Many users have reported an error where while trying to copy a file to a USB drive, they get the error:
The file <file name> is too large for the destination file system.
This error typically occurs with USB drives when the user tries to copy a single file larger than 4GB in size, despite the fact that the USB drive has sufficient space for it. Eg. Let us suppose you have a 16GB USB drive, however, you are trying to copy a 4.6GB file to it. Despite the fact that the USB drive is empty, you would face this error.
Cause
The cause is that the USB drive has been FAT32 formatted. This forces a policy to the USB drive that no single file more than 4GB of size could be copied to the drive. We could copy multiple files to the drive occupying total space equal to the volume of the drive, but no single file could be more than 4GB in size.
Resolution
Solution 1] Through Format
The resolution to this issue reformat the USB drive and change the File system. However, this would erase all the data in the USB drive, so you could temporarily copy it elsewhere and replace it after formatting.
1] Open File Explorer >> This PC.
2] Right-click on the USB drive and then on Format.
3] Change the File system from FAT32 to NTFS.
4] Check the Quick format option to make the process quicker and then click on Start.
Once formatted, unplug and replug the USB drive and you would be able to copy your file now.
Solution 2] Through Command Prompt
If the above procedure is problematic for any reason, try formatting the USB drive through Command Prompt.
1] Type command prompt in the Windows search bar. Right-click on the Command prompt icon and select Run as administrator.
2] Type the following command and press Enter to execute it:
Where X: is the drive letter of the USB drive. Gta vc save game.
3] Restart the system and try copying your file. It would work this time.
Hope it helps!
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- Why can't I copy a 7 GB file to an external USB HD with 120 GB free? 3 answers
Trying to copy an 11.3G file to a brand new 65G flash drive. Keep getting error message 'the file is too large for the destination file system. It is a brand new flash drive formatted to fat32. On windows7. Any suggestions?? Thanks!
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marked as duplicate by Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007, DavidPostill♦, Mokubai♦Jun 3 '16 at 6:19
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2 Answers
Right-click the flash drive icon, select
jjlinjjlinFormat
, and format it as exFAT
, which does not have the 4 GB limitation.12.1k33 gold badges3939 silver badges4242 bronze badges
Caesar 3 ita download. Between exFat and NTFS, exFat is the better choice for flash drives. The exFat file system was designed for that purpose, has much less overhead and performs fewer small writes than NTFS. Another advantage is that exFat is supported by both Windows and OSx, so an exFat formatted thumb drive can help the Windows and Mac folks to get along.
NoraNora
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This post will help you if you cannot copy large files over 4GB to USB flash drive or SD card, and you receive a message – File Too Large, The file is too large for the destination file system message when copying a large file.
Recently, while copying a 4.8GB zipped file from my Windows 10 PC to a new 8GB USB drive I received a File Too Large error message. If you receive such a message, even when you know that there is enogh space available for the file, here is what you need to do to successfully copy the file.
The chances are high that the USB drive has been FAT32 formatted. Now this file system has a built-in limitation on the size of the individual file that it may contain. It is 4GB. So although collectively it may have files of even 1 TB, individually it cannot be more than 4GB. So you will have to change the file system to NTFS.
File Too Large To Transfer
File Too Large for destination file system
Connect the USB and open File Explorer. Now, right-click on the USB Drive letter and select Format. When the dialog box opens up from the drop down menu for the File system, select NTFS instead of FAT32.
Select Quick Format and hit the Start button.
Alternatively, you could open an elevated Command Prompt and execute the following command:
Where X is the Drive letter. For instance in my case it is G so the command would be:
Once the process is completed try copying now.
I am sure that you will be able to copy the file.
Related reads:
- Remount ejected USB Drive in Windows without physically reconnecting it.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
Related Posts:
You have a brand new high-capacity flash drive that can store more than the hard drive of your first three computers combined, but when you go to copy a large file it denies you. What gives? Read on as we show you how to solve your flash drive frustrations.
Dear How-To Geek,
I recently purchased a 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive, plugged it into my computer, and started copying some files onto it I wanted to transfer to another computer. The little files (MP3s, documents, etc.) all transferred fine but I have some DVD ISO files on there and when it came time to copy them I got the error “The file ‘DVDBACKUP1’ is too large for the destination file system.” and the transfer fails.
Although I will of course keep a close eye on this evening’s result.My purpose in being here today is a bit different. This evening I’ll be launching a showcase of theatre, music and dance performances from Scotland which were successful at last year’s Edinburgh fringe. And it’s a particular pleasure to be here on a day when Scotland has such a strong and visible presence in the city.Despite what the timing might suggest, I haven’t come here for the Scotland-Belgium football match. It runs at 5 different venues for the next 3 days – I hope that some of you will be able to catch parts of it.And this morning, I met with Michel Barnier and will later meet with Jean-Claude Juncker. Scottish text to speech.
What exactly does that error mean? Why can’t I put a 4.5GB file on a 64GB drive? Help!
Sincerely,
Flash Drive Frustrated
We can certainly understand your frustration: here you were all ready to copy the files and then it just ground to a halt with a relatively cryptic message. Don’t worry though! We can not only solve the mystery of the stubborn file but show you how to fix it in the process.
First, let’s explain why you couldn’t copy it in the first place: the flash drive’s file system. A file system, which is a separate thing from an operating system and other mechanisms on a computer, is an organizational scheme used to control how data is stored and retrieved on a a given storage medium (like a hard disk, a DVD disc, or a removable flash drive). There are a multitude of file systems in the world that have features big and small that are useful (and even mission critical to the applications they are used in) such as native error checking and correction, journaling, permission schemes, and more.
RELATED:Why Do Removable Drives Still Use FAT32 Instead of NTFS?
Nearly every flash drive in the world ships formatted as with the FAT32 file system. FAT32 isn’t the most robust file system around but it has been around for ages, it is widely supported, and most of the time the applications one would use a flash drive for do not require the advanced features found in other file systems (and, in fact, some of those advanced features could even shorten the life of the drive via increased read/writes). If you’re curious as to why FAT32 is still so prevalent, check out our article HTG Explains: Why Are Removable Drives Still Using FAT32 Instead of NTFS?
Despite the ubiquitous nature of FAT32, however, it has one big shortcoming in the age of large files: the maximum possible file size for FAT32 files is 4GB. (If we’re being technical it’s actually 4GB minus a single byte or 4,294,967,295 bytes). These days 4GB isn’t exactly a whopper of a file and it’s real easy, as you discovered, to exceed the 4GB barrier with large video files, DVD and Blu-ray ISOs, and other large files.
Now that we know why you can’t copy that DVD ISO file over to your nice spacious 64GB flash drive, what can we do about it? Fortunately the fix is very simple. We’ll switch the file system to a file system which allows for larger-than-4GB file sizes.
We’ll demonstrate with a 16GB flash drive we have laying around. The flash drive is formatted in FAT32 and if we attempt to copy a 7.63GB ISO file, as seen in both the screenshot above and the header image for this article, we get the same error you got the file is “too large for the destination file system”.
To remedy that situation we’ll ensure there is no data on the flash drive that needs to be copied back to the machine or backed up and then we’ll format it to the NTFS file system (which allows for files ranging in size from 128GB to 256TB depending in the implementation used, more than enough for your needs).
We can swap out the file system by simply selecting the drive in Windows Explorer via right-click and then, in the right-click context menu, selecting “Format…”
In the Format menu, as seen above, change the file system from “FAT32” to “NTFS”. Leave the “Allocation unit size” at the default of 4096 bytes. Check “Quick Format”. Click “Start” to format the drive with a new file system.
Now that we’re sporting a large-file-friendly flash drive it’s time to transfer a large file and see what happens.
Success! Now that the flash drive is formatted to NTFS it has no issue accepting a 4+GB file size and we’re able to transfer that 7.63GB ISO with ease. Your super sized flash drive is now ready to accept super sized files.
Have a pressing tech question about storage, Windows, or any other computer problem under the sun? Shoot us an email with your question at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to answer it.
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Updated on January 10th, 2018
This post introduces causes and solutions to error “File is too large for the destination file system”. This file size too large error may occur when you copy a very large file to a USB disk even though the disk has enough free space. If you are confused by this error, you can follow methods in this guide to fix it.
As Windows user you will definitely encounter an error message while copying any single large file (exceed 4GB) to removable storage device like SD card, pen drive, USB flash drive, external hard drive, etc. The error appears on “File Too Large” message box saying “The file <file name> is too large for the destination file system.” with detailed information about the file being transferred.
Here is one of the questions asked on forum:
“Hey All! I was trying to move a few movies and videos from my laptop to my WD Passport (500GB). The biggest file is 4.7GB and the total size of them is about 20GB and the external drive still has 180GB free space. I thought there won’t be problem storing these files. But it still says file too large for USB. I don’t understand why it is too big. Don’t know what to do and I’m kind of need to get this done. Please!”
If you run into such problem, you should check the file system for the target disk which must have been formatted to FAT32 file system. This file system type has a built-in limitation on per file size it can access. Although the total file size you can copy to a FAT32 partition can be 2TB at most, per file size shouldn’t be larger than 4GB.
FAT32 was introduced by Microsoft during the days of Windows 95 when such large files were unthinkable or designers believed it would be replaced by more advanced file system. How to eliminate the limitation and copy 4GB files? You need to convert file system from FAT32 to NTFS or exFAT. Both NTFS and exFAT are able to copy a file larger than 4GB.
Both NTFS and exFAT are robust file system, but which one is better depends on the storage device you use. NTFS (New Technology File System) is mainly used on hard drive and external hard drive. It is compatible with all Windows versions from Windows NT to Windows 10, and it provides features not supported by FAT32 such as file security, encryption, compress, etc. NTFS is also read-supported by Mac OX. exFAT has good compatibility on many flash drives or memory cards which might be used under Android phones, tablets, digital cameras. Besides, it is read and write supported by recent versions of Mac OS. If you want to use your external disk on both Windows and Mac platform, you can format it into exFAT.
Method 1: Compress file
This is an easy but limited method to circumvent this 4GB file limitation. You can use compression software installed on your computer to compress the file into a smaller one. If file becomes smaller than 4 GB after compression, then problem solved. Compressed files occupy less disk space and can be moved more quickly.
Method 2: Format disk into exFAT or NTFS file system
Important:
Formatting deletes all data from the partition, if it contains important data, you should back up files before trying following steps.
If USB drive loses data, you can use free data recovery software to do USB drive recovery and get back deleted or lost files easily.
- Attach the USB disk to computer and wait for system to recognize it and assign a drive
- Double Computer icon to open it and location drive letter for the USB disk that you want to change file system format.
- Before formatting, you need to open this drive and check whether there are important files. If this disk can’t be opened and reports errors such as “Please insert a disk into removable disk”, you should use recovery software to retrieve data.
- Right click the USB drive and select “Format” from the menu.
- Select NTFS or exFAT from the drop-down list of the File system section. The default file system might be FAT32, thus you should set it manually. Apart from that, the “Quick Format” option should be select to ensure the formatting can be completed in shortest time. If you can’t find needed file system type from the drop-down list, you can use PartitionGuru to do the formatting job.
- Click Start button and you’ll get a message box telling formatting will erase all data on this disk. If you have backed up important data, click OK button and formatting will be done in seconds.
Method 3: Convert FAT32 to NTFS file system with Command Prompt
This method can convert FAT to NTFS without deleting existing file, but it is still recommended to create a backup of your files before starting the conversion.
- Insert USB drive to computer and open Windows Explorer to see its drive letter which is G in this example.
- Click Start button and type in cmd in the searching box and hit Enter.
- In Command Prompt type in chkdsk G: /f : and hit enter. Here G is the drive letter of the USB drive you want to convert. It check error for the drive.
- Enter convert G: /FS:NTFS and press Enter. Make sure you are using correct drive letter, if not replace “G” for the letter of the drive to be converted.
- The process may take a while, just let it run and finish. When conversion completes, check whether file system is correctly converted and file in order.