Gaming Okay... really weird problem with new external HD

[War]

A couple hours ago, I began moving everything from my 250Gb external to my 1Tb external, which brand-new. It's taken forever, because the transfer speed is horribly... but anyway, it got to a certain point where it gave me an error because it apparently ran out of space. HUH? How can a 1Tb HD run out of space from transfering less than 250Gb into it? I checked, and sure enough, it says that there is 826Gb left... but no matter what file I try to add to it, it keeps saying there isn't enough space left. What in the world is going on?

 

[p1ngpong]

Check if its formatted in FAT32, if so you will get that error when you try and move over a single file that is four gig or more in size. You will have to reformat it to NTFS if you want to put any file that is biger then four gig onto it. I had to format my 1TB drive from FAT32 to NTFS for that same reason too.

 

[War]

Ah, dammit... I've been moving shit over for like 3 hours, and now I gotta format... Well, thanks for replying so quickly, p1ngy. I will try it out and let you know how it goes.

Edit: Wait a sec... I just went to "Format", and the only available option is NTFS. Meaning... it's already set-up as NTFS, so that can't be the cause of the problem...

 

[Law]

Ah, dammit... I've been moving shit over for like 3 hours, and now I gotta format... Well, thanks for replying so quickly, p1ngy. I will try it out and let you know how it goes.

Edit: Wait a sec... I just went to "Format", and the only available option is NTFS. Meaning... it's already set-up as NTFS, so that can't be the cause of the problem...

My External came default as FAT32, but the windows formatting GUI thing will only let me pick NTFS for a hard drive. Check to see if it's already set up as NTFS by just clicking on it in My Computer and it'll say on the side under File System if you're on XP, probably under the drive statistics on Vista. I think the only way to format a hard drive in FAT32 now is to either use a third party formatting tool or do it through CMD, any default windows way will only let you use NTFS.

 

[p1ngpong]

Are you sure? Right click on the drive in explorer and select properties. That will tell you if its formatted in FAT or NTFS. Also if you are using Vista I think you dont get an option to format in FAT32 anyway.

 

[Cermage]

WD hard drives ship formatted in FAT32. you dont have to format.

go to command prompt and type
convert x: /fs:ntfs

replace x with the drive letter of your external.

 

[War]

Oh, I see. Yeah, under Details, it says "File System: FAT32". So I just go to format and pick NTFS, then run it?

 

[Christopher8827]

Yep. Good luck while moving the files.

 

[p1ngpong]

Oh, I see. Yeah, under Details, it says "File System: FAT32". So I just go to format and pick NTFS, then run it?

Yeah thats right, be aware that it will take a while though. I think my 1TB took a few hours to format to NTFS.

 

[War]

Damn... alright, I guess I'll have to do this all tomorrow then. Sucks 'cause I already copied like half of the stuff in the old one to the new one... now I have to wait another few hours to transfer it back, format the new one, and then hours to transfer everything in the old one back... Hopefully it will work, though.

 

[Shakraka]

Er, just a quick question (sorry War): if you do format to NTFS, does that mean you can transfer files bigger than 4 GB through the USB connection?

I remember stumbling onto the same problem you had War, and it was because the file I was trying to transfer was bigger than 4 GB, so I ended up just using HJ Split and transferred the split files onto my HDD.

 

[Law]

Er, just a quick question (sorry War): if you do format to NTFS, does that mean you can transfer files bigger than 4 GB through the USB connection?

I remember stumbling onto the same problem you had War, and it was because the file I was trying to transfer was bigger than 4 GB, so I ended up just using HJ Split and transferred the split files onto my HDD.

Yeah the 4GB Filesize limit is because of FAT32.

 

[War]

Yeah, the filesize limit definitely makes sense. The error only happened when I was transferring some Blu ray movies over. I did transfer some anime that was way over 4Gb, but those were separated into individual episodes, so they didn't give me the error.

 

[Cermage]

WD hard drives ship formatted in FAT32. you dont have to format.

go to command prompt and type
convert x: /fs:ntfs

replace x with the drive letter of your external.

should have expanded on this a bit more. it converts your filesystem (in this case fat32 to ntfs) without loss of your files. i've done it a few times already.

 

[Lee79]

WD hard drives ship formatted in FAT32. you dont have to format.

go to command prompt and type
convert x: /fs:ntfs

replace x with the drive letter of your external.

should have expanded on this a bit more. it converts your filesystem (in this case fat32 to ntfs) without loss of your files. i've done it a few times already.


Yeah that is correct and the best you will not have to copy your files back and forwards just the ones you have not got onto it yet.

QUOTE

To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt

1. Open Command Prompt. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.

2. In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format. You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.

Important Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS, you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32. You will need to reformat the drive or partition which will erase all data, including programs and personal files, on the partition.

 

[War]

Damn, wish I would have seen that before... I'm already 1/4th of the way through the formatting.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Damn, wish I would have seen that before... I'm already 1/4th of the way through the formatting.

it was posted here already...

Conversion is easier, and more useful than a reformat.
Reformat is only when its impossible to repair any other way.

 

[chrisman01]

If you convert the file system when there are files already on the HDD, you risk corrupting the files.

at least that's what my computer repair teacher always told us.

I always do a complete re-format anyway just in case.