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Error: "There is not enough free space..." when transferring files larger than 4 GB

Answer ID 528

Issue:

While attempting to create or transfer files larger than 4GB onto an external hard drive, an error message appears: There is not enough free space on my external drive.

Cause:

This error is caused due to the destination hard drive running a FAT32 File System. This File System is recognized by most computer operating systems, but has a 4 GB file transfer and creation limitation. This means that files cannot be created or transferred to the hard drive if the file or group of files are larger than 4GB.

Solution:

If running Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, or running Mac OSX, the external hard drive can be reformatted to either NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) File Systems instead. These File Systems are not limited to a 4GB file size. For details on how to reformat a hard drive, please see Answer ID 3865: How to Partition and Format a WD Drive on Windows and macOS.

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