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How can I download files bigger than 4 GB on my Micromax A110 phone?

FAT32 file system says that it does not support files larger than 4 GB. I know there is one more way to do that: EXFAT file system. But my phone does not support that format -- so what should I do to download bigger files?

There are many games on sites which are not split into parts. Also torrent sites have many big games -- but I can't download them because they are larger than 4 GB.

So what should I do? And please tell me that when I format my sd card there are some other options like kilobytes 16 or 32 or many more. So which number of kilobytes should I select for my phone to format EXFAT file system?

Izzy
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4 Answers4

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Try formatting your SDCard as either Ext4Fs or Ext3Fs. Using such a tool as Partition Magic or even Parted

To quote from Wikipedia's entry on Ext4fs:

Large file system

The ext4 filesystem can support volumes with sizes up to 1 exbibyte (EiB) and files with sizes up to 16 tebibytes (TiB).

Likewise, for the quote on Wikipedia's entry on Ext3fs

Size limits

The max number of blocks for ext3 is 2^32. The size of a block can vary, affecting the max number of files and the max size of the file system:

   +------------+-----------------+----------------------+
   | Block Size |  Max File Size  |  Max Filesystem Size |
   +------------|-----------------|----------------------|
   |   1Kb      |     16Gb        |       2Tb            |
   +------------|-----------------|----------------------|
   |   2Kb      |     256Gb       |       8Tb            |
   +------------|-----------------|----------------------|
   |   4Kb      |     2Tb         |       16Tb           |
   +------------|-----------------|----------------------|
   |   8Kb      |     2Tb         |       32Tb           |
   +-----------------------------------------------------v

The reason FAT32 is used, is to maintain compatibility with the majority of OS's on desktop/laptops, which is Microsoft Windows!

Caveat Emptor:

Some kernels have support for Ext4fs in place, not all of them may have it, notably Stock ROMs coming from manufacturers!

Also, if you are rooted and running a customized kernel, chances are pretty high that the kernel would have support for this - you can confirm by checking via adb shell

  • adb shell ls /proc/*.gz There should be a hit on the configuration file, usually named config.gz or kernel_config.gz or similar.
  • Pull that down via adb pull /proc/config.gz
  • Unzip this file and launch your favourite editor, Search for the following keywords *CONFIG_EXT3_FS* or *CONFIG_EXT4_FS*
  • Or from the command line, zcat config.gz | grep "CONFIG_EXT4_FS"
  • If the search yielded this line # CONFIG_EXT4_FS is not set or # CONFIG_EXT3_FS is not set you are out of luck as that kernel would not have any support.

In short, if you need to support big files, a custom ROM or a custom Kernel would be needed this requires a pre-requisite in unlocking the bootloader in order to flash a new custom kernel in place that has support for such filesystems!

t0mm13b
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2

The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte or 4,294,967,295 bytes, SD memory in your phone is formatted as FAT32 so you limited to have files smaller than 4GB in your phone. Cluster size has no differences in limitation of FAT32 Structure.

Kaveh
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Just like the answers above. FAT32 has a maximum absolute filesize limit of 4GB only

However partitioning your SDcard to Ext3/Ext4 will have a disadvantage of not being read in Windows.

If your device is already rooted then I suggest you to install a FUSE (Filesystem on Userspace) driver so it can support NTFS volumes and keep compatability with Windows.

An App already exist to mount the driver automatically by using this additional file from the XDA forums.

After this, just format your SDcard to NTFS, your Android will be able to read/write to it with ease

Update:

I also found Paragon Mounter, probably based on FUSE but optimized for Android.

forums
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0

Dude, I suggest reformatting your SD card to ext3 Or ext4. And I find it more stable than NTFS in android.

And regarding operating system compatibility... Its easy dude... Rooting an android may void your warranty... So I prefer to mod my pc to read all file system... And its pretty easy too... Just get windows drivers for ext3 or whatever file system needed... And in windows u even get drivers for HFS plus (Mac drives)... So where is the problem ???

I dual boot my amd PC with windows 7 ultimate sp1 and apple Mac osx 10.9.0 Marvericks... And all file systems work well on both the os.. We get every filesystem to work with windows by using proper drivers... And Mac osx natively supports every other file system except NTFS, for which drivers are available...

Use the power of Google... You can easily get drivers..

Good luck. :)

user254425
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