Tuesday, March 10, 2009

"The disk in the destination drive is full. Insert a new disk to continue" although there is lots of free space

Recently I tried copying a file larger than 4gb, on my 8gb USB stick. I kept getting a message saying that "The disk in the destination drive is full", (although there was lots of space) so I tried reformatting the stick. Still, I got the error.

I checked and found out that the USB stick was formatted in FAT32, which I remembered limits files to 4gb. NTFS doesn't have this limitation so I tried formatting it to NTFS, unsuccesfully; there was no choice for NTFS when I right clicked and selected "format", nor there was when I tried through the Disk management.

Doing a bit of research, I learned that a disk can be optimized "for performance" or "for quick removal". By default USB drives are optimized "for quick removal" which limits them to FAT filesystems. In order to have the choice for NTFS format:

- right click the USB drive
- go to the "Hardware" tab
- find the disk in the list and double click it
- go to the "Policies" tab
- select "Optimize for performance"

Now you should be able to format as NTFS and copy files larger than 4gb!

81 comments:

  1. sweet as, worked a treat, cheers

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  2. It worked. Thank You

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  3. Nice one Sherlock, worked a treat!

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  4. Baah, thanks!
    Never thought it... Silly windows...

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  5. error message: The disk destination drive is full. Insert a new disk to continue.

    I was trying to copy a file (5.55 GB size) to an 8GB sized fash drive; the drive is empty and has no hidden files whatsoever. I tried doing the above mentioned suggestion but to no avail.

    What can I do?

    Thanks in advance for the help/suggestion.

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  6. Hmm..That's strange. Could you please double check (by right clicking-properties) that the USB drive is indeed NTFS now?

    Is there a new error message or do you get the same one as before?

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    Replies
    1. On the hardware tab has to select the right drive or else he change the properties for another drive and change nothing on the right one

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  7. THANK YOU for sharing this info! The positive results of your efforts have increased their reach exponentially.

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  8. Thanks a bunch man, I had a brand new 8gb drive that I couldnt get a 4.07gb file on. Now it works great!

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  9. Thanx, man, saved my day!
    Works escellent!

    happy Holidays!

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  10. Thanks man!! I thought i will never get that F***ing game in a PS2!! :D Happy next New Year!!

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  11. thanks. A lot of help. I was like WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS EFFING JUMP DRIVE!?!?

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  12. Thanks!! I'm glad to see that there are still persons who share this solutions. I thought my pendrive was ill.

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  13. Hi, I came across this blog, looking for the answer to a different yet similar problem. I am trying to download pictures from my camera which is using an already full 8gb SD card and i can get only a few MB downloaded before i get the "destination drive is full" error... Yet, the destination drive is my hard drive, which has over 400GB left. Any ideas?
    Juan

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  14. How big are the files?
    Is the SD fat or ntfs?
    How about the hdd?

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  15. thankssssssssssssssssssss

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  16. Hey, whaddiya know...it worked phenomenally! Thanks!

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  17. I'm happy that this has helped so many people :)

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  18. A thousand thank you's! I've been trying to copy a 4g+ Outlook .pst file to a new laptop using a 16GB USB disk and it kept failing. Your fix saved me from sitting up half the night trying to figure it out. My co-worker needs the new laptop in the morning. Thanks again. :)

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  19. This worked great. I'm glad it was so simple.

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  20. excellent. This has been driving me apesh*t for quite sometime now

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  21. great ...thxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  22. Nice one. Big thanks.

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  23. heeeey .. ihve got a measure prop. her man..
    i have done everything u said but still while copying any ( wii iso. extension file) it shows the same dam msg .....
    does it make anything with the extension of the file!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  24. woooo u save it man,thanks a lot for this tip,its really works.. hurray :D

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  25. Lovely thans for sharing. I was on my last day at work and was trying to copy very mails for my future reference and i was getting this error . Now it worked . Thanks a lot buddy god bless you

    Pavan

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  26. I was trying to copy over some files and could not figure this out for so long. You are great! Thanks!!!

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  27. once in a while I find a thankful comment and it makes me smile:)

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  28. it worked....thanx a lot!

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  29. oh thanks
    that's helpful
    great
    thank you

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  30. Unbelievable! Worked like a charm. Thank you!
    TL
    NY, NY

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  31. Awesome solution it worked for me..........
    Thanks Buddy and keep it up........
    Regards,
    Terry

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  32. Awsome man it's very nice

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  33. It makes me happy to get the occasional email notifying me that somebody's benefited from this post:)

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  34. Good Blog.......Loved It..........:D

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  35. Thanx a lot.. its works for me!!! i was hanging around net about 1 hour in net finally get the solution.

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  36. Thanks Bro really helped me out i was converting a movie from last 1 hour and after it was copied i was not able to writ it on my 16 gb usb and my wife was about to kill me :P suddenly goggling i hit your post and u save my day or may be nite what ever any ways thnx bro :P

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  37. great stuff bro!thanks:)

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  38. Thanks Man. Thanks to Google and you!

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  39. Thanks a lot, u just saved my life.... :)

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  40. thnksssssssssssssssss aaaaaaaaa lot

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  41. I always like to hear reasons for what I'm doing and your response was just right- clear and easy to follow. Great job, and Thanks for clearing that problem!

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  42. Thật tuyệt vời.. cảm ơn bạn nhiều

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  43. Thế mà mình loay hoay mãi mới làm được... thanks you so much.

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  44. It work! Thank you for your helpful post!!!!!

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  45. Спасибо огромное!

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  46. Saved my azz. Thanks!

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  47. Благодаря много! Thank you for your helpful post :)

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  48. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  49. Thanks....I wasted more 2 hrs trying to figure out what was wrong. Thanks again for saving me lots of time and effort. Donald

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  50. thank you mister!

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  51. Thank you! It was very helpful!

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  52. It's really helpful and Thank you.

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  53. its really worked on my flash drive. million of thanks. you are genius.

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  54. Its Not working for me ....Its still FAT32....I have a trascend 8 GB pendrive...plz help

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    Replies
    1. Right Click it and format it in ntfs.

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  55. Thank, thank you! It worked for me. Very informative article.

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  56. yeah u can use convert command too in cmd for file conversion works great

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  57. It worked perfectly for me! Thanks for the tip;)

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  58. The gift that keeps on giving....thanks!

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