Solutions for putting 4+GB files on to external HD

I am having trouble putting files that are 4GB and larger on to my external hard drive. The file type I am particularly having trouble with are .dmg files. I've tried split and concat in terminal, but the concat output file ends up smaller than the original and does not work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Is this on a Mac with OSX? What are the specs of your Mac and the version of OSX? If it's an Intel Mac, do you have Windows installed also Via Bootcamp?

Do you use the external drive with any other computer besides your Mac like maybe a Windows machine?

It sounds like your external drive is formatted in FAT32. FAT32 has a Maximum SINGLE file size of just under 4GB and that is your issue.

The reason I ask what computers and OS's you are running is, if you only use the external on a Mac or Macs with OSX, just open Disk Utility and format the External Drive in Mac OS Extended (Journalized). Then file size will not matter. You would not have to split up files to make them fit.

If you use the External also on a Windows system, then you have an issue. If you format the drive NTFS, Natively only Windows will be able to write to it. But there are two things you can do. On the Mac side (That is why I ask what Mac and version of OSX you are using) you can install Paragon software which will give OSX full both Read and Write with an NTFS formatted drive.

Or, you can still format it Mac OS Extended (Journalized) and get a application called Mac Drive for a Windows machine and read/write to a Mac formatted drive.

Please tell us more so we can better help.

Is your external disk formatted as FAT32 ?
If it is, then that is your problem .... FAT32 can only accept files up to 4 Gb in size.

If you use the external only with Mac's, .... you can reformat the disk and use a Mac file system.

If you share the external between OS X and Windows, then the NTFS format will overcome the 4 Gb limit. OS X can read NTFS disks, but to write to them, I believe you need some sort of app. on OS X to achieve that. ( Not too sure, but other members are more experienced with this. )

Have a look around on the forum, there are multiple threads on this issue.

Cheers ... McBie

Sorry I forgot to mention anything about my computer. I have a intel 13" MacBook Pro running only Snow Leopard. I will occasionally be using the external drive with a windows computer. I will need external HD compatibility between osx and windows os if I will be doing any formatting of the external HD (to store my files temporarily). My external HD is in the FAT32 format.

FAT32 only allows a single filesize of 4GB or less. You can try either of my suggestions in my post above. There is no way to write larger files to a FAT32 drive, but FAT32 is the only format that most any OS can both read and write to without any driver like Paragon on OSX and Mac Drive on Windows.

Also just to let you know, both Paragon and Mac Drive are not free but they work very well and in the case of Paragon, allow OSX to both read and write to a NTFS formatted drive. Mac Drive allows the same with a Mac OSX formatted drive. There is no file size limit with either.

Thanks for the help. I will try using one or both of those solutions you suggested.

vinson.F said:

Thanks for the help. I will try using one or both of those solutions you suggested.

Click to expand...

I edited my other post. Both are pay but Paragon is not very expensive at all. BE SURE if you go with Paragon to download the latest version as it have full 10.6 Snow Leopard Compatibility.

One more thing, the drive format you are referring to is hfs+, correct?

vinson.F said:

One more thing, the drive format you are referring to is hfs+, correct?

Click to expand...

You would only need Paragon NTFS if you formatted the external to NTFS. If you decide to format it to HFS+, your MBP would have R\W capability but Windows would not. Then you would need to use MacDrive.

One more note: The latest Paragon NTFS is still a bit unstable. I have removed it from my machine and instead am using the built in capability of Snow Leopard to R\W to NTFS. However, that capability is not turned on by default. Use this free program to turn it on: LINK (NTFS Mounter)

Regards.

So would formatting the external HD to NTFS be the best way to go? Will that NTFS Mounter program enable regular access to the external HD?

vinson.F said:

So would formatting the external HD to NTFS be the best way to go? Will that NTFS Mounter program enable regular access to the external HD?

Click to expand...

If you don't want to pay for Mac Drive, then yes, format the drive on a Windows system in NTFS and either use Paragon or what chscag recommended. I have a friend who has tried the native NTFS in Snow Leopard and so far no complaints at all. That utility that chscag gave the URL for looks great as you don't even have to use the Terminal to turn on NTFS support. And yes, all drives should be enabled. Not sure how the mounter works and if you mount drives one by one or all work. Going to try it later.