Help with Backing Up Files?

I've tried the backup utility twice with the same bad result. I have 60 Gig
of external drive free and only about 20 Gig of files to backup. The backup
seems to run fine (dumping it into the a .bkf file) until it gets to 4 Gig,
when it tells me " End of Media encountered while backing up to non-removable
media.
The operation was ended."

Help? Thanks

T. Frank wrote:
> I've tried the backup utility twice with the same bad result. I
> have 60 Gig of external drive free and only about 20 Gig of files
> to backup. The backup seems to run fine (dumping it into the a
> .bkf file) until it gets to 4 Gig, when it tells me " End of Media
> encountered while backing up to non-removable media.
> The operation was ended."
>
> Help? Thanks

External media is formatted FAT32 I assume?
You cannot have a single file size greater than 4GB using the FAT32 file
system.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Thanks for the reply, but I don't know. I do know that I already have some
stuff on the external that I don't want to lose. Can I reformat without
losing stuff and if so, how? Thanks much

"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

> T. Frank wrote:
> > I've tried the backup utility twice with the same bad result. I
> > have 60 Gig of external drive free and only about 20 Gig of files
> > to backup. The backup seems to run fine (dumping it into the a
> > .bkf file) until it gets to 4 Gig, when it tells me " End of Media
> > encountered while backing up to non-removable media.
> > The operation was ended."
> >
> > Help? Thanks
>
> External media is formatted FAT32 I assume?
> You cannot have a single file size greater than 4GB using the FAT32 file
> system.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
>
>

Shenan Stanley wrote:
T. Frank wrote:
> I've tried the backup utility twice with the same bad result. I
> have 60 Gig of external drive free and only about 20 Gig of files
> to backup. The backup seems to run fine (dumping it into the a
> .bkf file) until it gets to 4 Gig, when it tells me " End of Media
> encountered while backing up to non-removable media.
> The operation was ended."
>
> Help? Thanks

> External media is formatted FAT32 I assume?
> You cannot have a single file size greater than 4GB using the
> FAT32 file system.

T. Frank wrote:
> Thanks for the reply, but I don't know. I do know that I already
> have some stuff on the external that I don't want to lose. Can I
> reformat without losing stuff and if so, how? Thanks much

Right-click on the drive in My Computer and choose properties. It should
tell you what File System it is using.

You might be able to convert it from FAT32 to NTFS - but the only way to be
sure you do not lose data is to copy it/back it up elsewhere - because
things can and do go wrong on occassion.

There is a built-in tool for conversions... "convert"
Command prompt, "convert /?" will give you the options.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Most modern backup programs have some user option to control the size of
individual files. This excludes Ntbackup.exe, which is a very old program.
It is free with XP, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

Try a different backup program, one that permits you to specify the "span
size" or similar. Both True Image and Ghost can do this. Other
alternatives, some free, can be found listed at:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html


"T. Frank" <T. Frank@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7C49372A-3D63-4EC3-88FB-8A70EEF66028@microsoft.com...
> I've tried the backup utility twice with the same bad result. I have 60
> Gig
> of external drive free and only about 20 Gig of files to backup. The
> backup
> seems to run fine (dumping it into the a .bkf file) until it gets to 4
> Gig,
> when it tells me " End of Media encountered while backing up to
> non-removable
> media.
> The operation was ended."
>
> Help? Thanks

Thanks very much!

"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

> Shenan Stanley wrote:
> T. Frank wrote:
> > I've tried the backup utility twice with the same bad result. I
> > have 60 Gig of external drive free and only about 20 Gig of files
> > to backup. The backup seems to run fine (dumping it into the a
> > .bkf file) until it gets to 4 Gig, when it tells me " End of Media
> > encountered while backing up to non-removable media.
> > The operation was ended."
> >
> > Help? Thanks
>
> > External media is formatted FAT32 I assume?
> > You cannot have a single file size greater than 4GB using the
> > FAT32 file system.
>
> T. Frank wrote:
> > Thanks for the reply, but I don't know. I do know that I already
> > have some stuff on the external that I don't want to lose. Can I
> > reformat without losing stuff and if so, how? Thanks much
>
> Right-click on the drive in My Computer and choose properties. It should
> tell you what File System it is using.
>
> You might be able to convert it from FAT32 to NTFS - but the only way to be
> sure you do not lose data is to copy it/back it up elsewhere - because
> things can and do go wrong on occassion.
>
> There is a built-in tool for conversions... "convert"
> Command prompt, "convert /?" will give you the options.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
>
>