Solved Transferring Files to Thumbdrive......

rdburke · Nov 15, 2022

I have been meaning to ask this question for a while now but I've just been putting it off hoping that it would work itself out on it's own. I have three different computers that I use for testing, 1 Desktop and 2 Laptops. I used to use a thumbdrive to deploy Insider Builds to each one. My Desktop PC which I use on a regular basis and that has the fastest internet connect started giving me the message that "Install.wim is too large for the destination drive" when copying the Windows 11 setup files to any drive. Happens every time no matter what. I have checked the size that the drives hold which is much greater than the 5.57GB of the ESD folder I am trying to send to the drive. This issue has been present through many builds. Most of them are at least 32GB and have been formated in either FAT32 or NTFS......I get the same results either way. I have run SFC/SCANNOW and DISM to check for corrupt files and it says that all is OK. All drivers are up to date as far as that goes. I am now running Windows 11 Version 22H2 (OS Build 22623.891) Any help would be appreciated.

cereberus · Nov 15, 2022

rdburke said:
I have been meaning to ask this question for a while now but I've just been putting it off hoping that it would work itself out on it's own. I have three different computers that I use for testing, 1 Desktop and 2 Laptops. I used to use a thumbdrive to deploy Insider Builds to each one. My Desktop PC which I use on a regular basis and that has the fastest internet connect started giving me the message that "Install.wim is too large for the destination drive" when copying the Windows 11 setup files to any drive. Happens every time no matter what. I have checked the size that the drives hold which is much greater than the 5.57GB of the ESD folder I am trying to send to the drive. This issue has been present through many builds. Most of them are at least 32GB and have been formated in either FAT32 or NTFS......I get the same results either way. I have run SFC/SCANNOW and DISM to check for corrupt files and it says that all is OK. All drivers are up to date as far as that goes. I am now running Windows 11 Version 22H2 (OS Build 22623.891) Any help would be appreciated.

See this tutorial.

Create bootable USB installer if install.wim is greater than 4GB

Information As discussed in tutorial DISM - Split install.wim file | Windows 10 Tutorials, it is not possible to create a bootable flash drive in fat32 format if the install.wim file is over 4GB in size. That tutorial presents a method to spl

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Berton · Nov 15, 2022

A base problem with USB Thumb drives is they come factory formatted as FAT32 which has a partition size limit of 32GB [at least a couple of mine at 128GB and 256GB] and a single file size limit of 4GB.

cereberus · Nov 15, 2022

Berton said:
A base problem with USB Thumb drives is they come factory formatted as FAT32 which has a partition size limit of 32GB [at least a couple of mine at 128GB and 256GB] and a single file size limit of 4GB.

The 32GB limit is an annoying windows creation limit but is not an actual fat32 limit. It is possible to bypass this limit.

Hower the 4GB limit cannot by bypassed - hence tutorial link in my previous post.

rdburke · Nov 15, 2022

cereberus said:
The 32GB limit is an annoying windows creation limit but is not an actual fat32 limit. It is possible to bypass this limit.

Hower the 4GB limit cannot by bypassed - hence tutorial link in my previous post.

So if I use Rufus or a similar program to create a bootable drive, I will be able to copy what I need off of it to do an upgrade of my OS's......Thank you for clearing up the 4GB limit info. I had never run into that issue until now.

Berton · Nov 15, 2022

rdburke said:
So if I use Rufus or a similar program to create a bootable drive, I will be able to copy what I need off of it to do an upgrade of my OS's......Thank you for clearing up the 4GB limit info. I had never run into that issue until now.

More about the FAT/File Allocation Table:

File Allocation Table (FAT): What Is It? (Its Types & More)

File allocation table can refer to a FAT file system or a table which resides in a FAT file system. Read on and know what a file allocation table is.

www.minitool.com

spapakons · Nov 16, 2022

If you use the USB flash drive exclusively on Windows, you can format it as NTFS to hold as large files as its capacity, no 4GB limit. If you want to also use it in Mac or Linux you can either enable full read/write NTFS access or format it as exFAT that can be read/written from all three OSes without the 4GB limit of the original FAT32.

Winuser · Nov 16, 2022

When I want to use an ISO file on a thumb drive to update my other computers, I mount the ISO and copy the files to the thumb drive. It's been so long ago that I don't remember if the thumb drive is bootable to be used to do a clean install.

cereberus · Nov 16, 2022

spapakons said:
If you use the USB flash drive exclusively on Windows, you can format it as NTFS to hold as large files as its capacity, no 4GB limit. If you want to also use it in Mac or Linux you can either enable full read/write NTFS access or format it as exFAT that can be read/written from all three OSes without the 4GB limit of the original FAT32.

Yeah but most uefi pcs will not boot from ntfs or exFat.

Berton · Nov 16, 2022

Most distros of Linux can read/write a larger number of formats and Mac OS X can read NTFS but not write without additional software [I have an older 21" iMac All-in-One], haven't had a chance to try NTFS on the newer macOS with their new CPUs. As a test I used Linux and GPARTED to clean a 200GB HDD then partitioned and formatted as FAT32, no issue. The new 128GB and 256GB Thumb drives came as FAT32, still no way around the 4GB file size limit.

hsehestedt · Nov 16, 2022

Assuming that you have a Windows ISO image that contains a \sources\install.wim file (not an install.esd) file, you can also get around that issue by splitting the install.wim into smaller pieces.

Here is an example of how you can do this:

In this example, I will assuming that your thumb drive is E: and that you have mounted your Windows ISO image to F:. Make changes to those drive letters as appropriate in the commands below.

1) Start by mounting the ISO image. You can simply double-click to mount. Note the drive letter. Again, in this example I assume F:

2) Run this command to copy everything EXCEPT the install.wim file to your thumb drive:

robocopy F:\ E:\ /mir /xf install.wim /xd "system volume information" $recycle.bin

3) Now split the install.wim into smaller pieces that will fit on FAT32 and copy it to the thumb drive:

DISM /Split-Image /ImageFile:F:\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:E:\sources\install.swm /FileSize:3800

That's all!

rdburke · Nov 18, 2022

Winuser said:
When I want to use an ISO file on a thumb drive to update my other computers, I mount the ISO and copy the files to the thumb drive. It's been so long ago that I don't remember if the thumb drive is bootable to be used to do a clean install.

My problem is, I don't seem to have the option to mount when dealing with the .ISO.........Any idea why?

rdburke · Nov 18, 2022

rdburke said:
My problem is, I don't seem to have the option to mount when dealing with the .ISO.........Any idea why?

I figured it out finally why "Mount" was not showing. WinRaR was set as the default for opening .ISO files. I set Explorer as default and I now have the option showing.

spapakons · Nov 18, 2022

You don't have to change default application. Just right-click and select Open with Explorer.

Solved Transferring Files to Thumbdrive......

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