Limit to File Size when copying to USB Drive?

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Level 1

5 points

Limit to File Size when copying to USB Drive?

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the size of a file that can be copied to a USB Drive?
I am trying to copy a 17GB file to a 60GB USB Drive formatted in Fat32.
Every time I try to copy the 17GB file I get a "...cannot be completed due to unexpected error (Code 0) regardless of how I try i.e. drag and drop, cut and paste, attached to a VM Session, attached directly to the Mac.
I have tried reformatting the drive in the VM session, and in the Mac using Disk Utility - same thing.
Other files copy to the drive without any problem, the 17GB file copied from another USB drive to the Mac drive with no problem and from the Mac to the VM Windows XP drive with no problem.
I have the necessary write privileges (as evidenced by the fact that I can copy other files to the drive), I have checked the file in question using Get Info, it is not protected anyway that I can see.
Anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 26, 2010 5:31 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 26, 2010 5:43 AM in response to Robcarman

The problem is you are trying to copy to a FAT32 drive. Format the drive using NTFS and install NTFS-3G or format the drive as HFS+ if you are transferring the file to another mac and you should be fine.

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Answer 2

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Mar 26, 2010 5:44 AM in response to Robcarman

Robcarman wrote:
Does anyone know if there is a limit to the size of a file that can be copied to a USB Drive?
I am trying to copy a 17GB file to a 60GB USB Drive formatted in Fat32.

AFAIK, the file size limit for FAT32 formatted drives is 4 GB.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileAllocationTable#FAT32.

edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

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Answer 3

Fortuny

Level 7

21,461 points

Mar 26, 2010 5:46 AM in response to Robcarman

Hi,

the culprit is the FAT32 file system.

FAT32 has a built-in single-file size limitation of 4GB.

Mac OS Extended (the OSX file system) and the other known Windows file system NTFS don't have such a limit.

Sadly FAT32 is the only Windows file system that OSX can read and write to without third-party helper.
OSX can read from NTFS, but for write access you need something like NTFS-3G http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ for example (there are others).

Windows on the other hand also cannot use the OSX file system without additional help from MacDrive http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

Regards

Stefan

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Answer 4

Robcarman Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 26, 2010 5:55 AM in response to Fortuny

I cannot respond to all of you so I will respond to the last message!
Thanks very much for all your help. I suspected that the Fat32 was the problem so I formatted the drive in NTFS in the Windows session - but as you pointed out the Mac could only read the NTFS not write to it - that I didn't know so I am grateful for all your help! I will check out the NTFS-3G that you mentioned and hopefully find my final answer!

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