# external hard drive



## Scott (Jun 20, 2006)

I have a 200 GB external HD. I am trying to move a large home video files (8 GB) from our local hard drive to the external drive. I keep getting an error message, saying there is not a enough room on the external drive. What's the deal? There is plenty of room.

I also tried compressing the file onto the hard drive and received an error message that only NTFS files support files over 4 GB. What does that mean?

Thanks


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## brymaes (Jun 21, 2006)

If the external drive is empty, try reformating it using the NTFS format.


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## fredtgreco (Jun 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by Scott_
> I have a 200 GB external HD. I am trying to move a large home video files (8 GB) from our local hard drive to the external drive. I keep getting an error message, saying there is not a enough room on the external drive. What's the deal? There is plenty of room.
> 
> I also tried compressing the file onto the hard drive and received an error message that only NTFS files support files over 4 GB. What does that mean?
> ...



I think it means that you have a FAT32 (File Allocation Tabel 32) file system, which does not allow file sizs bigger than 4GB. You need to format the External Drive with an NFTS system.

Are you running XP? If so, you need to empty the External Drive first, then reformat the External Drive so it is NFTS, then transfer the files.

Does that make sense? If not, let me know:

1. What OS you are running
2. What is on the External Drive (amount)
3. What its capacity is.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jun 21, 2006)

Scott,

Check the obvious that you're trying to copy to the correct drive letter when you copy the file.


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## Scott (Jun 21, 2006)

> Does that make sense?



Yeah, thanks. I did not even know what FAT32 was. I will try that tonight. 


1. What OS you are running - XP
2. What is on the External Drive (amount) - Nothing (it is new)
3. What its capacity is. - 200 GB

[Edited on 6-21-2006 by Scott]


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## fredtgreco (Jun 21, 2006)

> _Originally posted by Scott_
> 
> 
> > Does that make sense?
> ...



Scott,

This will not be that hard to fix if it is new and clean. When you get home, check out what the file system is by doing a right click an dselecting Properties on the drive.

It could be the file system, or it could be that the drive is not recognized yet by Windows. Have you moved anything else onto it? If not, try and copy a small file (like a Word file) onto it and then open it from the external drive.

I think that you can convert FAT32 to NFTS (the only reason that you would NOT want to do so is if you were running an old Windows system, like 98), you can do it just by:

*NOTE: BE VERY CAREFUL TO SELECT THE RIGHT VOLUME!! Do not try and reformat your main hard drive!!*



> Q: Is it possible to convert a FAT32 Hard Drive to NTFS without losing all data on the drive? I like to change from FAT32 to NTFS, my operating system is Windows XP PRO, how can I do that? Without the lost of my programs?
> 
> A: Standard Windows utility that is called CONVERT serves this purpose
> 
> ...



I got that from an NFTS site:
http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

Microsoft has the same information here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

I hope that helps.


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## Scott (Jun 21, 2006)

Thanks. yes, the computer recognizes the drive and I was able to copy smaller files to the drive.


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## ChristopherPaul (Dec 5, 2006)

I am looking to get an external hard drive.

Any recommendations?


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## ChristopherPaul (Dec 5, 2006)

bump


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## fredtgreco (Dec 5, 2006)

http://www.buy.com/prod/Seagate_Ext...2_0_USB/q/loc/58207/202463165.html?adid=17662

http://slickdeals.pricegrabber.com/...y_F_A_Porsche,__23062687/sort_type=bottomline

http://www.officemax.com/max/soluti...okie=no&affCode=PRF&siteID=k1971&mid=sduidp0t

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0615994


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## polemic_turtle (Dec 5, 2006)

Personally, I bought a shell and stuck a 300 GB IDE hard drive in it. That way, I'll be able to upgrade it someday. Well, at least I could if I wanted to. That's better than the purely external HDs, in my opinion. Make sure you have USB2 or Firewire if you're going external. USB1 is torture in almost anything you can do on an external HD. I had USB2 support disabled for quite while before I went and upgraded my drivers. WOW, what a difference!


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 6, 2006)

I recently bought one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817332008

It allows you to place up to 4 IDE hard drives of different sizes for a total capacity of up to 3 TB. It's a cheap way for me to consolidate three extra IDE drives I already own.


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## fredtgreco (Dec 16, 2006)

Here is a pretty good deal on a quick to set up external drive:
http://tinyurl.com/yk5pgy


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