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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Do you have a FAT problem?

I want to copy a 13GB file to my USB-connected external hard drive, but Windows XP refuses to do so. My computer shows there is 45GB free.
David Connolly

Usually the problem is that external hard drives are shipped using the old FAT (File Allocation Table) format, which cannot handle files larger than 4GB. Right-click the drive in Windows Explorer and select Properties to find out. You will need to change the formatting to NTFS (New Technology File System). See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

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