4GB< Files on Flash Drive

[extremepilot]

Is there any way for me to be able to copy files over 4GB on my flash drive without "Optimizing" for Performance? I want to be able to yank it out and not worry about it dying like last time.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Is there any way for me to be able to copy files over 4GB on my flash drive without "Optimizing" for Performance? I want to be able to yank it out and not worry about it dying like last time.

Needless to say this flashdrive is formatted as NTFS of course. "Optimize for Performance" (or Write Caching), I would avoid it. It is trouble waiting to happen IMHO. If you want to yank it out without worry you should do the Safely Remove Hardware process. When you do that from the tray icon, the USB device should not be able to Stop or progress to the "You can now safely remove ..." with any pending writes, (well, in theory anyway). Fortunately there is a supplemental utility to fill this gap: Sync from System Internals (it is a tiny little Command Line console utility, ~40KB). By default, when executed from a shortcut it flushes pending writes held for all attached hard drives ...

Sync.exe

Add the -r parameter and it flushes removeable disks ...

Sync.exe -r

Unfortunately that includes floppy drives. To avoid that absolutely intolerable delay (spin up and seek even on an empty drive!) you can add drive letters which then, Sync will only flush ...

Sync.exe -r J:

Note: I use J: as an exmple. There is also a -e Eject parameter, but it does not trigger the Safely Remove Hardware process like you might expect. Mark's documentation (at that link) is a little light. My shortcut for flashdrives is like this ...

Sync.exe -r -e J:

Now, in theory, even with Write Caching enabled, you should be able to Sync the removeable (flush any pending writes), and then yank out the drive bypassing the Safely Remove. That is theory! However in the real world, a bit of a gamble.

So, what I do is both, Sync.exe first and then the Safely Remove. It is a total of five or six clicks and maybe ten seconds elapsed time. Compare that to the alternative of losing data and reformatting an 8 GB or larger flash drive, its a no-brainer.

[kahlil88]

If you can't copy files larger than 4 GB, your flash drive is probably formatted as FAT32. The NTFS filesystem is supposed to support files as large as 16 EiB.

[extremepilot]

Let me put it this way:

is there any way to "Optimize for Quick Removal", but be able to transfer files larger than 4GB on it? I don't want it to have write caching or any risky stuff enabled, I want to be able to yank it out, like I do other flash drives, with 4GB files on this one

[jaclaz]

Let me put it this way:

is there any way to "Optimize for Quick Removal", but be able to transfer files larger than 4GB on it? I don't want it to have write caching or any risky stuff enabled, I want to be able to yank it out, like I do other flash drives, with 4GB files on this one

Let me answer this way :

• files bigger than 4Gb are NOT allowed on FAT16 filesystem
  
• files bigger than 4Gb are NOT allowed on FAT32 filesystem
  
• files bigger than 4Gb ARE allowed on NTFS filesystem
  

Read NO as an answer to your question.

BUT there are a few Registry changes you can make to reduce the writes on the NTFS filesystem.

Here is a list (only some apply to your case):

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6564

jaclaz

[James_A]

Whilst agreeing with the posts by CharlotteTheHarlot and by jaclaz, the goal-posts on this subject just moved with the release of exFAT for Windows XP.

See the KB article for details and the download link.

That would mean re-formatting the drive first, of course...

.

[Tarun]

I always do a convert /fs:ntfs on my flash drives. Better overall in the long run.

[jaclaz]

Whilst agreeing with the posts by CharlotteTheHarlot and by jaclaz, the goal-posts on this subject just moved with the release of exFAT for Windows XP.

See the KB article for details and the download link.

Thanks for the heads up.

Of course this will draw a neat line between Vista/XP and previous OS's.

Let's hope we'll have soon a 9x/Me and 2K (besides Linux, for which an experimental - read only - driver has been made and things seem to be "in the works" ).

jaclaz

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Whilst agreeing with the posts by CharlotteTheHarlot and by jaclaz, the goal-posts on this subject just moved with the release of exFAT for Windows XP.

See the KB article for details and the download link.

That would mean re-formatting the drive first, of course...

Thanks for that! Awesome find James_A

Note the hype ...

The exFAT file system incorporates several improvements over FAT32.
However, it keeps the simplicity of FAT-based file systems.
These improvements include the following key [b]advances[/b]: 

* Support for very large files and storage devices [color="#FF0000"]<----- obviously[/color]
* Support for performance improvements [color="#FF0000"]<---- I doubt it[/color]
* Support for extensibility features for future innovation [color="#FF0000"]<---- holding breath[/color]
* Added compatibility for flash media [color="#FF0000"]<---- ummm?[/color]  

@extremepilot ... sorry about the digression. You aren't trying to copy a file >4GB onto a FAT 16/32 formatted Flashdrive are you? NTFS is the quick answer which you can already do. What James_A has discovered is that we can now add exFAT (aka FAT64) to WinXP (Vista already has the ability) which will hopefully mean a selection of NTFS or exFAT when formatting these things. If you go to that link he provided you can grab the updater and this problem will be solved for you. You will have to reformat the Flashdrive naturally, and I will go out on a limb to say that you cannot just stick the FAT64 Flashdrive into any WinXP computer that does not have the exFAT update.

[jaclaz]

* Support for performance improvements <---- I doubt it

....

* Added compatibility for flash media <---- ummm?

Try reading the above as :

* Remove things introduced to slow down FAT32 on flash media

See here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125116&hl=

jaclaz

Edited January 30, 2009 by jaclaz

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

* Remove things introduced to slow down FAT32 on flash media

Ahh ... capisco paesano ... didn't think of that

See here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125116&hl=

jaclaz

... (Score:5, Insightful)

That's a good thread there. Have you seen any discussions where someone has installed and used MSKB 955704 on XP yet?

[jaclaz]

That's a good thread there. Have you seen any discussions where someone has installed and used MSKB 955704 on XP yet?

Yes , see cdob's report here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...20&start=20

He even succeeded in booting XP from exfat32 using the "XP Kansas City Shuffle"!

The only file actually needed is the exfat.sys, to access Read/Write:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=22584&hl=

all the others are for formatting and a few other non-basic functions.

It's still a "mistery" the modified shell32.dll.

jaclaz