Fix 'File is too large for the destination file system' error – Knowligent
Fix 'File is too large for the destination file system' error

Fix 'File is too large for the destination file system' error

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How to fix: File is too large for the destination file system

Yesterday, while copying some large files to an external hard drive, I promptly got this message from Windows:

So I was wondering what could be causing this problem. My external hard drive had a ton of free space, so why wouldn't I be able to copy this file?

Well, the reason for this problem is because my file was 4.3GB and my external hard drive was formatted in FAT32 format. The maximum file size for FAT32 is 4GB. The maximum file size for FAT16 is only 2GB!