How can I transfer a large file to a FAT32 drive without reformatting it?
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Wanderlust12
I'm trying to transfer a large file (12 GB) to an external hard drive that uses the FAT32 file system, which has a 4 GB file size limit. The drive has plenty of free space (215 GB), but I don't have the ability to back up its contents or reformat it since it's the only external drive I have. Are there any methods or tools available that would allow me to successfully move this file onto the drive?
Answers
If you're comfortable with command line, you can convert the FAT32 drive to NTFS without losing your data. Open a command prompt and use the command `convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs`. This way, you can move your large file without splitting it.
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You could also zip the file into smaller parts, keeping each part under 4 GB. Then you can just transfer those chunks to your drive. Once they're all transferred, you can extract them later.
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One option is to use an archiving tool like 7zip to split your large file into smaller chunks, say 4 GB each, which can then be transferred to your FAT32 drive without hitting the file size limit. Another alternative is to consider formatting the drive to exFAT, but since you mentioned you can't reformat, chunking the file might be your best bet!
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