Friday, October 22, 2010

How to copy files larger than 4GB to an USB drive

Windows XP allows you to format a hard disk in two different file system formats: FAT32 and NTFS. These file systems differ in the size of file they can handle. FAT32, for example, can only handle files up to 4GB 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.

If you need to copy files larger than 4GB, you need to make certain that the file system on the hard disk you are copying to is NTFS and not FAT32. Many portable USB hard disk drives come formatted as FAT32 in order to interface with the maximum number of operating systems.

To convert from FAT32 to NTFS on the command prompt window (Start | Run | type CMD and press Enter).
Then type the command CONVERT d: /FS:NTFS where d is the drive you want to convert.

You can also do it with the windows interface, watch the video below in order to learn how to do it:



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