File too large for target file system: how to fix? The file is too large for the target file system Writes the file is too large for the target file system

– Igor (Administrator)

In this article, I will tell you about the “File is too large for target file system” error, what it comes from and what you can do.

The size of a hard drive or flash drive is the characteristic that users most often pay attention to. It’s simple, the larger the size, the more useful and useless information can be stored. You need to create a backup copy, just copy the files. However, not everyone thinks about how this whole process happens. Therefore, you may encounter such errors. And the most unpleasant thing here is that the error “The file is too large for the target file system” can appear at the most inopportune moment. For example, when you are in a hurry.

Previously, the size of disks was not so large, so file systems (the technology for distributing data from files and directories in hardware devices) were calculated, albeit with a margin, but still within certain assumptions. At the time of the advent of FAT32, it was believed that files of 4GB or more in size were simply rare, or rather, it was generally unlikely to be an achievable limit for home life. Therefore, these 4 GB constitute the maximum file size limit. This is where the error comes from.

Of course, today this figure seems ridiculous. However, FAT32 existed for a very long time and was considered one of the best standards of that time. Therefore, it is supported by almost any operating systems (not just Windows) and equipment.

When flash drives began to appear, their size was so small (16 MB, 128 MB, etc.) that FAT32 was chosen as the main file system technology. Nobody expected that flash drives of this size would appear so soon.

And due to the fact that all equipment and operating systems relied on this format, external drives and flash drives are still produced with this file system by default. What beginners and ordinary users do not know about, and, as a result, they encounter problems when copying large amounts of data.

By the way, this is what the error “The file is too large for the target file system” looks like:

A lot of time has passed since then, and it is not surprising that corresponding file systems have appeared where there is no such problem. For example, Microsoft created the NTFS format for Windows, which is now the main format for Windows 7 and higher.

Note: Here it is worth understanding that other operating systems or equipment may not support this format. Therefore, this point should be checked in advance. However, today this format is supported more and more.

If you read carefully, you probably already guessed that the only solution to this problem is to format the external drive or flash drive into the desired format, namely converting from FAT32 to NTFS (in the case of Windows). How to do this is described in detail in the article How to format a hard drive. It describes in detail the sequence of actions, and also has a link to an article for the case of a flash drive (or external drive).

Some important tips:

1. Remember that formatting deletes data. Therefore, before performing any actions, be sure to save your data to another disk or another flash drive. But not to the next directory! It will also be deleted.

2. Some operating systems (including Windows) have tools for converting file systems without clearing data. However, it is important to understand that if there are failures during this process (for example, power surges), then the data may be lost or it will take a lot of time to recover it. Therefore, even in this case, it is strongly recommended to take care of creating a backup copy.

The error “The file is too large for the target system” appears when recording a movie, game, or other large documents.

In this case, the volume of the flash drive itself can be 8 or 16 GB (and higher). What nonsense, right? How to write large files to a flash drive in such a case? And what exactly is the problem?

It's simple. The reason for the error is this: by default, a USB flash drive purchased in a store has the FAT32 file system. All you need to know about it is that it does not support the ability to write files larger than 4 GB. This is why large files are not copied to a flash drive. And it doesn’t matter: it’s a movie, a game, a Windows image, or something else.

There are 2 ways to write a large file to a flash drive. The first is without data loss, the second is with full formatting. Let's start with the first one, because this option is more convenient.

How to transfer a large file to a flash drive without losing data?

So, if you need to copy large files to a flash drive while saving all the data, do the following:

Ready. You can look at the properties of the USB drive - now NTFS will be written next to the “File system” item.

However, the data remained in place. Now you can easily write a file larger than 4 GB to a flash drive.

It is possible that when performing this operation you will receive the error “This disk is marked as dirty.”

What to do? Format the USB flash drive in the standard way, after saving the necessary documents.

Writing large files to a flash drive with formatting

I remind you again: this method will delete all information. Therefore, copy it to another PC, laptop, disk, upload it somewhere on the Internet, etc.

After this do the following:


Ready. After 30-60 seconds, the USB flash drive will be formatted.

Congratulations: you will no longer see the “File is too large for the target file system” error. At least until you buy a new USB drive.

If you frequently use flash drives to transfer data, at some point you will sooner or later encounter the “File too large for destination file system” error. This is a rather unpleasant error, since it blocks any opportunity to copy a large file to removable media. Fortunately, it is quite easy to understand the essence of this problem, as well as fix it.

What to do if the file is too large for the destination file system

First of all, you need to understand what caused this error. The vast majority of flash drives and memory cards are formatted in the FAT32 file system by default. This is due to the small storage size and other features of these drives. The thing is that the FAT32 file system, unlike NTFS, can only work with files no larger than 4 GB in size. Anything larger than 4 GB physically cannot “fit” on such a flash drive. You won't be able to copy the file even if there is enough space on the drive. The file system simply cannot process such a file.

There are several ways to get out of this situation. Start by changing the file system of your flash drive. Changing FAT32 to NTFS will not have a bad effect on your disk and will not in any way worsen its performance, but larger files can be safely copied.

If there is no important data on the drive, simply reformat the drive using Explorer.

If there is important data on the drive and formatting the media is not an option, you can change the file system using the command line. There is no need to download third-party utilities, since a regular command line can easily handle this task.


Again, after this procedure, you will be able to copy files larger than 4 GB without any problems.

These two methods are effective in the vast majority of cases, but there are still scenarios where file system conversion is not an option. The fact is that NTFS is a proprietary file system of Windows, and therefore disks formatted in it are often simply not readable on devices with other operating systems (macOS, for example, does not understand NTFS media) or televisions, for example. In this case, you need to choose one of the following options:

  • If we are talking about a multimedia file (a movie, for example), try to find a copy with a smaller size. The Internet is full of different versions of films. Some fit in 700 MB, and some go up to 100 GB.
  • Format the drive with the ExFat file system. In this case, compatibility will remain, but the limitation will disappear (the limits of this file system are slightly different). It's not a fact that your device supports ExFat 100%, but it's definitely worth a try. Converting the file system to ExFat occurs using exactly the same methods as in the case of FAT32-NTFS.
  • If you are trying to copy not a multimedia file, but a disk image or any other file, an excellent option would be to split the file into several parts using any convenient archiver. 7Zip is our favorite option. The application is free, lightweight and easy to use. Just run it, find the file you need, right-click on it and select Split file. Part of the file should not exceed 4 GB, since parts will be copied as separate files and then merged on the final device. If the file is too large and two parts are still larger than 4 GB, split it into more parts.

We do not recommend trying to archive files and try to compress them, since this will have little effect, and in the case of multimedia files, practically none at all. In this case, splitting the file into parts without archiving will be much more effective.

It is not uncommon that when trying to write a large file to a flash drive or external hard drive, users receive something like this: the file is too large for the target file system. At the same time, there may be several tens of gigabytes of free space on the flash drive, but the file that needs to be written to the flash drive is only a few gigabytes in size. But, nevertheless, writing such a file is impossible. In this article we will look at the cause of this error, and also tell you how to solve this problem.

The reason for the error, with the message file is too large for the target file system, is very simple. The fact is that most flash drives are sold with the FAT32 file system. One of the features of this file system is that it does not support files larger than 4 GB. As a result, when a user tries to write a 4.7 gigabyte DVD image or any other large file to a flash drive, an error message appears.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

  • formatting a flash drive to the NTFS file system;
  • Converting a flash drive to the NTFS file system.

The NTFS file system is more modern and does not have serious restrictions on file size, so after you convert your flash drive to the NTFS file system, you can write files of any size to it. If there are no important files on the flash drive, or you can temporarily transfer files from the flash drive to another drive, then it is best to format the flash drive in NTFS. It's easier, faster and more reliable. If there are a lot of files you need on the flash drive and you don’t want to temporarily transfer them to another location, then you can perform the conversion. In this case, changing the file system from FAT32 to NTFS will take place without data loss. Now we will look at both of these options.

Option number 1. Formatting the flash drive in NTFS.

If you are pretty tired of the message “the file is too large for the target file system”, and you want to solve the problem quickly and radically, then formatting is your option. But, before you start formatting, do not forget to transfer all the files you need from the flash drive to another drive.

Open “My Computer” and right-click on your flash drive. In the window that opens, select “Format”.

After this, a window will open to format the disk. Here you need to change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS.

You can leave the rest of the settings untouched. After selecting the NTFS file system, simply click on the “Start” button. Next, you will see a message about deleting all data from the flash drive. Click "OK" to start the formatting process. After formatting to NTFS, you will be able to write large files and the “file too large for destination file system” message will no longer appear.

Option number 2. Converting the file system to NTFS.

If you do not want to delete all data from the flash drive, you can convert the file system from FAT32 to NTFS. To do this, open a command prompt and enter the command “convert X: /FS:NTFS”. In this case, “X” must be replaced with the letter that is assigned to your flash drive.

After executing the command “convert X: /FS:NTFS”, the conversion of the flash drive file system to NTFS will begin. The conversion time depends on the speed of the flash drive and the number of files on it. After the conversion process is completed, the message “Conversion completed” will appear in the command line. After this, you can close the command line and start using the flash drive.

Once again, we will deal with a fairly common problem for ordinary users. After all, the limited size of a file on a removable storage device is far from an innovation. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you downloaded a video from the Internet in the best quality, but you can’t show it to your friends because the file size on the flash drive is limited?

If you still don’t understand what I’m talking about, let me explain. Most flash drives have a file system called FAT 32. Its peculiarity is that when you try to write any file or archive onto it, the total volume of which exceeds four gigabytes, you will see a system message stating that the file you need is for the entry is too large for the target file system. Now, I think you understand what we are talking about.

But don't rush to get upset. I have good news for you. You can say goodbye to the message that the file you need to write is too large for the target file system once and for all. Moreover, for this you do not have to be a virtuoso in computer technology or have any professional knowledge or skills. In order to be able to write files larger than four gigabytes in size to your flash drive, you just need to know one little secret about formatting a particular memory card. Once you recognize it, you will be able to write to this medium even a file that is the same size as a flash drive.

And this applies not only to flash drives. The message “the file you need to write is too large for the destination file system” may appear even in the case of a hard drive. You understood correctly, it may be that your hard drive will also not write files that exceed four gigabytes in size. Everything will depend on what file system your device has. ExFAT, FAT16, FAT32 - all this will not work for you, since these outdated systems do not allow you to see these large files. So here's a little secret. You just need to format the required flash drive or disk in the NTFS system.

As soon as you do this, the files and the file system will immediately be able to “agree” with each other. As you remember, the old lady “Piggy”, before her installation, asked us what kind of file system we wanted to see on our hard drive. Most of us, of course, chose NTFS. However, this operating system did not allow this action to be performed for flash drives. They could only be formatted in FAT.

Seven, fortunately, allows you to do this, for which the developers deserve a huge thank you. And if you see a system message that the file you need to write is too large for the destination file system, reformat the device you are trying to write data to NTFS. If you have “Piggy” installed on your computer and you don’t want to change it to Vista or Seven, contact someone you know who has the latest two operating systems installed, so that they can make a disk in the NTFS system. As a last resort, go to some computer store or Internet cafe, where they will do this for you for a small fee, or even for free.