WD ext HD questions

rancid-a · 25 May 2009 at 09:01

Lo all
I've not long bought a WD Elements external HD (640GB & connected by USB)
I've used 150GB, and apparently have 489GB left spare. However trying to copy a movie file over (3GB) results in the error message 'Not enough free disk space...try using disk clean up'

Shall I try taking everything off, reformat & copy all back onto the drive, including my new file? I've got a feeling this full disk thing is caused by constantly moving files about but I'm just guessing. Any help would be appreciated

rpstewart · 25 May 2009 at 09:08

You sure the file isn't bigger than 3Gb?

It sounds very much like the drive is formatted as FAT32 and you're trying to copy a file that's bigger than the 4Gb limit imposed by the filesystem.

You can use the convert.exe utility which comes with Windows to do a one time on the fly conversion to NTFS to get round the file size limit.

rancid-a · 25 May 2009 at 09:22

Oh my god, you're right (blush) my file was actually over 4GB, and the properties of the external drive says FAT32. Would it be best just to move everything off and then reformat, and when doing so, will I then have the option for an NTFS format? Thanks for helping.

rpstewart · 25 May 2009 at 09:32

You could reformat but convert.exe is far easier and doesn't require the drive to be empty.

rancid-a · 25 May 2009 at 09:44

Okay, will use convert.exe, wasn't sure what to do but there was a support page for it over at microsoft so should be okay now. Thanks for helping rpstewart