Workaround for error code 0
March 14, 2011 2:47 AM   Subscribe

Can I use A Windows emulator on Mac OS to copy large files to a FAT32 drive (and thereby avoid the error code 0)?

I'm trying to copy large video files (+ 4.5 gigs) to an external drive formatted in FAT32 through Mac OS Snow Leopard. I get the 'error code 0' that apparently is a limitation in macOS when dealing with FAT32, limiting the size of files copied.

Reformatting the external drive is not an option. I've tried using the windows emulator 'Crossover 10,' but it doesn't do the trick. Also, Pathfinder doesn't seem to avert the file transfer glitch.

My question is whether I could VMWare Fusion or something similar as a workaround.
posted by rudster to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)
 
Best answer: Fat32 has a file size limitation of 4gb. Won't work.
posted by gjc at 2:50 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The 4 GB file size limit not a limitation of Mac OS X, but of FAT32 itself.

You'll need an NTFS file system as a destination, or split up the file into two or more chunks which are both under the 4 GB limit.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:55 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You'll need an NTFS file system as a destination, or split up the file into two or more chunks which are both under the 4 GB limit.

Or do a bit of compression to get the file under the limit. What's the current length and compression scheme (including bitrate, if applicable) and what will the file be used for?
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:42 AM on March 14, 2011


Best answer: As others have said, this is a FAT32 issue.

You don't need to use NTFS, though. Snow Leopard natively supports exfat (aka FAT64), and so do recent versions of Windows. You can format to exfat from within Disk Utility.

If you really can't reformat the drive at all, then you'll need to split the files. On Windows, I'd use 7-zip for this (you can tell it to split files with zero compression - compression won't help for most video formats). For OS X, then I'm not sure what the best tool is - I'd consider Split and Concat.

Or - use your video editing software to change the video settings to get them under 4GB by reducing the size or the bitrate.
posted by siskin at 6:03 AM on March 14, 2011


Best answer: You are not going to get a >4GB file onto a fat32 partition, it's a limitation of fat32. One thing you can do is use rar or 7zip as mentioned above to split the >4GB file into a bunch of 500MB chunks, or whatever chunk size you want. If you do this, choose zero compression or "store" and it will not waste CPU time trying to compress what you already have. In zero compression mode with RAR the time to archive the >4GB file onto the disk will be pretty much limited by your disk speed.
posted by thewalrus at 8:23 AM on March 14, 2011


Best answer: If you decide to go with an NTFS solution, consider Paragon Software's NTFS for Mac. I move files between WinXP/7 and Mac all the time, and NTFS for Mac far better for writing to NTFS than the free NTFS-3G. The time you save will be well worth the $19.95.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:39 AM on March 14, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks for all the responses. There's no way around it - have to buy another drive, backup the FAt32 data, and then reformat. Cheers, I owe you guys a beer.
posted by rudster at 11:04 AM on March 14, 2011


You can use ExFAT instead of NTFS if you need large files. I think the Mac can write to ExFAT.
posted by chairface at 4:31 PM on March 15, 2011


« Older Cat scratching post repair   |   How much for a home healthcare aide? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.