Why is my external telling me not enough space?

It's a 500gb harddrive, and I've only used about 100gb of it. Tried to copy some tv shows onto it and it tells me not enough space.


help?

 

The external drive may be balking because of it's file system format. Fat32 formatted drives have a maximum file size limited to just under 4GB per file. If this is the case, you'll need to convert the Fat32 drive into NTFS which will support larger file sizes. If this is unacceptable you could get a file splitting utility, such as the free HJSplit which will allow you to archive file chunks smaller than 4GB. It also allows for file merging when you move the file chunks back to your main drive for viewing.

 

How do I convert? And will it result in formatting the drive?

 

Please help me with this because I would like to use the space on my external.

 

To Format it to NTFT you need to this this

You need to fist plug in your drive and then

I know there is a way to convert it without loosing data but it never worked for me.

STOP before you do this you will loose all data on the drive.

Start>>Control Panel>>Administrative Tools>>Computer Management>>Storage>>Disk Management>>Right click your external drive>>Format>>Choose NTFS for file system>>Press OK and it will format it to NTFS. This will take some time because its a 500GB drive.

 

Man, I have over 100gb of stuff that I really dont want to lose :-(

NO other way to do this?

 

also, I"m on XP, there is not Admin Tools place

 

nevermind, just went to my computer and right clicked the drive

 

Don't format the drive from the computer management console or you will lose everything. The first thing you want to do is find out what the Volume Name of the drive you want to convert is (thats the name of the lettered drive that shows up in Windows Explorers left pane) my C drive is "Local Disk" sometimes they get named Disk1_Vol_1 and Disk1_Vol_2 when you split a disk into two partitions C and D. You will need the volume name to verify you know which drive you want to convert.

Here is a little tut I found on the net for you:

Code:

To convert an existing FAT or FAT32 volume to NTFS, follow these steps: 
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. 
2. At the command prompt, type the following, where drive letter is the drive that you want to convert:
    convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, type the following command to convert drive E to NTFS: 
convert e: /fs:ntfs 

Note If the operating system is on the drive that you are converting, you will be prompted to schedule the task when you restart the computer because the conversion cannot be completed while the operating system is running. When you are prompted, click YES.
 
3. When you receive the following message at the command prompt, type the volume label of the drive that you are converting, and       then press ENTER: The type of the file system is FAT.
Enter the current volume label for drive drive letter 

4. When the conversion to NTFS is complete, you receive the following message at the command prompt:

Conversion complete 

5. Quit the command prompt. 

This will convert the drive or partition (if the drive has more than one) without losing any data but it will take some time and do not interupt it and don't try this during a thunderstorm unless your a daredevil and like to live on the edge.

 

I did try this method for my external hard drive but it did not work.

 

I'm trying it right now, we'll see. I hope it works because I don't want to lose everything.

 

wow, it worked.. I right click the drive now and it says file system NTFS, thanks man!!! You're awesome, and I didn't lose anything!

 

glad it worked for you