6 thoughts on “WTF, Windows?”

1. Both FAT and FAT32 filesystems have a smallish file size limit to them. 4GB, I think. The file is likely too large. Perhaps you can reformat to NTFS?

   1. Well, I’m trying a direct download to the drive now, to see if that works. If not then I’ll try reformatting it.

   2. Yeah, that was it. I had to reformat it. Hopefully Linux will read it all right.

2. FAT32 file size limit is 2GB I think. You need to reformat the flash drive as NTFS or exFAT.

   1. exFAT sounds good. Wish I had known about it when I had a similar problem.

      Our host might like to know there is a FUSE module.

3. Yes, NTFS is the answer. I use my Linux laptop, on Other People’s Bandwidth, for large downloads, then transfer the files to my main Windows machine, with limited bandwidth at home, for viewing. I had to reformat my 16Gb USB drive to NTFS for very large files.

   Care should be taken to use the “Eject” or “Remove Safely” option before unplugging an NTFS-formatted thumb drive. And, once in a while you have to reformat anyway. I don’t delete the files from my laptop until I can see them on the USB drive plugged into my Windows machine.

   You can also get a MicroSD card reader which looks and functions exactly like a regular thumb drive, except you can change cards – if there’s stuff you want to keep on the drive for example, while another card can be reformatted repeatedly for the large transfers.

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