FAT file system: I hate you

[lost_soul]

I transferred a 11 GB file to a flash drive today to bring it to another machine. I am aware of, but did not think about the stupid 4 GB file size limit on FAT partitions at the time. So, when I tried to restore it, I only had less than half of it on the flash drive.

 

THE SOLUTION:

I currently use cat and split to break large files into chunks whenever I have to fit large files on a FAT drive. You just do 'split -b xxxxxxx file.img' and then cat the pieces back together on the other end. Somebody should modify the mount routines to do this automatically for you so we don't keep ending up with useless files. Ideally it would detect that a FAT system has been mounted and automatically do the above without user involvement.

 

or for the desktop environment developers:..

 

"if file_being_copied => 4.2 GB && destination_fs == VFAT

ShowDialogue "want me to split this for you?""

 

Not using FAT is not an option. There are a lot of embedded systems that will only read memory cards if they are in the FAT format. Also, I've heard bad things about using NTFS on removable disks. It has never caused me any trouble, though.

Edited December 19, 2012 by lost_soul

[Sotha]

Yup, FAT sucks. I used to cleave files with archive programs so that the files were small enough to be FAT compatible. Lost sanity to the zipping and unzipping taking forever.

 

The solution was found on discount at the local übermarket:

http://www.wdc.com/e...cts.aspx?id=640

 

It is small, light and can store a-plenty. Life is easier. Almost happy.

[STiFU]

What about exFAT? Not an option either?

[Xarg]

I don't suppose something like a small FAT partition with symbolic links to something like an NTFS partition holding the files would work?