FAT file system, 5GB file size?

[xrapidx]

I bought a 32gb Kingston flash drive, and am putting it through its paces before using it as a tempry backup solution

I can't recall the limitations of the FAT/32 file system though - can you put files larger than 2GB on them?

 

[xrapidx]

Also - what would cause it to be slow - just noticed its coping at less than a MB a second?

Any tools for testing these things?

 

[ponder]

FAT32 will be fine. (Plain old FAT will not)

 

[xrapidx]

Gives an error saying a 5GB file is to large.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Go for FAT32.

FAT is too old and archaic.

Can't you use NTFS instead, or is the backup PC a Win98 PC?

 

[xrapidx]

Nah - default was FAT32 - I'll give NTFS a go.

 

[SirFooK'nG]

I'm sure there is a limit to the FAT32 file size. Cause I tried to put an ISO onto my FAT32 HDD media player, and it would not let me do it. the ISO was over 4gig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

what @milomak says = 100% true

 

[milomak]

google says 4gb minus 1 byte

 

[Conradl]

FAT32=4GB

 

[Synaesthesia]

Format the flash disk to NTFS - it supports large files.

 

[Ou grote]

Also - what would cause it to be slow - just noticed its coping at less than a MB a second?

Any tools for testing these things?

I got a 16 gig Kingston, it's pretty fast.

1 meg a second?
U sure it's in a USB 2 port?

 

[Chris_H]

FAT32=4GB

^ what he said... to use files larger than that you HAVE to format NTFS

 

[LazyLion]

+1 for NTFS

I would only use FAT32 on a Flashdisk up to 4GB in size anyway. After that file integrity and file size limitations start becoming an issue.

 

[xrapidx]

Thanks guys - Went with NTFS - I get between 1mb and 15mb - what should I be getting with USB2?

Is it 480MBytes or bits?

 

[LazyLion]

Thanks guys - Went with NTFS - I get between 1mb and 15mb - what should I be getting with USB2?

Is it 480MBytes or bits?

what are you using to test it? Teracopy?

I think it is in Megabits.

 

[xrapidx]

what are you using to test it? Teracopy?

I think it is in Megabits.

Windowz

Just copying "My Documents" its 31Gb

Mainly concerned about space (and those fake 1gb) ones - about to check my USB drivers.

 

[LFX]

a good usb stick around 16-19mB/s

 

[xrapidx]

a good usb stick around 16-19mB/s

Ok - so thats the normal speed?

If it is 480MBits, surely you should get around 60Mbytes?

 

[dlk001]

Ok - so thats the normal speed?

If it is 480MBits, surely you should get around 60Mbytes?

Theoretically true. That 480Mbits is the overall USB 2.0 bandwidth. The absolute best scenario to achieve anything close to the USB 2.0 specification is that the microprocessor, USB controller, RAM and PCI bus are all 100% available solely to drive the data transfer. However, i've read that other peripherals and software in a PC place demand on the most items mentioned above. This is just one limitation.

The other limitation is due to the software that handles UBS communication on the PC. The USB host controller and the USB protocol impose overhead on each data packet that gets sent/received by the USB drive. For each data transfer it is necessary first to transfer a command block, the data itself, and then the status block. These add to overhead data and result in latency.

For these reasons, real life USB performance numbers are generally far less than specified raw speeds.

 

[LandyMan]

FAT32=4GB

Yep.