External USB Drive - FAT32 - Limited File Size ?

MSurge · **12th March 2006, 08:33 AM**

First post, but thanks to all who I have picked up pointers and guidance from over the past few months.

First up - I am not IT orientated and don't know (or want to really) the inner technical details of IT issues. I have built a relatively bomb-proof HTPC with very high WAF and only a couple of small issues (like hacking the registry to get four tuners as two is just not enough) and all will be done.

I have a wireless network (54Mbps) that shares broadband and allows transfer between HTPC and Office machines which is all working fine but as its a little slow for the big dvrs files I thought I'd just take my external HDD (200GB FAT32 USB2 ?) to the HTPC and copy the files over the USB and then plug it back in to my Office machine to work on with Nero7. The wireless is just slow and I'm impatient.

I tried a couple of smaller files (20 minutes of TV) as a trial of the conversion process so I know that it works in some way, but what I have found is that I can't copy DVRS files larger than about 4GB on to my external HDD. I've also tried this over the next work to the external HDD with no success but if I copy to the Office HDD (only 80GB) then it seems happy.

I assume its a limitation of the FAT32 drive format (some where I think I remember some limitation like this) but is there a work-around. The drive worked out of the box and is what I use to back up files (photos, mp3's etc) so I have never tried to reformat.

Is this FAT32 the reason for this limitation ? and is it possible to reformat to a different format that will still work with the external USB2 case? I was thinking of perhaps getting a 2.5" laptop drive with an external case as it has no external power supply required but I'm not sure if this would work either.

I'm sure this is very basic so I would appreciate some constructive suggestions. Any other suggestions on transfer options would also be appreciated.

MSurge

aswigon · **12th March 2006, 10:05 AM**

FAT32 has a file size limit of 2 Gigabytes. If you need to use files larger than this then look at formatting the partition as NTFS.

aeon · **12th March 2006, 12:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by aswigon

FAT32 has a file size limit of 2

That's FAT16, FAT32 is capable of 4GB, better but still pretty useless for DTV recrodings.

You should just be able to reformat the drive to NFTS...well at least I've had no problem doing this with a 2.5" external drive I have.

aswigon · **12th March 2006, 02:50 PM**

Ooops my mistake. Sorry. Must be showing my age.

TiggerK · **12th March 2006, 03:00 PM**

So how do you get a FAT32 partition of 200GB???

Not possible I thought.

Cheers
TiggerK

MSurge · **12th March 2006, 05:47 PM**

Its a Maxtor 3100 200GB External USB2 HDD. That's how its came so it must be.

It's currently in the process of being reformatted to NTFS so hopefully that will solve my problems.

Thanks for the comments guys.

MSurge

TiggerK · **12th March 2006, 05:52 PM**

ah just looked into it,

FAT32 does support up to 2TB partition sizes, but you can't do it through Windows.... You can only do up to 32GB if creating FAT32 partitions in Windows XP or 2003.

But either way, changing to NTFS will fix it up, it's the best one to use anyway, but won't be able to be read by Windows 98 or Win ME computers.

Cheers
TiggerK

MSurge · **12th March 2006, 10:04 PM**

Done, formatted and seems to have fixed the problem.

Now I'm thinking a external drive with a firewire connection would be a step in teh right direction as over USB2 these big files take some time.

Will have to see how the 'funds' go as what I have works well enough.

pantonious · **12th March 2006, 10:10 PM**

USB is faster then Firewire...

USB is 480mbs
Firewire us 400mbs

UNLESS you can get Firewire "B"...which is generally more expensive, and the only motherboards i know if with it are Gigabyte, you should be able to get a PCI card wiht it...

Firelwire B is 800mbs...

MSurge · **12th March 2006, 10:35 PM**

Well there you go. Just showing my IT ignorance.

From what I think I understand USB2 rates are often 'burst' and not sustained, so for the figures you quoted would this be the case of firewire also or would they differ over a 4GB file for example?

Mysteron · **12th March 2006, 11:37 PM**

Whilst firewire is specified as 400mbs and USB2 480mbs in practice firewire is in fact considerably faster. I have had 2 external USB drives one of which had USB2 and firewire conections. The firewire connection was ALWAYS faster transferring files. Specs aren't always what they seem. It's well worth getting a firewire drive as the speed difference is noticable. Firewire 2 (800mbs) is only better if the PC also has a FW2 controller.