Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games | PC Safety Suite

Computing.Net > Forums > Windows XP > Can not copy ISO

Computer Problems? Computing.Net has over 1,000,000 posts about all things technology related! Click here to start participating now! Also, check out the New User Guide.

Can not copy ISO

Reply to Message Icon

Name: AlwaysWillingToLearn
Date: December 14, 2007 at 06:39:04 Pacific
OS: Winxp PRO SP2
CPU/Ram: 2
Product: Gigabyte
Comment:

Hi all,

i have a Western Digital 500gig external harddrive. iv been trying to copy a 6.35 gig ISO image to this harddrive (350gig free space) but i get an error saying there is not enough space letf. Any iso i try to copy over gives the same problem, if i extract the content of the image and copy them over then it works, but the actual ISO wont copy.

any ideas why please?


Thanks,



Google Ads

Response Number 1
Name: AlwaysWillingToLearn
Date: December 14, 2007 at 06:39:52 Pacific
+1
Reply:

oh by the way i have tried with both USB2.0 and firewire.

Thanks,



Response Number 2
Name: XpUser
Date: December 14, 2007 at 06:46:26 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Most likely the file system of your WD external HD is FAT32. Under FAT32 the maximum file size you can copy is slightly under 4GB. You can try converting FAT32 to NTFS file system that do not have the file size limit.

i_Xp/VistaUser



Response Number 3
Name: AlwaysWillingToLearn
Date: December 14, 2007 at 06:52:18 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Hi XPUser excellent your correct it is FAT32, does this mean that in order to convert to NTFS i will have to format and loose all my backups?

Thanks,



Response Number 4
Name: XpUser
Date: December 14, 2007 at 06:55:07 Pacific
+1
Reply:

No you will not lose anything but for any USB external HD & jump drives it is best to leave FAT32 intact.

i_Xp/VistaUser



Response Number 5
Name: AlwaysWillingToLearn
Date: December 14, 2007 at 06:59:12 Pacific
+1
Reply:

oh ok, well i will leave it alone then. Can i just ask why it is good to leave it to FAT32 please? just for future reference.



Related Posts

See More



Response Number 6
Name: kx5m2g
Date: December 14, 2007 at 07:48:45 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Since you have a 500gig HD, I would consider partitioning it and formatting one of the partitions as NTFS. I have a WD 500 GB HD and it came that way.



Response Number 7
Name: jam
Date: December 14, 2007 at 09:08:32 Pacific
+1
Reply:

FAT32 has a file size limitation of 4GB...your ISO is 6GB+ therefore it cannot be placed on a FAT32 drive.

kx5m2g's suggestion is probably the best solution. Partition your external HDD so that you have one FAT32 partition & one NTFS partition.

http://cquirke.mvps.org/ntfs.htm



Response Number 8
Name: Wombat
Date: December 14, 2007 at 15:28:36 Pacific
+1
Reply:

How to convert Fat32 to NTFS from Micro$oft...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881



Response Number 9
Name: Richard59
Date: December 14, 2007 at 15:52:53 Pacific
+1
Reply:

I may be wrong but was under the impression that a drive converted from fat32 to NTFS without formatting would retain the 4gb size limitation. To enable the larger file size it would be necessary to create a new NTFS partition. In your case anything you do poses a risk to your existing backups. ie converting the existing drive carries risk. Using PM or some other partitioning tool to reduce the fat32 partition to free up space for creation of an NTFS partition carries risk. If you decide to do anything I would suggest you back up your irreplaceable files first.

I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.



Response Number 10
Name: Bryco
Date: December 15, 2007 at 05:25:40 Pacific
+1
Reply:

You could use a file splitter to reduce your file size into two files less than 4gb each.

Bryan



Response Number 11
Name: AlwaysWillingToLearn
Date: December 15, 2007 at 08:50:00 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Thanks everyine for all your help, what i might do is create two partitions as suggested above one FAT32 and one NTFS. Thanks for the info, and i think it will be best policy to backup my backups before i do this.

Thanks,



Google Ads
Reply to Message Icon

Remote Desktop Help System Crash - Minidump



Post Locked

This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.


Go to Windows XP Forum Home


Google Ads


Results for: Can not copy ISO
Can not copy, and move file www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/can-not-copy-and-move-file/167227.html

Can not copy images www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/can-not-copy-images/71930.html

Winxp can not copy file to win98 www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/winxp-can-not-copy-file-to-win98/33978.html