File size limit exceeded
 

Here is my problem. I am attempting to create an image of a 20 GB hard drive (via the dd command). However, during the imaging process, the dd command craps out after 16 GB and gives me a "File size limit exceeded" error. I have tried a number of different things like reformatiing the drive I am writting to and moving partitions around on the drive I am writting. I get the same error. I have plenty of space available (currently I have 53GB of free space that I can write to). I found a post talking about being able to extend this limit using the "ulimit command, but was curious if anyone has ran into the same problem and how they went about solving it. Here is a link to the post that I refered to above. Thanks!

What filesystem are you using? If the size of the block address is too small, you won't be able to physically address more data, hence the limit.

I am using Linux Ext2.

Basically, the metadata for each file can only store so many names of blocks, so if your file takes more than that number, you're sunk. I suggest you reformat that partition with a larger block size so that you can hold more data per file.

A quick Google search claims that the maximum ext2 file size is 2GB or 4GB, depending on the website, but it doesn't mention the blocksize. If you're already at 16GB for one file then those website's math must not take into account large blocksizes.

Type ulimit -a and see if you are restricted to creating files over aq certain size.

Type ulimit -a and see if you are restricted to creating files over aq certain size.