Strange problem with WD 500GB external hard drive

[sperera]

Got a bit of a strange one im looking for help with please.

Had my WD 500GB external hard drive for over 12 months.

Latley when I go to windows explorer, right click on the drive and left click on properties i get a reading says free space is 273gb. when I try and past something in there, a movie for example, i get an error saying there isnt enough space left. File of the movie is roughly 3gb.

To trouble shoot i tried to past a small picture file and that worked fine.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[sperera]

Ok been working on this problem since posting question with a friend.

Confirmed its a FAT32 error

opened cmn and ran CONVERT e: /FS:NTFS /v

when it asks for what drive use My Passport

if it asks for dismount i selected yes

i then received an error saying the volume has inconsistencies so i ran chkdsk e: /f

when that finished i ran the CONVERT e: /FS:NTFS /v which worked and im now filling up my external hard drive once again!

IMPORTANT - to ensure you dont loose any valueable data on your drive backup before trying this, this worked for my and I cant guarantee this will work for everyone.

Hope it helps someone out there.

 

[Coodu]

Good to know mate, I thought the file-size limit for FAT32 was 4GB but it also has restrictions on filenames and such.

I would've just backed up and formatted the drive to NTFS if it was me but nice to see you got it sorted otherwise

 

[sperera]

thanks, i posted the outcome because im sure this will help someone else sooner or later.....

 

[LookinAround]

good tip! :grinthumb