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I can't copy 6GB master image backup files of my PC/computer to a USB external hard disk drive or to a USB flash drive

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External hard disk drive problem: Unable to copy large 6GB master image backup files to USB external hard disk drive or flash drive

I regularly create master disk images of my PC's C: drive with Acronis True Image Home 2010. I purchased a 1TB USB external hard disk drive as storage for my photos and 6GB copies of my drive images. I can copy photos and other files to the USB external drive, but when I try to copy a drive image an error message comes up saying that there's no room on the drive or that the drive is full, which is nonsense because there is plenty of free space on it. When I try to copy a 6GB image file to an 8GB USB memory stick/flash drive the same message comes up.

Answer

It is common for external USB storage devices to be formatted with the FAT32 file system, which has a 4GB file-size limit. All of the file systems that Microsoft supports, including information on maximum file sizes, are discussed in TechNet article 938937.

The solution is to convert the device so that it uses the NTFS file system, which can handle huge file sizes up to 2TB (2048GB). The Windows utility convert.exe can usually convert FAT32 drives to NTFS without the user having to remove any data. However, it is advisable to make a full restorable backup of the drive before you take any major action of this kind. Microsoft Knowledge Base article 307881 deals with how to use convert.exe in Windows XP. A Microsoft article called Convert a hard disk or partition to NTFS format deals with the same process for Windows Vista, the information of which also applies to Windows 7.