Need help on downloading gigabyte files

[bitcometfreak]

Hello, I am trying to download this game with a size of 4 gigabytes. Now, everytime I say OK to that point when this window pops out saying where you want to save the file your downloading, it always says this:

"Some of the files are larger than 4GB, please modify your destination to a NTFS drive!"

So, does this mean i have to get that NTFS drive? If so, do i hve to download it? And if do have to download it, can anyone help me operate it?

Please Help! I really want to download this game BADLY!

[kluelos]

FAT32 has a hard limit of 4 GB for any one file, and you cannot exceed that. You don't say which OS you're using (See that sticky up there that says "Read before posting? It tells you that we need to know things like which OS you have.) so I'm assuming you're using some flavor of XP.

You can convert any existing FAT32 drive to NTFS, and I do recommend you do so. FAT32 has long outlived its usefulness and never had any advantage except backwards-compatibility, and even that only with Win98. Time to retire it. The conversion is painless, and reasonably quick, but if you're converting your boot drive, you have to set it up to happen next time you reboot, and it will take a little time. Be prepared for that.

You will want to defrag your disk before you do this, if you haven't done it in living memory.

[bitcometfreak]

Hello, thanks 4 your response. But see, my system is Windows ME not XP. And also, I looked in the other sites and they said that I have to use this utility called Convert.exe in order to convert FAT32 to NTFS. And what the other sites told me is to go to START and then PROGRAMS, then click on ACCESORIES and then I'll see the COMMAND PROMPT there. And by using the COMMAND PROMPT, they said I can convert FAT32 to NTFS. But the problem is, I DON'T see the Command Prompt. I only see this another program called MS-DOS Prompt. So, what do i have to do now?

Edited December 9, 2006 by cassie (see edit history)

[PJC]

Windows ME is not capable of using the NTFS (short for Windows NT File System). To use NTFS, you will have to upgrade your Operating System to some flavor of NT (Win2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003). If the torrent you are trying to download has a file in it larger that 4 GB, you simply will not be able to download it with Windows ME. You can't convert your disk to NTFS for use with ME. I would recommend you moving to Win2000 or, better yet, WinXP. Window ME was not Microsoft's best attempt with Windows.

In case it comes up in the future, the MS-DOS prompt IS the command prompt.

Edited December 9, 2006 by cassie (see edit history)

[The UnUsual Suspect]

ms dos prompt is the "command prompt".

Your system is based on Win9x, where windows 2000 and XP are based on WinNT.

I believe winME will support NTFS, but the best thing to do would be to upgrade your windows to Win2000 or WinXP. The former if you have an older computer, the later if your computer is 1ghz or faster, and 256mb ram or higher.

Although WinXP will run on less then this, I don't recommend it.

Suspect

ps. some of your older games programs won't run on WinNT system.

[kluelos]

Under WinME, the convert utility is used to convert drives from FAT16 to FAT32, and won't offer the option for NTFS.

If you don't want to upgrade your OS (strongly recommended, though), all is not quite lost.

You can convert some OTHER partition besides your boot drive, to NTFS and you can install a utility that will read and write from it. This means, basically, that you would have to buy another disk drive, install and configure it as drive D:, find, buy and install the ME-NTFS utility, then format the new drive for NTFS.

ME will then be able to read from and write to that drive, as long as you don't run into a problem with the utility (it has to be running). This all really isn't recommended and I mention it just for completion's sake. You probably shouldn't try it without some expert help.

[bitcometfreak]

Hello guyz. Thanks for your responses. Anyways, so in order for me to convert my drive to NTFS, I have to upgrade my system? Is that what you mean? But, what if I upgraded my system, wouldn't I lose all my files and other programs I downloaded? aww, I don't really want that to happen. But is there any way that I can still convert my drive to NTFS, without upgrading my system? But if there isn't any way, I guess i'll stick with the idea of upgrading my system.

kluelos: Um, I still don't get what your trying to say...

[bitcometfreak]

oh yeah, by the way, is there a way I can shrink the size of the game to a smaller size? Cos' see for music, you can shrink their sizes to a lower size and I was wondering if you can shrink the size of games too. so if you guys have any idea, please let me know! :)

[kluelos]

Yes, you wlll need to upgrade your operating system to either Windows 2000 or Windows XP, in order to be able to use NTFS for your disk drives and exceed the 4 GB limit.

Whether you will lose existing data depends on how successful your upgrade is, but you should always back up your data before performing any major operation on your computer. You may be able to upgrade from ME to whichever you choose with no problems, and with all your programs and their settings intact. I've never succeeded in doing that myself, but you might and it's certainly worth a try. If it doesn't work you will need to do a clean install, and that will require you to reinstall all of your applications.