Finder says it can't copy a 4GB download (w10 reinstall) to a 16GB flash drive because its format is too small.

Finder says it can't copy a 4GB download (w10 reinstall) to a 16GB flash drive because its format is too small.

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 14.5

Posted on Jul 10, 2024 6:49 PM

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Posted on Jul 10, 2024 9:28 PM

The FAT32 filesystem cannot handle files larger than 4 GB. That's not a Mac or PC thing, but a FAT32 thing. If this flash drive is formatted using FAT32 – and I suspect that most flash drives with a capacity of 32 GB or less will be – you're going to run into this limit.


exFAT does not have this file size limit.

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Finder says it can't copy a 4GB download (w10 reinstall) to a 16GB flash drive because its format is too small.

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