How to move a 4.9 GB file (Solved)

[nmrider66]

I want to move my copy of the Buster image off of my Pi to make room for other files. Tried moving it with File Manager's Cut/Paste and mv at command line. Both processes failed to complete the move with an error: file too large.

Is there a way to move it?

[RonR]

Is there enough free space on the destination device you're trying to move it to? It appears there is not.

[rpdom]

Where were you trying to move it to?

If it was a USB stick formatted in FAT32 for Windows compatibility, there is a file size limit of 4GB.

[nmrider66]

The drive has enough space but I'm not sure how its formatted. How do I check the formatting of the drive?

[RonR]

Code: Select all

sudo blkid

[nmrider66]

One of my usb thumb drives was formatted with VFAT. Another is formatted with NTFS. I was able to copy the file to that one. Thank you all.

[W. H. Heydt]

You could always compress it first. Since it's on a Pi, you can use zip or gzip.

[andrum99]

One of my usb thumb drives was formatted with VFAT. Another is formatted with NTFS. I was able to copy the file to that one. Thank you all.

NTFS is probably the way to go if you need to transfer files to Windows. Alternatively you can use samba to transfer the file over the network. Note that NTFS on the Pi is a bit slow.

(VFAT is what Linux calls certain versions of the FAT filesystem. Technically VFAT was actually Microsoft's "virtual mode" FAT driver included in Windows 95, 98 and ME).

[jahboater]

You could always compress it first. Since it's on a Pi, you can use zip or gzip.

Or the newer "xz" which will give much better compression, but likely be slower too.

Its similar in use to gzip, so "xz -9" will give the best compression.

See "man xz" for details.

[andrum99]

For compressing files on my Pi I use pigz - it is a parallel implementation of gzip. It has the advantage that it will use all four ARM cores on the Pi. (Assuming you have a Pi with four cores of course). This makes it much faster.