Cannot Move Avi Files

[Mary]

Hi,

I bought a new 250gb hdd specifically to hold video files - I have 45gb free on the original hdd, but I cannot move an avi file that is 4gb in size - says the disk is full!

Any ideas??

Thanks

Mary

[onespeedreed]

What file system are you using. Fat 32 is no good for files larger than 4 gb. You need to use ntfs.

[Mary]

Hi

Thanks for replies.

I was moving the avi file from the original hdd to the new one (an external drive btw). I was using just drag and drop, but when I got nowhere with that tried to copy from command prompt - to no avail.

I had moved a block of files no problem, but they were all under 3gb each. In the middle of moving a block, I got the hard disk full message and so I tried moving just one to see what would happen, but to no avail. (rebooted and all that, still the same).

Thanks again.

[micjustmic]

I know I'm very late to this post, and it's my first post to the forum, but I feel I must point out to oldtimer that a file isn't always a file . . . and it's likely that he wasn't "doing this the wrong way."

Often external hard drives are formatted with FAT32 for maximum compatibility (Linux, Unix, MAC OS, etc. Every OS can read/write FAT32), and the FAT32 file system can not handle files 4 gig or larger, so you get an error when you try to copy a file that large to a FAT32 partition.

This is my educated guess as to why he couldn't copy these particular files to his external drive. onespeedreed already stated this as well.

I use both Windows and Linux and I have my external drives formatted to FAT 32 so I can backup from Linux to the same drives . . . except one that I have formatted NTFS so I can back up large video files.

Some may be asking, "But wait, you can only format FAT32 to 32 GIGS, so how could his 250 gig drive be formatted to FAT32?"

Windows limits formatting to 32 gigs, the file system itself is capable of much larger partitions. I'm not sure why Microsoft put this artificial limit on formatting FAT32, but Windows is capable of reading FAT32 drives up to it's full capabilities (I don't recall at the moment the actual size limit). Simply use another utility, or Linux/Unix to partition to format very large drives to FAT32.

BUT, you still have the 4 gig file size limit, no matter what the size of the partition.

Hope this clears things up for some people that may not have already had this information.

Mic

[micjustmic]

Originally Posted by oldtimer

I might have learned something today,thank you.
I'll sleep on it.
But how can this 4 gb file even exist then to "BE COPIED" ?
Thats a pretty long playing movie or recording.
I get 1 1/2 hrs on a 700 MB cd-r.
Someone direct her to a good file spltter.
===============
My 40 gb hard drive is FAT32 running XP Pro.
===============
Mary ? Can you play this avi ? Who recorded it ?
Do you have a dvd burner to burn it to ?

The file(s) in question are on the internal hard drive, and it must be formatted with NTFS if it's 4 gig or larger. (Or, if if it's an alternative OS, like Linux, it would be RiserFS or one of the UNIX FS)

So, it exists on an NTFS partition, where the only limit to file size is the size of the partition/free space, and trying to copy it to a FAT32 partition will usually give you a "Drive Full" or "Not enough free space" error.

Perhaps Microsoft should have made the error message say, "Trying to copy a file (insert file size here) to a FAT32 partition error. File size for FAT32 must be less than 4 gigabytes.

I'd suggest converting your FAT32 partition(s) to NTFS. NTFS is a journaling file system, so you're much less likely to lose data in the event of a crash, and if you do, it won't nearly be as much . . . and you'll rarely, if ever, have to deal with chkdsk using NTFS since it's usually very good at keeping itself error free. Of course, there are times things get drastic and you'll have to chkdsk, but I think since I started using NTFS on my Windows machines I've only been in those situations a few times in the past several years.

It's also much more efficient with space. FAT32 wastes less space than FAT16, true, but NTFS is much better. On my 160 gig partition I have about 70% of it full and it's still showing as having less than 1% slack (wasted space) where if I'd use FAT32 I'd guess I'd be looking at about 8% (or more) slack with the same files.

Plus the fact that when editing a RAW video file, it would be impossible . . . those files can grow to 10 gigs or better at times, before converting them to mpeg2.

The file she has is most likely a raw, uncompressed AVI file. They can grow HUGE since they can run several megabytes a second. Even MPEG2 files when recorded with DVD quality (as I use with my DVR software) are about 2 gigs an hour. So if I were to record a movie with it that runs 3 hours I'm looking at a 6 gig file. This is why even some older store-bought DVDs required you to turn them over part way thought the movie. They were single layer/two sided disks and couldn't hold the entire MPEG2 movie on a single, 4.7 gig side. (Goodfella's, one of my favorites, is like this . . . GRRR.)

Mic

[micjustmic]

Originally Posted by oldtimer

You need an up to date P4 system,lots of memory copying 4 gb needs a lot of memory and HD space .

Well, I hate to argue with you but that's not all true. (Well, the lots of HD space is true. )

I set up a small file server for a friend who wanted to be able to stream his video recordings to every room in his house over ethernet.

We used an old P2 at 400 MHz and a 300 Gig PATA drive (Using Ubuntu Linux Server, RiserFS) with 256 megs of SDR RAM and he has no trouble streaming files. It's 1 gig ethernet, so the bandwidth is decent over the network.

We had to use a seperate controller card for the drive as the BIOS on the mobo couldn't use the full drive capacity and I've never liked (or trusted) the overlay BIOS drivers, like "Big-Drive".

We opted for the slower CPU so we wouldn't have to worry as much about cooling and could stick it in a closet.

He uses raw AVI most often, and his files can grow to many gigs while editing. This slow, low memory server has no trouble copying files to and from his workstations. It only serves four computers, and it usually only actually has duty on one workstation at a time, but it does work.

No disrespect intended, but in your second post you suggested "sorry but you must be doing this the wrong way" and it just seemed to me that you didn't have knowledge of the 4 gig limit on a FAT32 drive. You did ask if she partitioned the drive in your first post, but she never answered, that's why I pointed out that many external drives are partitioned FAT32 from the factory for maximum compatibility with most, if not all, systems you'll likely plug them into.

In short, yes, you're trying to help her but until she answers the question, "Is the external drive formatted FAT32?" suggesting that she run chkdsk isn't going to help her at all. I doubt there's anything wrong with the drive, and unless she's trying to drag the file to her My Computer Icon directly, I don't think she's doing anything wrong.

She did say she tried to copy from the command prompt, so this leads me to believe that she has more than basic knowledge in computers. Most people these days don't even know there IS a command prompt (where you can actually get many things done much faster than in the GUI, especially on a Linux/Unix system) let alone how to copy files using it.

I was making guesses about her file systems since we're no longer getting any feedback from her. BUT, in my own defense, with the information we DO have, it's makes perfect sense that my speculations are most likely correct. It all fits, she CAN copy files smaller than 4 gigs, the only problem she has is with a file 4 gigs or larger, she has an external drive that she's trying to copy aformentioned file to, many are formatted FAT32 . . . it really is that simple. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but unless we hear from her, we'll never know for sure.

So, if it can't be gleaned what my suggestion would be to FIX this problem, here it is . . .

Verify that the drive is formatted to FAT32, if it is, then open the command prompt, type "convert volume: /fs:ntfs /v" without the quotes.

Note: 'volume:' should be replaced with the drive letter assigned to the external drive.

This will convert the FAT32 partition to an NTFS partition. Defragment the drive, copy your big, honkin' files to your heart's content.

In the unlikely event that I'm wrong, then we need as much information about the system itself, and the external drive, to try to track down this bizarre problem.

Mic

[kevinf]

hi mic,

Google led me here because it describes the exact same problem I have, your description accurately describes my situation, and your solution fixed it.

So I signed up to this forum so I could log in and say:

THANKYOU.

Kevin