8GB USB drive, 4GB file "too large" for it

Life Technology
1

I have an 8 GB USB drive, empty and formatted (says 7.45GB free - where’s the other 0.55GB?). I’m trying to copy a 4.16GB file (a DVD image) onto it. It says it’s “too large”.

Two questions:

  1. Why?
  2. How can I get the file onto the drive?
2

[quote=“Chris”]I have an 8 GB USB drive, empty and formatted (says 7.45GB free - where’s the other 0.55GB?). I’m trying to copy a 4.16GB file (a DVD image) onto it. It says it’s “too large”.

Two questions:

  1. Why?
  2. How can I get the file onto the drive?[/quote]The maximum file size on FAT32 drives (which most USB drives are, for compatibility with non XP machines) is 4GB, try reformatting the stick in NTFS format and try again.
    The “missing” 0.55GB is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.
3

Thanks!

4

Now, do you have Chinese or European Gigabytes there? That might be your problem, a Chinese Gig is about three times the size.

5

And over 5000 years old!

6

[quote=“urodacus”]Now, do you have Chinese or European Gigabytes there? That might be your problem, a Chinese Gig is about three times the size.[/quote]There are decimal and binary gigabytes
decimal gigabyte=1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes
Binary gigabyte = should technically be called the Gibibyte=1GiB=1,073,741,824 bytes

The new terminology never caught on, and there is confusion between the two. A GB is usually the second one. Hard disk makers use the first one because it make their disks look bigger.

7

Just be aware that IF you format it in NTFS it won’t work on many older computers. As long as you plug it into a PC with Windows 2000, XP or Vista you’re ok, but other computers won’t be able to read it. There’s also another option in Vista called ext FAT or something like that, but then you’ll have even less systems it works on, but it will allow you to put the file on the drive.

8

As noted, your problem is the type of partition. FAT/FAT32 won’t work. If you can format it as NTFS, you’ll be good to go.

Also, your “size” problem is normal when purchasing hard disks, etc. 1 GB = 1024 MB, not 1000 MB. So… the bigger the drive, the more space you “lose”.

9

If you want compatibility with older systems that can’t read a NTFS partition then you will have to split the 4 gigabyte file into 1 gig chunks… the problem is that FAT filesystem doesn’t allow files larger than 4 gig so that’s why on DVD’s you see a bunch of vob files that are 1 gig each rather than a big vob file that are around 6 gigs.

You can try using winrar or something to split them…