How to handle big files > 2Go ???
 

Hi,

I just discovered that it is impossible to copy or move files greater than 2Go (I have Red Hat 9). I have some archives (tar.gz) up to 17Go that I need to transfer to an external HDD.
How can I do ?
I even can't gunzip my archive as I don't have enough disk space. I tried to do the following :

gunzip archivename.tar.gz /mnt/externalHDD/../

without success, the decompression still occurs on my local HDD

Is there a command to cut a big file into several smaller sizes ? Can I do that (I mean specify the size or the files) while compressing with tar or gzip ?


Help please !!!

Just change to another distro witch defaults is supporting files >2Gb or recompile the kernel with large files support.

You must be kidding. Sure it uncompress on your HD, because the latest /../ That path is the same as /mnt/

Thanks for the answer, I'am not kidding I'm just a complete newb .... Sorry to ask but what is a distro ? A linux distribution ?
How can I activate the large file support before recompilation of the kernel ?


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Just change to another distro witch defaults is supporting files >2Gb or recompile the kernel with large files support.

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I'm not sure to catch that. /mnt/externalHDD/ is the path of my external HDD, why should this command uncompress on my local HD ? The /../ was just a abrieviation like etc, I wanted to avoid writting the entire path

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You must be kidding. Sure it uncompress on your HD, because the latest /../ That path is the same as /mnt/
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Anyone know if the "dd" command could do any good on this? I am not sure.

Yes
I am pretty confident you already have it, red hat 9 is not too old. The only way to activate is recompiling or getting one already compiled with the option biult-in.

Ok, this looks like a real problem now.

What I am thinking right now is may be you have not the drive mounted, or with a bad format. Please, can you post the output of the 'mount' and 'df' commands? and the exact error messages you get when you try to gunzip (you should did it in first place, telling you couldn't is not too explicative :) )?

Remember: to get good and quick answers you must do good questions.

Check the post " 'dd to copy a HD to another one? " I don't know how to link to it or copy any of it here, sorry. You might be able to "dd if=/dev/hda/dir/filename of=/dev/hdb/dir/filename I don't know if this would work or not but it does not care what size a file is, it just copies bit for bit if I understand it right.

Hi,
Here are the results of the requested command

The external HD is mounted using this command :
mount -t vfat /dev/sdd5 /mnt/disquext/

[Zeibe]# mount
/dev/sdb2 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
usbdevfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /mnt/windows type vfat (rw)
/dev/sdd5 on /mnt/disquext type vfat (rw)

I have 2 local HDs, sda is a windows partition, sdb is the Linux RH 9 partition


[Zeibe]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 36.4 GB, 36401479680 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4425 cylinders
Units = cylindres of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système
/dev/sda1 * 1 4239 34049736 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 4240 4425 1494045 1c Win95 FAT32 caché (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 73.4 GB, 73407488000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8924 cylinders
Units = cylindres of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 8670 69537352+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 8671 8924 2040255 82 Echange Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylindres of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système
/dev/sdd1 2 9964 80027797+ f Win95 Etdue (LBA)
/dev/sdd5 2 9964 80027766 b Win95 FAT32

[Zeibe]# df
SysFichier 1K-blocs Utilisé Dispo. Util% Monté sur
/dev/sdb2 68445304 45936996 19031444 71% /
none 1032212 0 1032212 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1 33983344 6980876 27002468 21% /mnt/windows
/dev/sdd5 80008192 24827104 55181088 32% /mnt/disquext



I tried the dd command :
[Zeibe]# dd if=chr.tar.gz of=/mnt/externalHD/chr.tar.gz

The copy is done on the extern

oops sorry...I continue the post :

The copy is done on the external HD which is a progress but the copy stops : file size limit exeeded, the copy stopped at 2Go
The problem is still there ...

Sadly I think vfat partitions have a file size limit of 2G after doing a little looking around. You might do a search and see if it is a size limitation problem on your target drive.

I think brainiac is right. For vfat partitions the limit is 2Gb. But you can do magic with split. If you want help decompresing and making smaller chunks, please open a new question and I'll answer. Do not forget to explain the final goal for all this.