[SOLVED] File is too large to copy

Reljoy · Post by **Reljoy** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:23 pm

I have some video files on an external hard drive with USB connection. I am trying to copy them to an internal hard drive with Nautilus.
I keep getting errors like:
Error while copying "horse2.avi"
Error splicing file: File too large

horse2.avi is 8.1GB
horse3.avi is 4.8 GB
Horse5.avi is 8GB

Mint copies 4.0GB and stops with an error.
Is Mint unable to copy files larger than 4GB?
BTW, this is the same whether I try to copy from my normal install of mint 10 64 bit, or from a Mint 10 live DVD 64 bit.

remoulder · Post by **remoulder** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:31 pm

What filesystem does the internal HDD have? If FAT32 then there is a 4GB limit on file size.

DrHu · Post by **DrHu** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:13 pm

You could try an example file that fails in nautilus with the terminal based cp command, see if that works
--if it does it suggests a nautilus bug..
http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=c/cp
http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?cp

cp [OPTION]... [-T] SOURCE DEST
--the simplest set, cp (copy) from source to a dest filename, source will be where you are or a path, such as /sda/dirname/filename to /home/filename or your current direcory (folder) such as /home/userID (your logged in location, as a quick location

--if you want to check where you are in the directory tree, use pwd and it will be shown (in a terminal)

However that FAT file size limit is also a possibility, although you didn't say pendrive or usb stick, so I could assume you are using a real hard drive connected via a usb interface (which would be larger than the 4, 8, 16, 32, 64GB pendrives (usb sticks) now available))

Linux commands..a longer list
http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/direct.html
--a simpler set, dealing with directories (folders), it is like msdos or dos commands, since they essentially copied the UNIX style directory system..

pompom · Post by **pompom** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:53 am

Welcome to Linux Mint!

For large file support you want EXT4 file system which theoretically is "supposed" to handle files up to 1 exabyte, but that I believe at the present time is only wishful thinking, the accepted gargantuan file size is 16 TB (terabytes). When copying love poetry from your high school sweetheart, you definitely want to use disk druid, which allows you to control the process:

Code: Select all

dd if=/path_to_source/horse.avi of=/path_to_destination/horse.avi conv=notrunc

The command is "dd", the "if" stands for input file, the "of" is the output file, "conv" is the conversion flag, here we are telling the druid not to truncate anything, otherwise we are in big trouble.

Cheers,

pompom

Reljoy · Post by **Reljoy** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:20 am

Since the hard drive was for Windows XP files, why didn't I format it ntfs??!!!

Reljoy · Post by **Reljoy** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:56 am

OK I formatted the drive as ntfs from within Mint10 using GParted and told it to copy a couple of folders. Each folder contained around 20GB and some files were up to 8GB in size.
The Nautilus windows (I had 2 open so I could drag and drop) went monochrome and the cpu fan started whining really loud at top speed. I left it and went to bed. In the morning it was just the same. It looked like nothing had happened even though the drive lights had stopped. Forcing the computer to restart showed that the files had been copied.(and stopped the horrible noise).
The computer has a new motherboard, AMD quad core 2.3GHz process and 4GBDDR3 RAM.
Before I started copying, I started System Monitor. It showed my first CPU at 100% and the other 3 idling along at between 0% - 30%. Under the Resources tab it showed Nautilus using more than 100% which I thought was strange (around 104% I think from memory).
Can someone tell me what is going on here?
If I'd been in Windows XP and done the copying, it would not have been like that at all (it was XP that I used to put the files where they were in the first place). If Windows XP had done this, I would have been thinking it was time to scrap Windows!

Reljoy · Post by **Reljoy** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 4:27 am

Does Disk Druid use multi-threading?

Elisa · Post by **Elisa** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:14 am

I'd try to copy those large files by terminal and cp command...

Reljoy · Post by **Reljoy** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:48 am

Does cp use multi-threading do you know?

randomizer · Post by **randomizer** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:52 am

pompom wrote:The command is "dd", the "if" stands for input file, the "of" is the output file, "conv" is the conversion flag, here we are telling the druid not to truncate anything, otherwise we are in big trouble.

You could be in big trouble in many ways using dd. It's entirely possible use it the wrong way around and cause data loss.

Reljoy wrote:Does Disk Druid use multi-threading?

That's unimportant really. Your disk drive will be so much slower than the processing capacity of a single core.

Elisa · Post by **Elisa** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:57 am

Reljoy wrote:Does cp use multi-threading do you know?

I'm not sure but my answer is as result to your GUI/Nautilus freezing...

Reljoy · Post by **Reljoy** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:51 pm

I replaced my motherboard to a
Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H
Reinstalled Mint10.
Problem solved.

Linux Mint Forums