How to download a file larger than 4 GB. How to write a large file to a flash drive or disk

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 talking about flash media, today we will learn another useful point, relating directly 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 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 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 the following 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 all the free space disk space flash drive, or the flash drive is damaged or burned out.
I will tell you that in such a situation, when the files large volumes(more than 4-5 GB) are not written to the flash drive, this does not mean that it is damaged or there is some kind of virus on it, malware. And the reason for this is the fact that the flash drive has a FAT32 file system.
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 able to support 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 the NTFS file 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 complete a number of necessary actions 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 click right click mouse on a removable device.

From the context menu that appears, 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 launch the 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 set special team, which will perform transformations of 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 correct letter your removable device. 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, which 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 data transfer 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!

So, you don’t have the Internet at home, you don’t have movies, you carry games home on USB flash ke. For this purpose, go to the store and buy a larger flash drive of 16, or even 32 Gig.

Solving the problem of writing files larger than 4 gigabytes to a USB flash drive

You download your favorite file in a place where you have access to the Internet, and woe is it, you can’t write it to a flash drive; after repeated attempts, we get one answer: the file is too large for the final file system, this is exactly the answer the user gets from a huge USB flash drives when trying to record a movie that weighs more than 4 gigabytes. And this is when, in our advanced times, in the presence of an excellent quality HDTV or HD video format, we, having purchased a large-capacity flash drive on purpose, receive such an answer, we are, to put it mildly, shocked.

The first thought was that they sold us a marriage. Which, in principle, is quite possible when purchasing flash drives from the Internet from sites of dubious origin. But we will consider a situation where the flash drive is fully operational and meets the expected characteristics. Then we start googling hysterically: what’s the problem, what happened? And Google advises, dear users world wide web you can use special ones software cut your film into parts smaller than 4 gigabytes, and what if it is an archive? The answer is the same, the Win RAR program can divide archives into parts in almost arbitrary form. Then we ask, maybe we have a disk image with the game? And again we get the answer: dear users, the image can also be divided into such parts as you want.

But the user is not satisfied with such a complex process of working with large files, and after rustling around the forums, he understands: the dog is buried in the size of the flash drive clusters and if we change them, then happiness will come to us. And again we get into the weeds: they will tell us that there are a bunch of utilities for resizing a USB flash drive cluster, but the truth is that not all are suitable, not all of them do what is needed. And as always, everything turns out to be much simpler, and the result was, in fact, right under our noses.

As a result, we find out that we need to format the USB in NTFS format. So what if you have Win 7 and higher, then go to the flash drive menu, click the format tab and select the NTFS format. And fortunately, we have the ability to record a file of any size, which does not exceed the capacity of the flash drive. If you are still using XP, then everything is a little more complicated, but nevertheless solvable: go to the properties of my computer, device manager, disk devices, USB device, right properties and click the policy tab, in it we mark the section to optimize performance. And now we get the opportunity to format flash drives from XP. for NTFS format.

I would like to note that the default FAT 32 recording format provided for quick removal of the flash drive, which means there is less chance of it being damaged when incorrect shutdown it from the computer. While formatted as NTFS flash drive it is recommended to remove using software methods, since there is a risk of losing not only data, but also the drive itself.

Therefore, I would like to warn you that you perform all actions with your flash drive at your own peril and risk.

Problem copying large files to regular flash drives and removable memory cards occupy the minds of many ordinary users. And very often they blame removable drives, although the problem here is completely different. Next, it is proposed to figure out how to transfer to a flash drive big file and as far as possible. But first, let's look at the problem itself and find out what causes such situations.

Why can't I transfer a large file to a flash drive?

Apparently, there is little point in talking about which files in most cases are so large that it is simply impossible to transfer them to a regular flash drive. As a rule, most often the copying problem arises with files of modern video formats, which, depending on the quality of the material, can be quite impressive in size. Just remember the volumes of data that are stored on the same Blu-ray discs. And regular movies too DVD format at high quality and the duration of space can take up no less. The same can be said about some installation distributions, which may contain specialized databases in the form of a single or several files big size. Very often this applies to libraries of virtual synthesizers, which are widely used today in music computer sequencers and studios.

For example, the instrument file of the popular Omnisphere 2 synthesizer takes up more than 50 GB. And transferring such an object to removable media can be not only time-consuming, but also impossible (and not at all due to the limited capacity of the flash drive itself). The main problem is that all flash drives use the FAT32 file system by default, which has its own limitations due to the fact that it cannot work with file sizes larger than 4 GB. The actual size of the file is, of course, determined, but it is impossible to move or copy such objects in it.

Using NTFS formatting

How to transfer a large file to a flash drive if it has the above structure? Apparently, many have already realized that it needs to be transformed. To perform such actions, the easiest way is to use the most normal formatting drive with selection as the final file NTFS systems.

In this case, it is absolutely not necessary to use full formatting, or you can limit yourself to quick or so-called cleaning of the table of contents. On any Windows system, you can access this tool directly through context menu RMB on the selected media.

Note: similar standard process formatting can be done from command line or using its tools, copy the file to external device. Due to the fact that such procedures look somewhat more complicated for ordinary users, they will not be considered. The end effect is still the same.

Additional formatting utilities

Speaking about how to transfer a large file to a flash drive, it is worth mentioning some third party programs allowing quickly and without special problems format any type and any media.

In most of these programs, both the interface and capabilities are very similar to Windows tools. Here are some of them (in particular, HDD Low Level Format Tool) is advisable to use when problems are observed with flash drives or memory cards due to format changes, failure of controllers or other non-physical damage.

How to write a large file to a flash drive without formatting?

But let's assume the user has removable storage with information recorded on it, to which you need to transfer a file with a size of more than 4 GB. How to copy a large file to a flash drive in such a situation, because you don’t want to format it and destroy already recorded files? In this case, you can use the FAT32 to NTFS conversion tool, which only involves converting one file system to another without the need to format the drive. To the chagrin of many inexperienced users, this only works in command console(cmd).

The conversion itself is performed by executing the command convert N: /fs:ntfs /nosecurity /x, where N is the letter of the removable drive displayed in Explorer.

Note: If the removable disk has a volume label, you will have to enter that label to complete the operation. But the easiest way is to first remove it through the properties section in Explorer, and only then start the conversion.

Splitting the original object into parts

Finally, let's see how to transfer a large file to a FAT32 flash drive without any formatting or converting the file system to another standard. Since you can’t go higher than 4 GB, the file needs to be split into parts that are smaller than this size, and then copied to the media. But what should you use to perform such actions? The best fit regular programs for working with archives (WinZIP, 7-Zip, WinRAR, etc.)

In any such application, you simply need to add the file you are looking for and specify the sizes of the parts that will be created during compression. To make your work easier, from special list With preset parameters, you can select exactly the size that corresponds to the maximum in the FAT32 structure. It goes without saying that if you copy a movie in this way, without extracting the contents of the archive, play it on any household devices, nor in software players will be possible.

Note: just break original file on parts without compression it is also possible in file manager Total Commander.

Brief summary

Here is a brief summary of all the main solutions related to the problem of how to transfer a large file to a flash drive. To summarize in terms of choice the best way copying, I think the best option would be either formatting or converting file structure to NTFS. The use of archiver programs is advisable only if the compression concerns not multimedia formats that need to be played from a removable device, but regular files and folders that need to be transferred, for example, to another computer.

Files larger than 4 GB cannot be written to a flash drive - what is the reason and how to solve the problem?

Let's say you went to a friend's house to pick up latest video from a holiday, a game image or a movie in HD quality. Your friend suggests connecting your flash drive or phone with microSD card. No problem, you say, I have more than 20 gigabytes free, upload it. However, when you try to copy a file, the system issues a low-space warning and cancels the operation.

You frantically recheck the device and once again make sure that there is three times more space than you need. And a friend calmly asks - what file system do you have? “Uh,” you say, after which your interlocutor looks at the properties of the disk, leans back in his chair and says in a mentoring tone...

Historical educational program

Almost all flash drives and memory cards (up to 32 Gb inclusive) today are sold formatted in the FAT-32 file system. This is easier for the manufacturer, since this FS is supported by absolutely all computers and mobile devices (even very ancient ones). FAT-32 is very fast system, and its reliability is quite enough for not very important operations. However, it has an unpleasant limitation.

The fact is that this file system was introduced more than 20 years ago, in 1996, along with updated Windows 95 OSR2. In those days the most capacious hard disks had a volume of no more than 2 gigabytes, and the size user files rarely exceeded several hundred megabytes. Therefore, the developers allocated only 4 kilobytes (32 bits) to store information about the file size. This allows you to encode in binary system the number is not more than 4,294,967,295 (32 units in a row).

As a result this decision and became the reason why, after 20 years, files larger than 4 gigabytes are not written to a flash drive, and you cannot express your feelings within the censored framework of the rules of the Russian language. By the way, it is mathematically more correct to say 4 gibibytes, since 4 gigabytes is only 4,000,000,000. And when you buy a flash drive with 32 “gigabytes”, you will see less than 30 in Windows, since it counts everything in gibibytes (although it hides it) .

How to record files larger than 4 GB?

You finally ask your friend this question, interrupting his monologue. You came to him for files, and not for a boring lecture. The solution to the problem is very simple - reformat it to another file system that supports large files. Today there are a great many of them - NTFS, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS Plus and so on. In addition, they are also much more reliable than FAT-32. However, there are two important nuances here.

First, which specific file system should I choose? Logic dictates that it is best to use NTFS, the same as on a Windows computer. But you should remember that not all devices support it. If you try to put a flash drive into a home player or into a TV with a USB port, then there is a high probability that nothing will work - the files will not be visible.

The same applies to memory cards - some operating systems for smartphones, for example, old ones Android versions, do not support NTFS or prohibit writing to it. The best option can become exFAT - it is supported by both Windows (unlike ext2, ext3 and ext4) and most mobile devices. Moreover, this file system is installed by manufacturers on all memory cards larger than 32 GB.

Secondly, reformatting destroys all data on the media. If you don’t have anything valuable there, then let’s proceed with the operation:

If you do not want to lose the information on the drive, then you should use a different algorithm:

• carry out the first two points indicated above;
• go to the Start menu and enter “cmd”;
• in the console that opens, type convert E: /fs:ntfs (substitute your letter and FS);

We are waiting for the procedure to complete (it may take long time, depending on volume).