Why do I have a 7.45Gb file (.mkv) and when I try to send it to a brand new unused 16Gb USB drive, it says it is too big?

Your usb drive is most likely formatted using fat32 out of factory so max file size supported is 4gb. Reformat it using exfat or ntfs and then you can copy your file into it.

Yes, SpaceCoyote has it. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit. Format it with exFAT, it is faster for reading with less over head than NTFS due to the way it stores files more contiguously.

Be aware that formatting a drive will erase everything on it.

Right-Click the drive > Format > exFAT.

www.wikihow.com/Format-a-Flash-Drive

Google is your friend. but exfat is your best option. simples

7.45Gb file ?
Thats a lot of porn........... even for you.

Apparently Exfat is missing some journalling benefits that ntfs and the HFS systems have, so you might get mixed up data occasionally, but most of the time a scandisk will rebuild it

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lotofwind said..
Google is your friend. but exfat is your best option. simples

7.45Gb file ?
Thats a lot of porn........... even for you.

I did google it first.

Thanks to the others for helpful replies.

More than welcome, cheers.

Use NTFS.

Looks like I might need to reformat AGAIN.

Cos I did ExFAT and yeah now I can put the file on the USB but the farken format is now not recognised by the telly and DVD player.
FFS why can't we have one standard not 20?
Why make a 16Gb thumb drive that can't handle files bigger than 4Gb?

Computer / AV people **** me off, they really do.

EDIT - NTFS works - yay.

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Mark _australia said..
Looks like I might need to reformat AGAIN.

Cos I did ExFAT and yeah now I can put the file on the USB but the farken format is now not recognised by the telly and DVD player.
FFS why can't we have one standard not 20?
Why make a 16Gb thumb drive that can't handle files bigger than 4Gb?

Computer / AV people **** me off, they really do.

EDIT - NTFS works - yay.

Well, not that you care. The FAT filesystem started when memory was expensive and no one could think of needing a file that large. So they designed it with a limit that seemed fine at the time. They then extended it with FAT32, which seemed huge at the time too.

Then a few years later people are storing files that used to seem unbelievable, so NTFS was born.

FAT32 does what most people want for most things, and is supported by most devices. NTFS is not always supported by some dumber devices.

Your 16G drive can handle 16 gig, just with a limitation that each individual file is less than 4Gig. Its not such a big limitation most of the time.

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Mark _australia said..
FFS why can't we have one standard not 20?

I think the saying goes something like "that's the beauty of standards, there's so many to choose from!"

I get that 'nova

So why not start making all the thumb drives in NTFS?

And things becoming redundant overnight was not exactly a new concept when they were making 2Gb thumb drives in 2004 so I still think it is dumb and no forethought. Then again that is computer stuff for you. Kinda like "we thinks cars may become more fuel efficient so we will make them all with a 200L tank - but you can still only put in 60L on any given day"
Nonsensical.
Anyway I can now watch the superbowl. Yay for me

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Mark _australia said..
I get that 'nova

So why not start making all the thumb drives in NTFS?

And things becoming redundant overnight was not exactly a new concept when they were making 2Gb thumb drives in 2004 so I still think it is dumb and no forethought. Then again that is computer stuff for you. Kinda like "we thinks cars may become more fuel efficient so we will make them all with a 200L tank - but you can still only put in 60L on any given day"
Nonsensical.
Anyway I can now watch the superbowl. Yay for me

I think FAT(32) is compatible with more devices. I think it is simpler for manufacturers to implement that standard. I think NTFS might have even been under patent protection at some stage whereas FAT was not.

FAT was designed at a time when every byte counted, and if you wasted some on un-needed stuff, people would not accept it. Computer memory has increased at such a rate, that you wouldn't anticipate it back when these things were thought up.

The technical reason (without looking it up) for the 4Gbyte file size limit is that its 2 to the power of 32, which is what is used to store the filesize.

Your analogy is not close enough. Its almost like designing a car that can take 5 adults, but cannot take one adult that is the size of 5 people. Why would anyone want to have a car for a person the size of 5 people? Well, that's what everyone thought about a filesystem that could store files greater than 4GB.

Or if you want, a car that can take 200L in fuel, but you need to fill one fuel tank at a time separately.

Hey, you've learnt something, and next time, you will just use NTFS.

^^ Yeah that makes sense

What doesn't is my telly accepting FAT, not ExFAT, but does take NTFS.

Like if I have VHS, don't believe in CD or DVD, and yet love Blue--ray.

I give up :)

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Mark _australia said..
^^ Yeah that makes sense

What doesn't is my telly accepting FAT, not ExFAT, but does take NTFS.

Like if I have VHS, don't believe in CD or DVD, and yet love Blue--ray.

I give up :)

I am not surprised by your TV not understanding exFAT. I didn't know what it was until I googled it just now.

Microsoft created it to get around the 32bit/4Gig filesize limit, but maybe because its covered by patents, support for it is not everywhere. The wiki says it was created in 2006. NTFS was around well before that, but requires more processing power. By the look of it, if you already support NTFS on a device you wouldn't bother going back and adding support for exFAT as it adds very little to your device's capabilities.

Just remember how 'fun' this stuff is when some computer guy asks you to pay for the work they do. Sometimes its non-trivial even though it seems like 'just simple computer stuff'.