Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How can I get a 6gb file to my Mac?

spaceboots06

spaceboots06

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 13, 2009
968
1
The Rotten Apple
Hi,

I have a 6gb file on my Windows machine and I would like to transfer it to my Mac. It is a .iso type file. Can I somehow split the .iso into two parts, burn it onto two 4gb dvd discs and then join them together?

My 500gb external hard drive is FAT32 because my Mac only recognizes that so it's not possible to just transfer the .iso easily.

Thanks!
 
Do you have a lot of data on the drive already? It is possible to reformat it in Windows to NTFS. The mac won't be able to write to it by default but would still be able to read and copy the files off of it and you wouldn't be limited by the 4GB file size. If not, then yes you'd have to use a program to split the file in two and rejoin on the mac.

Although...you could potentially network the two computers together and transfer the file that way, unless they aren't on the same network or in the same location.
 
spaceboots06 said:
Hi,

I have a 6gb file on my Windows machine and I would like to transfer it to my Mac. It is a .iso type file. Can I somehow split the .iso into two parts, burn it onto two 4gb dvd discs and then join them together?

My 500gb external hard drive is FAT32 because my Mac only recognizes that so it's not possible to just transfer the .iso easily.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Both Macs and PCs can read and write FAT32. (USB Flash Drives and Memory Cards are formatted in FAT32) Why don't you put it on the external drive from the PC then copy it from the external to the Mac?
 
qacjared said:
Both Macs and PCs can read and write FAT32. (USB Flash Drives and Memory Cards are formatted in FAT32) Why don't you put it on the external drive from the PC then copy it from the external to the Mac?
Click to expand...

FAT32 gets a brain fart when you try to transfer files over 4gb.

msevild said:
Do you have a lot of data on the drive already? It is possible to reformat it in Windows to NTFS. The mac won't be able to write to it by default but would still be able to read and copy the files off of it and you wouldn't be limited by the 4GB file size. If not, then yes you'd have to use a program to split the file in two and rejoin on the mac.

Although...you could potentially network the two computers together and transfer the file that way, unless they aren't on the same network or in the same location.
Click to expand...

I was considering reformatting to NTFS then reformatting back to FAT32 so I can write back on the external drive.

I was also thinking sharing the folder the .iso is in over my network and then getting the file from my Boot Camp partition and doing something with the partition in terms of getting it to the OS X partition. How does this method sound?
 
FAT32 has a 4 GB limitation for an individual file. Which means if the caller tried to transfer his 6+ GB file it would fail to write to the drive. I would agree with msevild that the best thing to do is find a NTFS-formatted drive and do the transfer using that drive.

...And late to respond yet again...must be the witching hour of MR ;)
 
If you are thinking of using a DVD you could just buy a Dual Layer DVD which is 8.9GB (that's a guess off the top of my head but it is over 6GB)
 
spaceboots06 said:
FAT32 gets a brain fart when you try to transfer files over 4gb.



I was considering reformatting to NTFS then reformatting back to FAT32 so I can write back on the external drive.

I was also thinking sharing the folder the .iso is in over my network and then getting the file from my Boot Camp partition and doing something with the partition in terms of getting it to the OS X partition. How does this method sound?
Click to expand...

You wouldn't have to reformat it back if you installed ntfs-3g. This gives the mac the ability to write to ntfs drives as well as read. This way you can easily share files between pc and mac whenever you want. And they can be as large as you want
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back