On OSX, I'm trying to copy a 7GB file to an external drive whose format is MS-DOS(FAT32), and am getting the Can't be copied because it is too large for the volume's format. According to, I have to reformat this drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), since the current format won't let me copy bigger files. But I'd rather not.
I have a Windows machine too and I use the drive with it as well, so I like this format. Besides, I have an absurdly large amount of other files in this drive, and I'd prefer not to do any backups at the moment.
Is there any other way to bypass this? I have tried splicing the file into several.RAR files (100MB each), and then uncompressing them all inside the drive. But this doesn't work (I imagine that the decompressing software needs to create a 7GB buffer file at some point.). FAT32 is limited to 4GB file sizesd. However, you said you have a Windows machine. You can use the convert.exe command to convert the FAT32 to NTFS which your Mac can read and write to, as well as your Windows machine.
On your Windows machine, attach the external drive. Then, from an administrative command prompt type the following and replace driveletter with the appropriate drive letter. Convert driveletter: /fs:ntfs This is non-destructive and you will not lose data. Backups, arent necessary, but definitely preferred (just in case). You can read more.
Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. It could be that your Mac already recognizes the device, but just isn’t showing its icon on the desktop screen. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Devices.