: is the drive letter of the disk/volume you wish to convert.
If you want to watch the details add a /V (for verbose) to the command. Also, to enable all users to access the drive, just in case you might want to also add /No. Security to the command line. These latter two are optional and usually not needed. Also, this procedure does not erase the disk so files should be safe. As in all things computer, having a backup of important files is critical no matter what and I’d be careful if the disk is almost full as FAT and NTFS disks likely have different sector sizes and therefore hold different amounts of information. More Information. Comments from Original Article: #4anand. Said this on 2. 00. At 1. 0: 4. 2 pmvery nice articlethe command for converting fat. Start > Run > Cmdconvert d: /fs: ntfswhere d: is the drive letter of the external disk.#6. Vicky. Said this on 2. At 0. 9: 0. 0 am. In reply to #4. Thanks anan, this info was extremely helpful. When I tried to do Format it showed only FAT3. NTFS. Now I can copy large files!#8clubber. Said this on 2. 01. At 1. 1: 3. 4 pm. In reply to #4“the command for converting fat. Worked perfectly, was trying to copy an 8gb movie to a 1. After I ran that it copied no problems.#2. Said this on 2. 01. At 1. 2: 0. 8 am. In reply to #8thats EXACTLY the prob i was facing! I ran chkdsk like prompted (it even ran it in the initial process) and to no avail it was a- okay. So I just went ahead and opened up admin tools via control panel then formatted my terabyte portable HDD over night. The world of computers constantly throws curveballs. MS has win. 7 out and xp must go, sothey do the same thing as with win. It is the big file copy/delete etc that was then crippled. And now its the same with xp. Damn M$.#1. 4davide. Said this on 2. 01. At 0. 6: 4. 1 amthank you very much! So, it is limited to files smaller that about 4. GB.#5. 9farhang. Said this on 2. At 0. 3: 1. 2 pm. In reply to #1. 5HEy U can use winrar It help u to convert your file to Something like 5. X7. 00! U saved my life! Cheers!#2. 1dave. Said this on 2. 01. At 0. 6: 2. 0 pm. How can i tell if my drive is FAT3. NTFS? In that dialog it should tell you what the drive format is. In Vista all you have to do is click on the drive in the My Computer window and down at the bottom it should say what the file system is. In general, there won’t be any data loss when converting from FAT3. NTFS however a backup of critical data is always a prudent thing to do; particularly when the disk is almost full. If the sector size changes and the disk is almost full with lots of small files then the spare space at the end of the sectors could add up to trouble. But, if you’re changing the file system to put on a large file then that situation is very unlikely.#2. Said this on 2. 01. At 1. 0: 2. 4 pm. Excellent Article! If You have to transform FAT3. NTFS, You may format the drive into NTFS! Right cklick on the drive You want to convert in Windows Explorer, than Format, on options You choose NTFS, and click Quick Format! But, You loose all the data on the formatted drive!#2. Said this on 2. 01. At 1. 0: 0. 6 am. SUPURB ARTICLE! I am having the same issue. My brand new 1. TB drive is FAT3. I can’t move my backups (1. GB) to it. The issue I am having is that I have created several “manual” backups where I copied the files/directories over manually as the backup file (DNA) would not work with the drive. If I run the CONVERT D: /FS: NTFS command, will it overwrite/destroy my “manual” backups that I already have on the drive or will it convert the files in the process of converting the drive? Thanks in advance,TONY B.#2. Da. Boss. Said this on 2. At 1. 0: 1. 9 am. In reply to #2. 6The CONVERT program will take care of moving the files into the NTFS structure with (usually) no data loss. I say usually because if the disk is quite full before the conversion strange things sometimes happen. But, if it’s not particularly full then all should be OK. I would not try the command if the disk is almost full. I’d move some things, do the command, and then move them back.#2. Said this on 2. 01. At 0. 2: 1. 7 pmif i already have files on the portable drive will i lose those files when i convert it to ntfs?#3. Da. Boss. Said this on 2. At 0. 4: 3. 1 pm. In reply to #2. 9No. At least not unless the drive is almost full. In that case it’s remotely possible that one or more files might not be converted properly but this usually happens more when going from NTFS back to FAT rather than FAT to NTFS. That said, it’s always good to have a backup when messing with the lower levels on a drive. As to viewing the file, I’m sorry but I’m not a video file format expert. It’s possible that the file is simply not correctly terminated by the software in the camera. Search for video recovery software; there should be a free version of something out there (be careful you don’t get any junkware with ads, etc. Most devices are programmed to write to the FAT file system. You might want to try the card in the camera before you commit to filming anything important. You may just have to reformat the card again and content yourself to shooting shorter sequences and then edit them together.#3. Said this on 2. 01. At 1. 0: 5. 6 pm. Thanks for the great write- up. I recently bought a 3. GB USB flash drive to copy large PST files and couldn’t because the USB was FAT3. Read your article and ran the convert command to make the USB NTFS , and voilla, I can now copy the files. Thanks!#3. 7baz. Said this on 2. At 0. 2: 5. 3 ami have win xp and ntfs file system in the both driversbut when i try to copy big file whuch size (2. GB or more ) it gives me can’t copy ,not enough space , Despite Having Larger Free Spaceidont know why??#3. Da. Boss. Said this on 2. At 0. 4: 5. 9 pm. In reply to #3. 72. G should not be a problem (other than the time it will take!) for NTFS formatted media. The max file size allowed is just shy of 1. Terrabytes. Narasimha. Said this on 2. 01. At 0. 1: 2. 7 pm. I have the same problem. I wanted to copy a movie file that is aprox. GB to a external HD of 3. GB and it has a free space of 1. How to Format Hard Drive to FAT3. File System up to 2. TBIt is not silly indeed, let's face it; Windows cannot format drives and partitions larger than 3. GB in FAT3. 2. Certainly, you can use the DOS command prompt to format drives and partitions beyond 1. TB. Bu if you have a drive that is 1. TB or larger, you may still cannot use the DOS command prompt to format and get an error saying . If you are using such brand hard drive, you can use their tools to accomplish the task. But if you are not using such brand hard drive, in that case, you might turn some 3rd party programs for help which will allow you to format an external hard drive with the larger size. It is worth using the FAT3. Macrorit Free Partition Software and other advanced editions. Macrorit Disk Partition Expert is an optimal solution that you can use to get the job done. You can use it to format many types of external drives such as USB, Firewire, PCMIA, SATA and SCSI. Formatting large hard drive in FAT3. Let's see the details. Free FAT3. 2 Formatting Utility – For Empty Large Drive. Step 1: After launching the program, right click the NTFS partition in the main disk partition map interface to get the drop- down menu, select . It will only take several seconds to finish. Free FAT3. 2 Converter – Convert to FAT3. Keep Your Data Intact. Convert large drive in FAT3. If you are trying to use FAT3. Windows internal hard disk, or if you have a plan to use your Sony external Hard Disk Drive with a PS3 or any other device that only supports the FAT3. More detail steps, read Easy Approach to Converting NTFS to FAT3. Partition. See also. How to hide volume to secure data. Resize Partition for Windows Server 2. Resize Raid Partition for Windows Server 2. Guide. Resize Windows Server 2. Extend/Increase System C Partition Size for Windows 1.
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