You’ve got to bridge some data from one computer to the other and your internet connection is a bit spotty so you grab a memory stick to make the transfer. You grab your source file and drag and drop onto your Flash Drive in explorer and boom- that pesky error window pops up! So much for that simple solution?
Lets solve that problem
If you find yourself in a situation where a USB Flash Drive will not accept a data load your problem is typically one of two things.
- Your drive capacity is not large enough. While drives simplify their capacity for marketing purposes a 16GB cannot actually hold 16GB of data. Typically its 15 and change due to the amount of potential software pre-loaded and the difference between gigabytes and gibibytes.
- Your drive is improperly formatted and your dataset contains one contiguous file that is too large for the format to support
Lets talk about USB Drives FAT or file allocation tables a bit and why that could be to blame for your issues.
File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. It is often supported for compatibility reasons by current operating systems for personal computers and many mobile devices and embedded systems, allowing interchange of data between disparate systems.[3] The increase in disk drives capacity required three major variants: FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32..
Wikipedia
Most Flash Drives or Memory sticks ship pre-formatted with the FAT32 Filesystem.
FAT32 is selected because it’s not proprietary and has been widely used for decades. The issue is the FAT framework was developed a long long time ago and files where much smaller back then. FAT32 is unable to handle individual files sizes over 4GB. It’s quite common for many modern files especially ones with video content to run over 4GB.
This is the reason your drive is reporting as being too small when you know the memory stick has plenty of capacity!
How do we solve this problem?
With a simple reformat using a right click on the drive in windows operating system.
USB DRIVE REFORMATTING STEP 1.
Navigate to Windows File Explorer
USB DRIVE REFORMATTING STEP 2.
Right Click on your USB Flash Drive and Select “Format” from the drop down list.
USB DRIVE REFORMATTING STEP 3.
Under “File System” select either exFat or NTFS and click the start
button. Windows will notify you once your formatting is complete. Both
of these file systems are capable of handling larger files.
*Quick note – you may want to research with file structure is right for you. I believe that NTFS is better for linux and exFat is more native to Windows. These selections will be exacerbated by those
looking to utilize their USB drives as bridge across OS.
My dad always told me “Measure Twice and Cut Once” – In this scenario that means making sure you have the correct drive selected and do not accidentily reformat your hard drive.
This covers one of the most common issues you will come across when data loading USB Drives. I hope it helps remove some frustrations you might have incurred. If you have problems you cannot solve or would like help with data loading a large quantity of USB drives we would love to help you out.
You can always reach us at 612-782-8200 or contact us via email.