Topic: DVD's 4GB file size limit
started by: jc1
Posted by jc1 on May 09 2009,23:41
My system is running on 32-bit XP sp3 and UltraISO 9.3.3I have a file which was generated with Acronis True Image Home 2009.
This file was saved in a FAT32 partition. Under file property in windows xp,
Actual size: 3.99 GB (4,294,966,784 bytes)
Size on disk: 4.00 GB (4,294,967,296 bytes) = (2 to the power of 32) bytes, exactly.
This 4GB file together with other smaller files was complied into an ISO file without any trouble, either in FAT32 or NTFS partition. The ISO file can be burnt into DVD (4.7G or 8.5G) successfully, too.
Problems:
1) When extracting (by drag and drop) this 4GB file from the ISO file into a FAT32 partition, an Error "There is not enough space on the disk" was shown towards the end of file extraction.
2) Extracting this 4GB file into a NTFS partition had resulted into endless loop. The file size of the extracted file kept building up and the process must be aborted manually.
3) This 4GB file that was stored into DVD was corrupted (checked with right click). Other files were okay.
Questions:
What is the exact 4GB file size limit for ISO file, in bytes?
Is the file size of this problem file exceeding the 4GB limit?
Your advice will be very much appreciated.
With best regards,
jc
Posted by xoben on May 11 2009,22:09
Tips:1) It is recommanded to use 'F4' to extract large files, or drag and drop from image to lower built- in file brower, instead of to windows explorer.
2) On ISO 9660 volume, files above 2GB large may not be accessed properly by some program. It is recommanded to split large files into sub-2GB clips first, or use 'File'->'New'->'UDF DVD image' to ov ercome this kind of problem.
Posted by jc1 on May 11 2009,23:00
I shall take note of your recommendation.Btw, the largest single file which can be squeezed into an ISO file with UltraISO is 4,278,190,080 bytes or (2 to the power of 32)-32K bytes, generated by Norton Ghost 11. I have tested this size in DVD, and hard disk under FAT32 and NTFS file systems. My purpose is to the limit the number of files spanned by Backup utility.
Wish you can consider adjusting this boundary condition in the next release.
Thank you.
3 cheers to UltraISO
Posted by xoben on May 14 2009,04:23
QUOTE
Btw, the largest single file which can be squeezed into an ISO file with UltraISO is 4,278,190,080 bytes or (2 to the power of 32)-32K bytes, generated by Norton Ghost 11. I have tested this size in DVD, and hard disk under FAT32 and NTFS file systems. My purpose is to the limit the number of files spanned by Backup utility.
Wish you can consider adjusting this boundary condition in the next release.
Wish you can consider adjusting this boundary condition in the next release.
UltraISO has no bundary as 4,278,190,080 bytes or (2 to the power of 32)-32K bytes, the real problem may be related the program which access these kind of files on DVD.
Posted by jc1 on May 15 2009,06:12
I see. Thanks for the clarification.Yes, F4 function in UltraISO does the trick for extracting large file from ISO image.
In short, under XP 32-bit & ISO file system, standard DVD or double sided DVD, the single largest file size which can be safely stored is (2^32 – 32K)bytes. Beyond this size, the window system may not be capable to retrieve the stored data.
(2^32 – 4K) = 4,294,966,784 bytes : burnt OK but data cannot be retrieved from DVD.
(2^32 – 32K) = 4,278,190,080 bytes : data can be burnt and retrieved from DVD (4.7GB & 8.5GB) successfully.
This shall hold until someone can prove it otherwise.
Cheers.
Posted by jc1 on May 16 2009,00:46
My bad!Correction:
(2^32-32K) bytes = 4,294,934,528 bytes where 1K=1024