Copy 5gb file from mac to ext hd for windows

sep9001

Suspended / Banned
Messages
5,610
Name
Kev
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi

What options do I have to copy a 5gb file from a mac to an external hd so that it can be read on a windows pc?

I have tried to format the hd to exfat on the mac but could not copy the file to the hd.

Thank you
 
exFat supports a maximum file size of 2GB.
A quick Google suggests Mac's cannot format or write to NTFS disks natively, and additional software to enable those capabilities doesn't seem robust.

OSX ships with tar, so you could look at using that to create a multi-part archive in <2 TB chunks.

I think you should then be able to peace it together under Windows using 7-zip. No real experience doing this - it's all theory.

Alternatively - Dropbox?
 
Thanks, I have tried to zip it but no joy. Don't want to use dropbox as my connection is very slow.

I tried uploading the file yesterday and set it uploading at 9.30pm, work up this morning and it said it had 2 hours to go. I could not wait any longer and killed the upload.
 
Essentially you have 3 options that I can think of:

1) enable ntfs native writing as per my last

2) a 3rd party ntfs app on the mac (loads of people use this route with no huge issue) or an hfs app on the PC

3) share the drive from the windows pc and connect over the network using smb

Just thought of another..

4) sell the hard drive and buy a Nas
 
Last edited:
Essentially you have 3 options that I can think of:

1) enable ntfs native writing as per my last

2) a 3rd party ntfs app on the mac (loads of people use this route with no huge issue) or an hfs app on the PC

3) share the drive from the windows pc and connect over the network using smb

Just thought of another..

4) sell the hard drive and buy a Nas

Neil,

Thanks, I am going to try option 1 as I need to give the file to a friend who has a windows pc.
 
Just a suggestion but you could put your files and compress them using WinRAR. The main reason isn't for compression, what you can do with a WinRAR file is make it split into parts of smaller sizes so when you WinRAR a 5gb file you can split it into smaller parts which can be put back together when you decompress it.

There is a version of WinRAR for the MAC:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5169-winrar-for-mac.html

The rars created on the MAC should decompress with the version of WinRAR on the PC.
 
Back
Top