The flash drive does not write a large file. Ways to write large files to a flash drive

Greetings, dear users! In my previous articles, I have already written articles on the topic of USB storage media, namely, what needs to be done if, or another example, and important data for us remains on it, what to do in such a situation in order to recover data from a flash drive .

If you really don’t know what to do in such situations, then I recommend that you read these articles. Since I started today’s article by talking about flash media, today we will learn another useful point directly related to the flash drives themselves.

Imagine that you decided to write an image of some program or toy onto your flash drive (by the way, I already wrote an article about what an image is, you can read more). Let's imagine that the volume of your flash drive is 16 GB, and your flash drive is completely empty and formatted. In turn, the volume of the recorded image is about 6 GB. At the moment when you try to write an image to a USB drive, a notification of the following nature appears: “Not enough disk space”. Agree that the appearance of a notification of this kind puts you in a kind of dead end situation, because the flash drive itself is completely empty and has 16 GB of free space.

What if we just copy to USB storage a file whose volume is less than 4 GB, then in this case the file itself is successfully placed on the flash drive and no errors associated with a lack of free space occur. The question arises, ?

At one time, I also had to deal with a similar phenomenon, when a 5.7 GB file was not written to removable drive, and another file whose volume was approximately 4.3 GB was written to a flash drive without any problems. So what exactly is the problem then, you ask?

In this article, we will try to understand why files larger than 4-5 GB may not be written to your flash drive. Do you know why such large files are not written to flash media? In general, more and more often, many users who encounter this problem are asking questions: how to write a file larger than 4 GB to a flash drive. Regarding the current issue, I can tell you that I have heard different answers, or rather arguments, reasoning from users who have not encountered a similar phenomenon before.

For example, on one of the forums, a user suggested the following answer options: files are not written to the flash drive because there is a virus there, which takes up the entire free disk space of the flash drive, or the flash drive is damaged or burned out.
I will tell you that in such a situation, when large files (more than 4-5 GB) are not written to the flash drive, this does not mean at all that it is damaged or there is some kind of virus on it, malware. And the reason for it all is the fact that the flash drive has file system FAT32.
By the way, I recommend that you also read my article:

From here you should remember once and for all that this file system is not capable of supporting large volumes of files (more than 4-5 GB) for work.

Therefore, if you want files larger than 4 GB to be successfully copied to a USB drive and then used by you for a specific purpose, then in this case you first of all need a flash drive with file NTFS system. In general, they say that the NTFS file system has the ability to contact such files, the volume of which can reach up to 16TB. From all of the above it follows that in order to To write a file larger than 4 GB to a flash drive, you will need a flash drive with the NTFS file system. Run specifically to the first store you come across computer equipment It is not worth purchasing such a flash drive.

I suggest you move on to the practical part of this article to clearly see how to independently convert the file system of your flash drive. So, I hope it is now clear to you that we will need to perform a number of necessary steps to create a flash drive with the NTFS file system.

In this article we will look at several options that will allow you to convert the file system. Therefore, if you have difficulties copying large files, then this article will help you solve your problem.

First option:

So, after you have connected the flash drive to your computer, and the latter has successfully identified and recognized the USB drive, you will now need to go to the properties of the removable device.

To do this, open “My Computer” and right-click on the removable device.

In the appeared context menu select Format. As a result, a special window will open in which you will need to click on the drop-down menu in the “File system” line and select NTFS.

Please note that if there are documents on your removable media, you will need to copy them to your computer.

Then all you have to do is click on the “Start” button. After a short period of time, the removable media will be formatted, after which removable media will have an NTFS file system. However, one caveat should be noted here. If your computer is still using the operating system Windows system XP, then in this case it will not be possible to immediately format the flash drive in the NTFS file system.

In such a situation, you will need to open the “Device Manager” and select the value of removable storage, and then, as shown in the figure below, you just have to go to the “Policy” tab to activate the corresponding option.

Finally, you should open the properties of the flash drive again and format it.

After the flash drive is formatted, do not forget to set the parameter value in the “Policy” tab to its original value.

Second Option:

The second option involves changing the file system of a removable device using the “Convert” operation.

To begin, you will need to run command line by clicking on the “Start” button and typing “cmd” in the search bar and then pressing “Enter”.

Now in the window that opens, you should specify a special command, which will convert the file system of your flash drive. The command looks like this:

Then just press “Enter”. However, you should know that before converting a removable device, you will need to copy all the data to the hard drive, because you risk losing it.

I also draw your attention to the fact that you need to carefully enter the command and indicate the correct letter of your removable device. IN otherwise The conversion operation will not be completed and an error will appear indicating that the flash drive label is invalid.

At the end of this article, I would like to add that in addition to the above methods, they also resort to using various programs that also do a good job of changing the file system of a removable drive. However, if there are options for changing the file system that do not require installation software, then it is best to use these simple options, thereby not loading your computer with the installation of unnecessary software.

For today, that’s all I wanted to tell you about today in terms of transferring data via removable devices. Have you ever seen errors of this kind when copying a large file and wondered how to write a file larger than 4 GB to a flash drive? I hope today's article was useful to you. See you all in the next article, dear readers!

P.S Finally, I suggest watching a video clip of a meteorite falling on Chelyabinsk!

I wanted to watch a movie with my girlfriend, but when recording, the flash drive gave the error “The file is too large for the target file system.”

HOW? My flash drive has 16 GB!

To be honest, I immediately understood what was going on. I thought my readers would also be interested in learning how to transfer a large file to a flash drive.

Don't be afraid of yours external device works fine and not broken. It's just that by default it is formatted in the FAT32 file system, which has restrictions on copying large files.

The FAT32 file system prohibits placing files larger than 4 GB on the media, even if there is enough space on it.

What should you do if you really need to record a file larger than 4 GB?

Format the flash drive in a different file system that supports a larger capacity. This is what NTFS is.

How to format a flash drive to NTFS?

Attention, before you start formatting, make sure that there are no important documents on the flash drive.

Otherwise, copy them so as not to lose them, since formatting deletes all information from the device.

Insert the flash drive into the computer and wait until it detects it. Usually the signal is its opening or a pop-up notification that it is ready for use.

After that, go to the “Computer” section, where the connected drives are displayed.

Point to the desired USB drive and right-click to select “Format”.

Select the file system – NTFS. We leave the distribution unit size at default. Click start. We agree with the warning and wait until the process is completed.

After formatting is completed, we receive a clean flash drive ready for copying large files, more than 4 GB.

Formatting a flash drive in NTFS. 2 Method.

This method is good because formatting this way will not delete data from the flash drive. But I still don’t recommend taking risks if it contains important documents.

We connect the USB storage to the computer and wait until it detects it. Then using Windows search or the “Win ​​+ R” combination, open the “Run” program.

Enter the combination “cmd” and confirm by pressing the “OK” button.

In the window that opens, insert the following line:

convert f: /fs:ntfs /nosecurity /x

Where f is the letter that the computer has assigned to your storage device. In the picture above, in the “Computer” section I have this f.

And press the “Enter” key.

We wait for some time, after which we receive a report about the successful completion of the procedure.

Confirming the words above, nothing was deleted from me. But I remind you once again that it is better to play it safe and copy important data.

If you have any questions or were unable to complete the steps described in the article, write in the comments. We will try to figure out your problem together.

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With the development of technology, PC users are able to transfer more and more information between PCs using different media.

One of these media is flash memory(Further flash drive), which is connected via a USB port.

I think most PC users already know what a flash drive looks like and use them. For those interested, there are Wikipedia articles: Flash memory And USB flash drive.

With the growth in the volume of flash drives (today the largest is Kingston DataTraveler 300 on 256GB) users are increasingly asking the question:

“I can’t write a large file to a flash drive. What to do?".

This question arises when working with flash drives larger than 4GB and writing files larger than 4GB onto them. In this case, the OS displays a message that there is no recording space on the flash drive.

Our support team recently received a similar question:

Hello, I have the following question:
There is a flash drive with a capacity of 8 GB, empty, formatted. When I try to upload files (for example, a game image with a capacity of 4.7 GB) mdf extension or something else shows that there is not enough disk space, I tried to upload a large archive, somewhere up to 5 GB it shows that there is not enough disk space. I upload small files, everything is fine up to 7 GB.
What could be the problem? Thank you.

Therefore, I decided to write this note in which I will explain why this happens and how to solve such a problem.

The thing is that during production, flash drives are formatted in the system FAT32. And this system does not support files of size more than 4GB.

To record larger files, the flash drive must use a system NTFS– this system can work with files of size almost up to 16TB.

I found three ways to make a system on a flash drive NTFS. Now I will tell you in detail about each of the methods.

First, connect the flash drive to the PC; if necessary, wait until the OS recognizes and installs it in the system.

Method number 1. Formatting a flash drive.

To do this you need to open "My computer", select the flash drive, call the context menu by right-clicking, and select “ Format…».

A window for settings and formatting the flash drive will appear.

IN Windows 7 on the menu " File system:» you can select the value NTFS, and in WindowsXP this is the meaning may not be available, as shown in the picture below.

To make this value available in WindowsXP, you need to do the following:

In the window that opens " Properties of the system» open the tab « Equipment" and click the " ».

In the "" window, expand the " Disk devices", double-click to open the properties window of the connected flash drive.

Open the tab " Policy", set the switch " Optimize for execution", click the "OK" button.

Close all windows.

Now again call up the window for settings and formatting the flash drive.

On the menu " File system:» you can select the value NTFS, as shown in the picture below. The same menu is initially available in Windows 7.

After this, you can configure other formatting options, for example, set the volume label and select quick format.

Now you can format the flash drive in the format NTFS.

After formatting the flash drive in WindowsXP set on the "" tab Policy» switch « Optimize for quick removal ».

Method number 2. Converting a flash drive.

To do this, you need to use a file system conversion program " convert.exe» ( File System Conversion Utility, you can read the description , is in the folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\).

Click the button Start", select " Execute...", type the command " cmd", and click the " OK».

A command handler window should appear.

In it you need to type the following command:

« convert: /fs:ntfs/nosecurity /x».

In my example you need to enter " convertr: /fs:ntfs/nosecurity /x».

Press "Enter", after conversion is completed, enter the command " exit" and press "Enter", or simply close the window.

In the picture below I showed an example of using this command.

If the flash drive is already in the format NTFS, then there will be no conversion. And so it happened, because... after the first method, my flash drive was already in the format NTFS. I formatted it again FAT32, and again executed the command “ convert».

As a result, I saw this message and received a flash drive in the format NTFS.

• Although the utility convert.exe allows you to convert the file system of a flash drive without losing data; it is recommended that before performing the conversion, copy all the data on the flash drive to HDD computer;
• The flash drive should have free place to convert the file system. Otherwise you will receive an error message. In this case, free up the required space on the flash drive by deleting unnecessary files, or copy some of the files to your PC hard drive;
• If the flash drive is labeled " Volume Label", then when you try to convert, the message " Enter the volume label for the disk:" In this case, enter the label of your flash drive, otherwise you will not be able to convert the flash drive - the message “ Invalid drive label specified" Or, before you start converting, remove the checkmark in the " Properties" on the tab " Are common».

Method No. 3. Usage free program HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.

Download the program from the Internet (you can download it, for example, from here: version 2.2.3.0).

Run the file HPUSBDisk.exe. A window should appear as shown in the picture below.

Program for English language, however, it is easy to understand:

• If multiple USB devices are connected, the drop-down list " Device» select the one you need (the flash drive you want to format);
• On the menu " File system» select NTFS(or, if necessary, FAT/FAT32);
• You can specify a label in the text field " Volume label" (not necessary);
• For quick formatting, check the " Quick Format»;
• Click the button Start»;
• A dialog box will appear warning (in English) that all data on the flash drive will be destroyed. Click the button Yes»;
• Wait for the formatting process to complete and in the dialog box that appears with the formatting results, click the " OK».

Be careful when choosing a device to format so that you don't accidentally format the wrong removable drive.

Before changing the system, be sure to copy all the data on the flash drive to your computer’s hard drive.

After converting the file system of the flash drive to NTFS it will be possible to record files of size more 4GB.

The article uses materials from the sites ru.wikipedia.org, support.microsoft.com, netler.ru.

Additional video on choosing a file system:

Yesterday a friend bought new flash drive to 16 gigabytes and tried to copy a file of just over 4 GB in size to it, to his surprise operating system notified that the file is too large for the destination file system.

He tried to format it and copy the same file again, but without success. The fact is that by default flash drives have the FAT32 file system, which allows you to transfer files only up to 4 GB. For example, a friend has a 16 GB flash drive, he could put 4 files of 3 GB each with “kopecks” or a bunch of “small” files onto this flash drive. The problem can be solved in three clicks. You just need to change the file system on the flash drive from FAT32 to NTFS. To do this, open MY COMPUTER, right-click on the flash drive, select in the context menu Format...

In the window that appears, select the NTFS file system and click the START button.

The system will notify you that formatting will destroy all data on the flash drive . You need to click the [OK] button. Upon completion of formatting, you will receive a flash drive with the NTFS file system. After these simple manipulations, you will be able to copy files larger than 4 GB to a flash drive.

If you already have some files on the flash drive and you don’t want to format them, then you can do it a little differently, change the file system to NTFS using the command line. To do this, call the Run command using the R key combination.

Hello.

It would seem like a simple task: transfer one (or several) files from one computer to another, having first written them to a flash drive. As a rule, problems do not arise with small (up to 4000 MB) files, but what to do with other (large) files that sometimes do not even fit on a flash drive (and even if they should fit, then for some reason an error appears when copying)?

In this short article I will give some tips that will help you write files larger than 4 GB to a flash drive. So…

Why does an error appear when copying a file larger than 4 GB to a flash drive?

Perhaps this is the first question with which to start the article. The fact is that many flash drives, by default, come with a file system FAT32. And after purchasing a flash drive, most users do not change this file system ( those. remains FAT32). But the file system FAT32 does not support files larger than 4 GB- so you start writing the file to the flash drive, and when it reaches the 4 GB threshold, a write error appears.

To eliminate such an error (or work around it), you can do several things:

1. write not one large file, but many small ones (i.e., split the file into “pieces”. By the way, this the method will work, if you need to transfer a file that is larger than the size of your flash drive!);
2. format the flash drive to another file system (for example, NTFS. Attention! Formatting deletes all data from the media );
3. Convert FAT32 to NTFS file system without losing data.

I will consider each method in more detail.

1) How to split one large file into several small ones and write them to a flash drive

This method is good for its versatility and simplicity: you don’t need to do backup copy files from a flash drive (for example, to format it), you don’t need to convert anything or anywhere (don’t waste time on these operations). In addition, this method is perfect if your flash drive is smaller than the file that needs to be transferred (you just have to transfer the pieces of the file 2 times, or use a second flash drive).

One of most popular programs, which often replaces the conductor. Allows you to do all the most necessary operations over files: renaming (including mass), compression into archives, unpacking, splitting files, working with FTP, etc. In general, it is one of those programs that is recommended to have on your PC.

To split a file into Total Commander: select with mouse required file, and then go to the menu: " File/split file "(screenshot below).

Split file

Next, you need to enter the size of the parts in MB into which the file will be divided. The most popular sizes (for example, for recording on a CD) are already present in the program. In general, enter the desired size: for example, 3900 MB.

And then the program will split the file into parts, and all you have to do is write them all (or several of them) onto a flash drive and transfer them to another PC (laptop). In principle, this task is completed.

By the way, the screenshot above shows the source file, and in the red frame are the files that resulted when the source file was split into several parts.

To open the original file on another computer(where you will transfer these files), you need to do the reverse procedure: i.e. collect file. First, move all the pieces of the broken source file, and then open Total Commander, select the first file ( with type 001, see screenshot above) and go to the menu “ File/collect file ". Actually, all that remains is to indicate the folder where the file will be collected and wait a while...

2) How to format a flash drive to the NTFS file system

The formatting operation will help if you are trying to write a file larger than 4 GB to a flash drive whose file system is FAT32 (i.e. does not support such large files). Let's look at the operation step by step.

Attention! When formatting a flash drive, all files on it will be deleted. Before this operation, make a backup copy of all the important data you have on it.

1) First you need to go to “My Computer” (or “This PC”, depending on the version of Windows).

3) Right-click on the flash drive and select the function “ Format"(see screenshot below).

After a few seconds (usually), the operation will be completed and you can continue working with the flash drive (including writing larger files to it than before).

3) How to convert FAT32 file system to NTFS

In general, despite the fact that the conversion operation from FAT32 to NTFS should take place without data loss, I recommend saving all important documents to a separate medium ( from personal experience: having done this operation dozens of times, one of them ended with some of the folders with Russian names losing their names, becoming hieroglyphs. Those. An encoding error occurred).

Also, this operation will take some time, so, in my opinion, formatting is a more preferable option for a flash drive ( with preliminary copying of important data. More on this in the article).

So, to convert, you need:

1) Go to " My computer" (or " this computer") and find out the drive letter of the flash drive (screenshot below).

2) Next run command line as administrator . In Windows 7, this is done through the “START/programs” menu; in Windows 8, 10, you can simply right-click on the “START” menu and select this command in the context menu (screenshot below).

All you have to do is wait until the operation is completed: the operation time will depend on the size of the disk. By the way, it is highly recommended not to run extraneous tasks during this operation.

That's all for me, good luck!