Multimedia forum: How to copy big avi files to external hard drive?

Thanks for the info.
First I used right click on MY COMPUTER - Manage - Disk Management - Delete Partition, and it caused an error (blue screen - dump of physical memory). After restarting, my computer didn't show the external HD drive, but it was there (without drive letter) when I open SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE. I had to reformat to FAT32 (got the file from the manufacture website, Western Digital), then finally I was able to convert it using:
convert driveletter: /fs:ntfs /nosecurity
I got from: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheDuhFilesTheFileIsTooLargeForTheDestinationFileSystem.aspx
I guess the /nosecurity command makes a difference.
I also found out Maxtor & Seagate FreeAgent brands are NTFS, but Western Digital is FAT32.

Kdubbiu11,
you have to change your external HD system to NTSF.
Please go to: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheDuhFilesTheFileIsTooLargeForTheDestinationFileSystem.aspx

Follow the instruction:
Run an Administrator Console (click the Start Menu, type cmd, then right click on the command prompt and click "Run As Administrator") then run:
C:\Users\Scott>convert h: /fs:ntfs /nosecurity
Replace:
Scott -> name on your computer
h: -> the drive letter where your external HD is

After you type that command, just wait. You might not see any progress on the screen, but it's working.
Then you'll see the rest of the information.
It will take a while until you see: Conversion complete.

I don't know about video compressor, but if this works, it shouldn't be a problem anymore for you.
Good luck!

Dictated by the FAT32 choice. FAT32 limits file sizes to 4GB so all files must be that or smaller.
Bob

I agree with the above poster that having 2 partitions on the drive (one NTFS for the really BIG files, one FAT for all other) might be a good solution.

If you use that disk only to MOVE the file to another destination and not to PLAY the file from it, you can consider using a file splitter (many freeware ones available, many that don't buffer should work, if their internal byte counter is big enough) to split the file in 3 or 4 smaller ones that fit on your FAT32 partition and glue them together at the receiving side.

Kees

Hi, could you hook me up with xilisoft converter?

tx
alexbenko@hotmail.com

tx
tx

it's very easy to change FAT32 to NTFS. Windows can do this for you, BUT REMEMBER, it WILL destroy all files on that harddrive. So be careful you don't pick the wrong one for reformating...and be sure to backup the files first. Good luck.

To format a harddrive: right-click on the harddrive then select format, then ntfs file system.