Resolved External HD won't allow me to transfer files

[iheardthedrums]

Hi! I have just purchased a macbook pro a few weeks ago and I haven't had any problems with file transfers so far (old macbook to new one). I used a WD 2TB Passport with MS-DOS as the format and I run Paragon NTFS so I can use it.

But today, my external started acting up after I transferred the last remaining files from my old macbook (mid 2012), so I backed up my data and reformatted the external to MS-DOS again. So as I was transferring data from my back up to my original external HD, I noticed that there are some files that cannot be transferred because it says the volume is full.

For example: I can transfer a 30gb folder with no problems, but when I try to transfer a 6gb folder, it says I can't because it's full.

What am I doing wrong? It wasn't like this before I reformatted it and it was fine when I used it with my old macbook.

 

[ZapNZs]

If I were to take a guess, I think this because you may have originally had the drive formatted at NTFS, where as now you have it formatted as FAT32, and FAT32 has several limitations that could cause you to see this error.
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MS-DOS refers to FAT32, which macOS can read and write to without needing a 3rd party App. Paragon is used with NTFS, which macOS can read but NOT write to by default.

FAT32 has a relatively low limit on maximum file size, which I believe is 4GB. If you try to transfer a larger file, you can get an error. This may be why you cannot transfer that folder to the external, as it may have a file that exceeds this maximum file size (where as the 30 GB folder does not have any single file that exceeds this maximum file size, which is why it works correctly.)

Is it possible that you originally had the drive formatted as NTFS, and then recently formatted it as FAT32? If so, that would explain the issue, and the solution would be to reformat the drive in either NTFS (where you would need Paragon...using NTFS makes sense only if you will be frequently plugging this drive into a Windows computer), HFS+ (macOS extended, which is the ideal file format unless you either use this drive more often with a Windows device, or absolutely need to have shared Win/Mac access), or ExFAT (which works on both Win and Mac but it is a non-journaling filesystem that I despise and do not recommend using as IMO ExFAT is garbage.)

 

[iheardthedrums]

If I were to take a guess, I think this because you may have originally had the drive formatted at NTFS, where as now you have it formatted as FAT32, and FAT32 has several limitations that could cause you to see this error.
---------
MS-DOS refers to FAT32, which macOS can read and write to without needing a 3rd party App. Paragon is used with NTFS, which macOS can read but NOT write to by default.

FAT32 has a relatively low limit on maximum file size, which I believe is 4GB. If you try to transfer a larger file, you can get an error. This may be why you cannot transfer that folder to the external, as it may have a file that exceeds this maximum file size (where as the 30 GB folder does not have any single file that exceeds this maximum file size, which is why it works correctly.)

Is it possible that you originally had the drive formatted as NTFS, and then recently formatted it as FAT32? If so, that would explain the issue, and the solution would be to reformat the drive in either NTFS (where you would need Paragon...using NTFS makes sense only if you will be frequently plugging this drive into a Windows computer), HFS+ (macOS extended, which is the ideal file format unless you either use this drive more often with a Windows device, or absolutely need to have shared Win/Mac access), or ExFAT (which works on both Win and Mac but it is a non-journaling filesystem that I despise and do not recommend using as IMO ExFAT is garbage.)

Oh I see now! Thanks! I'll try reformatting it again but using Paragon!

Update: It works now! Thanks a lot! You saved my life