2 GB file limit in windows

[HungChow]

is there the same file limit in windows 2000?
I do a lot of video capture and this has always frustrated me,was hoping some of you guys with more experience could answer that question

 

[Spiff]

I did misunderstand the question. I thought he was referring to partition size. Instead he was referring to the size of files themselves... the limitations of which I know I've read, but cannot recall right now.

 

[rahvin]

Spiff you don't understand the question.

HungChow, can't answer your question, have you looked in the MS knowledge base? I've heard a rumor that the same file size limit applies in Win2k.

 

[kyoshozx]

I believe Spiff is correct. There is no File size limitation but instead there is a partition size limitation. Well here are the partition size limitation

Fat16 2GB in win9x and DOS
Fat16 4GB in winnt and win2k
Fat32 32GB in win98 and win2k
NTFS 2TB in win2k and winnt

 

[CQuinn]

http://quasartec.com/faq.htm
http://support.atitech.ca/infobase/3034.html

Because of a limitation in Microsoft Video for Windows,
video files you captured are limited to a 2 GB size.

I think this relates to programs that still use APIs that
assumed the file system was FAT16. Therefore the
theoretical max size any file could be was the same
as the max partition size.

Depending on the video card you use, and how the software
for the card handles it, you might not have that limit
anymore.

 

[rahvin]

It's more complicated than just video files, you aren't allowed to have any files with a size greater than 2gigs. I believe this is a fundamental design flaw with something in windows. If the problem lies in the FAT table, NTFS5 may not suffer from this like FAT and FAT32 do. But I remember reading (probably mis-remembering) that Win2k still suffers from this limitation. It could have something to do with memory handling or something that survived the transition from DOS to NT.

 

[OS]

NTFS does not suffer from this file size limitation. I created a 2.5 gig swap file not long ago to test this. I don't know about FAT 32 however.

 

[HungChow]

P3 450 256pc100 ram
18GB u2scsi disk for capture,one partition
sometimes use 2 9gb drives on my old celeron 300a oc to 450MHZ(which seems to be just as fast if not faster at times then the p3)
useing a miro dc30plus,capturing at 640x480 least amount of compression so file sizes get huge in seconds,nearly 7MBs per second
the software allows me to set a capture file at 4GBs but if it goes over 2 GBs no matter what it will not play back at all in any app I have tried
adobe premere 5.1c,w98se
was thinking about win2000 but now after reading a little bit more am convinced I will have even more problems with it,without solving this problem(must be because the cpus are just 32bit)
all disks are fat32

 

[IsOs]

AVI file is usually limited to 2GB. Unless you are using a program that is OpenDML compliant, you will always have that limitation of 2GB when capturing videos. You can joined these files to create one big video file by using VOB utilities such as VirtualDUB http://www.geocities.com/virtualdub

 

[Spiff]

I don't know about FAT32, but NTFS 4 does support multi GB file sizes. Large databases are often several GB in size. One db I maintain is nearly 6GB. And that is a relatively small db.

The file size limitation may actually be dependent on the file type and the applications that use those file types.

 

[frostgiant]

Get a proggie called AVI_IO. Seamlessly starts another 2GB file when one is done. The original AVI format only allowed for up to 1 GB, the newer AVI format allows for 2GB. Nothing to do with the OS, its the AVI format.

 

[WoundedWallet]

While I can't guarantee about other files what I know is that older AVI codecs have this 2GB limit. So this whole thing may be a misunderstanding.

If this story keeps going, someday someone will say that W2000 was named that way because of the 2000MB file limit size 🙂

 

[bonkers325]

nope win2k can use the full size of yoru hdd when u install it