File too large for external hard drive

The_One · 21 Jun 2015 at 14:50

Trying to put a 5.4gb .mkv file onto my external hard drive

the movie file is currently on my windows 7 laptop. When I go to move it across it says the file is too large but I have over 800gb space free :confused:

traveyb · 21 Jun 2015 at 14:51

Check to see what format the drive is in, if it's running fat32 4GB is the max file size. It needs to be NTFS

andy_mk3 · 21 Jun 2015 at 14:52

Is the drive FAT32? If so there's a 4GB file size limit, will need to format it to NTFS to get past that.

The_One · 21 Jun 2015 at 15:12

yup it is thanks guys

Nanobot · 22 Jun 2015 at 22:31

You can usually convert to NTFS on the fly without reformatting using command:

convert x: /FS:NTFS

Best to do a chkdsk first beforehand though.

cactusweasel · 23 Jun 2015 at 14:12

Samsung HDD's come in fat32 format so I guess you may have a Samsung external drive.

reformat in NTFS

bledd · 23 Jun 2015 at 19:33

Nanobot said:
You can usually convert to NTFS on the fly without reformatting using command:

convert x: /FS:NTFS

Best to do a chkdsk first beforehand though.

Backup ALL data on the drive before doing this.

First thing I do when getting a new external drive is either format it as exFAT (if using on Mac and PC) or NTFS if just using on PC.

macandy13 · 23 Jun 2015 at 20:01

I've been having this same problem a few times and was wondering what it could have been, now I know. Have to make sure all my external storage is NTFS from now on.

Joebob · 24 Jun 2015 at 15:49

macandy13 said:
I've been having this same problem a few times and was wondering what it could have been, now I know. Have to make sure all my external storage is NTFS from now on.

It's the limitations of 32bit.

FAT32 can only store 4GB files
32bit CPU can only address 4GB Memory
& there are only 4.2 billion possible 32bit IP addresses