Windows 2000 2 GB file limit

[GCC Consulting]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com 
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com] On Behalf 
> Of Kenneth Brody
> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 5:23 PM
> To: Jay R. Ashworth
> Cc: filePro List
> Subject: Re: Windows 2000 2 GB file limit
> 
> "Jay R. Ashworth" wrote:
> [...]
> > > Win9x systems (95, 98, and Me) have 2GB filesize limits.  
> NT-based 
> > > systems (NT, XP, 2000, and 2003) do not have these limits.
> > 
> > This isn't strictly correct.
> > 
> > The limit is in the design of the filesystem, not in the 
> underlying OS:
> > *any* OS will limit you to a 2GB filesize *on a FAT32 filesystem*.
> > 
> > Even NT.
> 
> Yes and no.  Yes, a filesystem that doesn't allow >2GB files 
> obviously won't allow it regardless of the O/S.  No, in the 
> sense that Win9X can't access >4GB files regardless of the 
> filesystem.  For example, I created a huge file on a WinXP 
> box with NTFS, and from a Win98 box on the network, I 
> attempted to copy that file, also to NTFS.  Although the copy 
> kept on running, the file never got bigger than 4,295,007,744 
> bytes, which is actually 4GB+40,448 for some reason.  Now, 
> the Win98 box sees the file as on 40,448 bytes in size, and 
> copy will only copy that many bytes.  (And I'm not sure how 
> you would access the file beyond the 2GB boundary, as the 
> Win9x API doesn't have any way to specify a file offset >2GB.)
> 
> > There's a 1 or 2 GB limit on the associated AVI video 
> files, to pick 
> > up a tangent of Mark's other thread, but that is unrelated to the 
> > filesystem the file lives on.
> 
I haven't kept up with this complete thread but what you are saying that there
could be a native version which allowed file sizes up to 4Gb as long as it was a
homogeneous NTFS file system.  i.e. MS Server or  a *nix variant using XP as the
OS on the workstation/terminal.

Would this be a correct statement?

Richard Kreiss
GCC Consulting