To Copy MKV File

threeleggedhors · 06-02-2009 2:50pm #1

Hope I'm in the right forum. Complete lack of technical knowledge first off but I'm having a problem; I can't copy an MKV file on my PC to an external multimedia harddrive - keeps saying the destination doesn't have enough capacity even though there's about 400GB, is there any way of doing this and without losing the high definition. I know they can be converted to avi but I assume I'd lose the high def. quality..... ???

Mr. Fancypants · 06-02-2009 2:52pm

If the external drive is formatted to be FAT32 then the maximum file size it can handle is 4GB. You will need to format it to be NTFS to handle files bigger than 4GB

threeleggedhors · 06-02-2009 2:56pm

Ok, really showing my lack of knowledge but how would that be done and I assume it wouldn't affect movies already on it... tks mbroaders

Mr. Fancypants · 06-02-2009 3:05pm

If you format it you would lose everything on it i'm afraid!
If you want to keep your existing data you can either copy everything off, format it then put it back on or you can repartition it using a third party utility. If you use a third party utility you can create a new NTFS partition and keep your smaller movies on the existing FAT32 Partition. EASEUS is free and can do that for you, there is always a risk when playing with your partitions of data loss though and it can take a while to complete!

threeleggedhors · 06-02-2009 3:07pm

Thanks dude, I'll give it a try later

threeleggedhors · 06-02-2009 3:33pm

Just spotted this on another website. "You can use the convert command (Convert.exe) to convert an existing FAT volume or FAT32 volume to NTFS. Because this conversion retains all your files (unlike a format operation), use Convert.exe when you want to keep existing files on your volumes intact."

Jev/N · 11-02-2009 2:38am

What I've done to store the MKV's (as I use the HDD with both PC and Mac so NTFS isn't really suitable) is to put them into two or three large rar archives, depending on the size, and that will get around the problem without having to mess with the drive format

threeleggedhors · 02-04-2009 8:18am

Jev/N wrote: »

What I've done to store the MKV's (as I use the HDD with both PC and Mac so NTFS isn't really suitable) is to put them into two or three large rar archives, depending on the size, and that will get around the problem without having to mess with the drive format

When you place this Rar file on an external harddrive will it play by simply having win rar on the external harddrive; after hooking it to the TV and pressing play. I'll give it a try though... Thanks;)

Jev/N · 02-04-2009 12:31pm

No it won't play on the ext. HDD as it's above the file size and still has to be uncompressed. The only way to play it is to transfer it the laptop and uncompress it. It's a round-about way I know, but it's handy if you have too many files on the HDD and can't reformat it

threeleggedhors · 02-04-2009 2:23pm

Jev/N wrote: »

No it won't play on the ext. HDD as it's above the file size and still has to be uncompressed. The only way to play it is to transfer it the laptop and uncompress it. It's a round-about way I know, but it's handy if you have too many files on the HDD and can't reformat it

Thanks bud, It's a steep learning curve. If only i'd known my harddrive was fat32, pity they don't automatically have them formatted to NTFS. I've got way too much stuff on it to convert it but I might buy another harddrive, was thinking about one I've seen on amazon - 1TB for £60, cheap eh...

To Copy MKV File

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