not enough disk space for copying files?
 

I’m trying to copy files to a new 320Gb external drive (USB connection) from a SATA drive on my PC. Can anyone tell me why three of the clips won’t transfer, with my computer giving me the error message that there’s not enough space on my drive? I noticed that each of the three clips is over 5Gb, but haven’t a clue if that’s significant or not. All the other clips totaling 140 Gb transferred.

The error messages told me to free up space on my drive. When I click on my options within the error message it takes me to the control panel. Could it be referring to my system drive? If so, why?

Obviously, I’m really ignorant about how copying works, so would appreciate some insight, please. Thanks!

Most externals come formatted as FAT32, allowing a maximum file size of 4 GB. Convert the disk to NTSC.

shouldn't that be NTFS? :-)

Sorry. Typo. I meant NTSF.

Hmm...this one is already NTFS.

Lorinda, what does the drive show for free space? I suggest copying a few at a time to see where the problem may manifest itself, checking free space at the conclusion of each smaller transfer.

-gb-

When I got my first external drive I had the same problem. When I found out about the FAT32 NTSF problem, I went to format the drive and it said NTSF. Problem is that that was just the first choice for reformatting. Be sure to check the drive "Properties" to be sure that it actually is formatted NTSF. After formatting, no more problems.

Mike

Thanks, guys. I did what I always do and ran the drive over to my friend's house. Bet he finds out it's something just like you said, Mike, and he'll patiently fix it for me and tell me I'm not an idiot. Same old story... :)

YES it could.

Windows stupidly needs scratch disk space to work and may think that it has to copy the file to another spot on the internal drive BEFORE it copies it out to the external.

How much free space do you have on the drive (Windows gets real uppity when it has less than 15-20% free space on a drive and strange things can start to happen that don't always make sense to us mere mortals...)

Believe it or not, I wondered about such a thing but didn’t know how to phrase the question. Thank you for explaining, Tim.

Turns out my situation mirrored Mike’s early experience. I’d forgotten about having to format, then when I checked its status and saw that “NTFS”…

Sorry for being so ignorant, guys, and I appreciate all the help.

Yep, it would be a good idea to delete some of your files that you have successfully copied over to the hard drive from your pc's hard drive. You need space to be able copy over. So delete at least 5 gigs of space on your main drive, be careful not to delete anything until you have checked all of your files, even open them in their appropriate application to make sure they have not been corrupted.


Jerry
Gingivitis