too large for the destination file system

Step 1: Connect your USB flash drive to the computer. Here's how to do it with Windows built-in format feature. If there are files existing on your storage device, you can back them up by manually copying or using free backup software in advance. So, it is recommended only when there are no files on your external hard drive or USB flash drive. But notice that it will erase all the existing data on the drive.

Solution 1: Formatting FAT32 to NTFS with Windows built-in featureįormatting is the easiest way for you to convert FAT32 to NTFS. We will show you how to use these two methods to fix the 'The file is too large for the destination file system' error with simple steps. Here we will introduce you to two easy solutions. 2 Efficient Solutions to Fix Your ProblemĪfter figuring out the reason for 'The file is too large for the destination file system' issue, you can fix it with ease, that is to convert the file system from FAT32/FAT16 to NTFS. There is a built-in limitation in the FAT32 file system: Although the total size of the files you can store on a FAT32 drive could be up to 2TB, you cannot save an individual file that exceeds 4GB on it. For a FAT16 USB flash drive, the maximum file size is 2GB. The problem occurs because one of the files you want to transfer is larger than 4 GB and your USB flash drive is using the FAT32 file system, of which the maximum file size is 4GB. When facing the 'The file is too large for the destination file system' issue in Windows 10/8/7, you might get confused about why you would not be able to copy the file to your USB flash drive when there is sufficient free space.

What's The Reason for The 'file is too large' Error?

'Yesterday, when I tried to copy some large files including Windows 11/10 ISO files, the backup images of my operating system, movies, personal video files, and other data to my 32 GB external hard drive, I received the error message saying 'The file is too large for the destination file system.' I don't know why it happened as there was enough free space on the disk.

Too large for the destination file system