Which file system has a 4 GB file size limit?

Study for the Computer Essentials Exam. Engage with flashcards and multiple-choice questions, each featuring hints and explanations. Prepare thoroughly for your test!

Multiple Choice

Which file system has a 4 GB file size limit?

Explanation:
FAT32’s 4 GB file size limit comes from how it records the size of a file. The size is stored in a 32-bit value in the file’s directory entry, so the largest size that can be represented is 2^32 − 1 bytes, which is 4,294,967,295 bytes — effectively 4 GB minus one byte. Other file systems like NTFS, exFAT, and EXT4 use larger (often 64-bit) size fields, so they can store much larger files and don’t have this 4 GB ceiling. So on FAT32 you’ll encounter a hard limit when trying to create or copy a single file larger than about 4 GB, whereas on the other systems you can go far beyond that.

FAT32’s 4 GB file size limit comes from how it records the size of a file. The size is stored in a 32-bit value in the file’s directory entry, so the largest size that can be represented is 2^32 − 1 bytes, which is 4,294,967,295 bytes — effectively 4 GB minus one byte. Other file systems like NTFS, exFAT, and EXT4 use larger (often 64-bit) size fields, so they can store much larger files and don’t have this 4 GB ceiling. So on FAT32 you’ll encounter a hard limit when trying to create or copy a single file larger than about 4 GB, whereas on the other systems you can go far beyond that.

More practice questions