Can't overcome the 8gb barrier on NTFS

[WinSpecToR]

I have an external drive formatted to NTFS but I can't seem to put files over 8gb on it, ideas?

[redwudz]

That's the first time I have heard of that problem. I have quite a few files over 8GB on my drives, including external drives formatted to NTFS. What type of files and what brand and model of external drive? Are you just transferring them or are you encoding them to the drive?

[hydra3333]

me too, with no problems either. pal hd tv recordings always be large. although it does take a while to copy them from one PC to another even with a dedicated direct-connect 2nd gigabit lan connecton between the PCs.

[Bjs]

EFS (encrypted files system) has 8 gig limit

[T-Fish]

NTFS has no file size limit. i've had 100gb files before..

[hydra3333]

I think Bjs hint was the op somehow has EFS turned on, on the drive(s).

[WinSpecToR]

It could be the EFS because I'm not even aware of such a setting. I've tried to transfer a file to both usb key and external drive and it wasn't taking the file because it was over 8gb. I'm just trying to transfer the file, not encoding directly to it.

[T-Fish]

nmv..

[Webster]

both your external and flash drive are most likely FAT32 which has a 4gb limit.

the OP stated that the drive was formated NTFS.

I think it is what BJs said.....

[hydra3333]

I've not yet come across a USB key which is ntfs. Unlucky, huh ?

[aedipuss]

I've not yet come across a USB key which is ntfs. Unlucky, huh ?

hehe i'd say me too, but that's to aol....

[jman98]

I've not yet come across a USB key which is ntfs. Unlucky, huh ?

Manufacturers deliberately ship them as FAT32. Why?
1) Microsoft charges for NTFS support. Not necessarily a problem for the key itself as the manufacturer can just use PCs to set the USB keys to NTFS at no additional cost, but devices like DVD players don't support NTFS because of cost. Apple also does not officially support NTFS because of cost and users must find a freeware driver and install it to have NTFS work under OS X. Microsoft does not charge for FAT32 support or if they do charge, it's so low that everybody pays it without complaint.
2) Having to deal with moronic customers is just not worth it. If keys got shipped in NTFS format, plenty of customers would complain that "Your piece of crap USB flash drive is broken" when in fact it it not, simply because they tried to use it somewhere that didn't support NTFS.

It's easy enough to format your USB keys to NTFS yourself using Windows. A search on Google, Yahoo, etc. will turn up many explanations on how to do it.

[TJohns]

EFS (encrypted files system) has 8 gig limit

Can you direct me to some info confirming this ... even Microsoft own page on file system limits (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938937.aspx) fails to mention this. And from the (logical) explanation of how EFS works ... simple encrypt the data before writing it to disk and decrypt on reads ... it would appear to use native NTFS for the actual storage and have the same intrinsic limits.

NTFS has no file size limit. i've had 100gb files before..

Sorry, but 100GB isn't "infinite" ... with 512 byte sectors you'll max out at 2TB (see link above). I believe Seagate are just releasing new drives with 1K sectors that will push this up for the next generation HDD's

Trev

[Bjs]

The link > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938937.aspx shows no information regarding EFS affect on NTFS.

Efs max file size according to microsoft is 400mbs ... the efs system itself is limited to 8 gigabytes

However, it might simply be an issue regarding

Miniport driver for the usb host chipset used by system or the usb port driver usbport.sys as shown here

Take note of the inclusion regarding OHCI issue

The op should post specifications of current system hardware, os and its updated status regarding service packs to determine what is triggering this limitation issue

[T-Fish]

NTFS has no file size limit. i've had 100gb files before..

Sorry, but 100GB isn't "infinite" ... with 512 byte sectors you'll max out at 2TB (see link above). I believe Seagate are just releasing new drives with 1K sectors that will push this up for the next generation HDD's

Trev

fair enough. should've said, theres no file size limit anyone will run into.
i haven't seen any drives for sale, bigger than 2tb.

[hydra3333]

"no-one will ever need more than 640kb"