Have you encountered an error while copying a large file (4GB or larger) to the external USB drive, even though the drive is large (8GB, 16GB, or more) and has plenty of free space? Most probably such an error is the result of the FAT or FAT32 file system that your external USB drive has. Such a file system has a built-in limitation on the size of the files that it may contain. Although the total size of the files that you can copy to a FAT/FAT32 drive could be as large as 2TB (assuming the drive itself is large enough), the size of any individual file may not exceed 4GB.
How to solve this problem? Easy: you need to replace the FAT/FAT32 file system on the drive with the NTFS file system. The latter does not have the 4GB file size limitation, and you should have no problem copying large files to such a drive. Besides, the NTFS file system allows for many other features not supported by FAT/FAT32: file security, EFS encryption, file compression, etc.
Keep in mind, however, that the older versions of Windows (such as Windows 95, 98, or Windows Millennium) do not support the NTFS file system. If you plan on using the external drive with such old computers, then DO NOT change the file system to NTFS, because you won’t be able to get the old Windows to recognize it anyway. If, however, you only plan on using the drive with the more recent versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and of course Windows 7 or 8, such computers should work with the NTFS drives just fine.
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How to change the drive file system from FAT/FAT32 to NTFS?
The easiest way is to use the Windows Format command to format the drive with the NTFS file system. Specifically:
1. Attach the external drive to the computer, wait for Windows to recognize it and assign a drive letter to it.
2. Open the Computer folder and locate the drive you want to format with NTFS.
3. Before continuing, open the drive in a window and make sure it’s empty or does not contain any important files, because after you format a drive, all information that was on it will be erased! If there are files on the drive that you want to keep, take this opportunity to copy them over to the hard drive or some other drive.
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4. If you are sure that the external drive contains no important files of yours, go back to the Computer folder, right click on its icon and select Format from the menu:
5. Make sure to select NTFS in the File System drop-down list. Also, you may want to select the Quick Format option, which should speed up the formatting process quite considerably.
6. Press the Start button on the Format window, and Windows should warn you once again about erasing any existing information on the drive (see step 3 above). Again, if you are sure the drive does not contain any irreplaceable documents, confirm that you want to proceed with the formatting:
7. If you’ve selected the Quick format option, the formatting should take no longer than a minute or two.
When the formatting is finished, you should have the same drive, but now it should have the NTFS file system on it. Now you should be able to copy the files larger than 4GB to the drive just fine.
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One last note: our encryption software USBCrypt can create a NTFS-formatted Virtual Encrypted Disk even if the host drive is formatted with FAT/FAT32. This suggests another solution: instead of re-formatting the host disk with NTFS, you can instead use USBCrypt to create a NTFS-formatted Virtual Encrypted Disk. In addition to breaking the 4GB file size barrier, you will also get the strong security and password protection for files you put inside of the Virtual Encrypted Disk. See the USBCrypt web page for more information or to download a free 30-day trial.
Tags: 4GB, external drive, FAT file system, FAT32, NTFS, usb drive
Scan performed on 4/24/2019, Computer: YASHI TPower X58 - Windows 7 64 bit
Outdated or Corrupted drivers:6/15
4gb Ssd External Hard Drive
Device/Driver | Status | Status Description | Updated By Scanner |
Motherboards | |||
Intel(R) 631xESB/6321ESB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 269E | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Mice And Touchpads | |||
Logitech Logitech USB Marble Mouse | Corrupted By Drivers For Iomega External Hard Drive | ||
Usb Devices | |||
X10 Wireless X10 USB Wireless Transceiver (ACPI-compliant) | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Sound Cards And Media Devices | |||
ASUSTek ASUSTeK Tiger Capture Device | Corrupted By Drivers For Iomega External Hard Drive | ||
Network Cards | |||
Qualcomm Atheros Atheros AR938x Wireless Network Adapter | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Keyboards | |||
Microsoft HID Keyboard | Corrupted By Drivers For Iomega External Hard Drive | ||
Hard Disk Controller | |||
Intel Primary IDE Channel | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Others | |||
Intel(R) 82810 Graphics Controller (Microsoft Corporation) | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Texas Instruments Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Integrated FlashMedia Controller | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Cameras, Webcams And Scanners | |||
USB2.0 PC CAMERA Periferica video USB | Corrupted By Drivers For Iomega External Hard Drive | ||
Video Cards | |||
Intel Video Controller | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Input Devices | |||
Logitech USB Human Interface Device | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Port Devices | |||
MediaTek DA USB VCOM Port (COM11) | Up To Date and Functioning | ||
Monitors | |||
Sony Digital Flat Panel (1024x768) | Corrupted By Drivers For Iomega External Hard Drive | ||
Mobile Phones And Portable Devices | |||
Acer NOKIA | Corrupted By Drivers For Iomega External Hard Drive |