I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
size.

Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?

bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
> size.
>
> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?

What is your HDD's largest partition size?

On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 16:43:51 -0600, Paul in Houston TX
<Paul@Houston.Texas> wrote:

>bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>> size.
>>
>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>
>What is your HDD's largest partition size?

C: Properties
---------------------
Capacity: 465 GB
Used Space: 16.8 GB
Free Space: 448 GB

On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
> size.
>
> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>

My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.

That is short of any limit that I know of.

That should work fine.

Paul

On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

>On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>> size.
>>
>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>
>
>My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>
>That is short of any limit that I know of.
>
>That should work fine.
>
> Paul

Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?

Is that why you asked the question you did?

By the way, Tnx for answering.

On Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:23:52 -0600, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:

>On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
>>On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>>> size.
>>>
>>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>>
>>
>>My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>>
>>That is short of any limit that I know of.
>>
>>That should work fine.
>>
>> Paul
>
>Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
>temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
>
>Is that why you asked the question you did?
>
>By the way, Tnx for answering.

I think I might have found the answer here -

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/copy-4gb-or-larger-file-to-usb-0708.html

bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
> On Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:23:52 -0600, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:

> >On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >>On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
> >>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
> >>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
> >>> size.
> >>>
> >>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
> >>>
> >>
> >>My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
> >>
> >>That is short of any limit that I know of.
> >>
> >>That should work fine.
> >>
> >> Paul
> >
> >Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
> >temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
> >
> >Is that why you asked the question you did?
> >
> >By the way, Tnx for answering.

> I think I might have found the answer here -

> https://www.diskpart.com/articles/copy-4gb-or-larger-file-to-usb-0708.html

I can't remember if Windows XP SP3 can do exFAT if you want more
compatibilty instead of NTFS.

--
Sleeping and waking up too early like after 09:09:09:09 PM PST to 3:33:33:3 AM PST! :(
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

On 3/9/2022 7:23 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>>> size.
>>>
>>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>>
>>
>> My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>>
>> That is short of any limit that I know of.
>>
>> That should work fine.
>>
>> Paul
>
> Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
> temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
>
> Is that why you asked the question you did?
>
> By the way, Tnx for answering.

"Paul In Houston" and "Paul" are two different people.
I'm the guy who is not in Houston.

I'm not aware of a mechanism, where the size of the USB
stick is constrained by the size of the C: partition
or the hard drive C: is on.

You are free to use your USB flash stick 128GB as you please.

*******

"Paul In Houston" may be thinking of a case, where you have
a USB enclosure (box that holds a hard drive) and you place
a hard drive inside it, and there might be rules for that.

WinXP does not support GPT partitioning, and MBR partitioning
uses 32-bit numbers for some of the fields and that causes a
relatively large limit of 2.2TB when trying to describe such things.

There are two ways a person can lay down a partition.

Normally, the MBR comes first, and the first partition
starts at a certain offset from the beginning. That's
the "normal" way to do it.

+-----+----------+--------------------+
| MBR | "track0" | D: MyDataPartition |
+-----+----------+--------------------+

But you can also start a single partition right at the
very beginning of the USB flash stick. The first sector in such
a case, has "NTFS" text string in it and the partition
just occupies the entire device. There might not be
a size limit (for data purposes) if it is done that
way, but then again, you can't put a boot OS on it
that way. The first sector will also end in 0xAA55 in
the same way that an MBR would end when initialized
properly.

+-------------------------------------+
| D: MyDataPartition |
+-------------------------------------+

By avoiding the usage of the MBR, think of the magical
things that are possible :-)

*******

If you needed to simulate this, I have seen some new
capabilities added to virtual machines, which can be
used for "try before you buy" on USB sticks. But at the
moment, this would be bar bet material, in terms of
getting it set up. It's not all that practical.

Microsoft has some free virtual machines (a container
with an OS inside it), and that saves the frustration of
dealing with the WinXP SP3 CD when installing WinXP into
a VM. Even though the copy of the free VM has been removed
from the microsoft web page, you can still get it :-) But
again, a PITA, as the site allowing the download of it, runs
at 300KB/sec (sloooow).

"Much fun can be had... for just pennies a day".

You can see I am easily amused.

Paul

On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 20:38:49 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

>On 3/9/2022 7:23 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>> On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>>>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>>>> size.
>>>>
>>>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>>>
>>>
>>> My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>>>
>>> That is short of any limit that I know of.
>>>
>>> That should work fine.
>>>
>>> Paul
>>
>> Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
>> temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
>>
>> Is that why you asked the question you did?
>>
>> By the way, Tnx for answering.
>
>"Paul In Houston" and "Paul" are two different people.
>I'm the guy who is not in Houston.
>
>I'm not aware of a mechanism, where the size of the USB
>stick is constrained by the size of the C: partition
>or the hard drive C: is on.
>
>You are free to use your USB flash stick 128GB as you please.
>
>*******
>
>"Paul In Houston" may be thinking of a case, where you have
>a USB enclosure (box that holds a hard drive) and you place
>a hard drive inside it, and there might be rules for that.
>
>WinXP does not support GPT partitioning, and MBR partitioning
>uses 32-bit numbers for some of the fields and that causes a
>relatively large limit of 2.2TB when trying to describe such things.
>
>There are two ways a person can lay down a partition.
>
>Normally, the MBR comes first, and the first partition
>starts at a certain offset from the beginning. That's
>the "normal" way to do it.
>
> +-----+----------+--------------------+
> | MBR | "track0" | D: MyDataPartition |
> +-----+----------+--------------------+
>
>But you can also start a single partition right at the
>very beginning of the USB flash stick. The first sector in such
>a case, has "NTFS" text string in it and the partition
>just occupies the entire device. There might not be
>a size limit (for data purposes) if it is done that
>way, but then again, you can't put a boot OS on it
>that way. The first sector will also end in 0xAA55 in
>the same way that an MBR would end when initialized
>properly.
>
> +-------------------------------------+
> | D: MyDataPartition |
> +-------------------------------------+
>
>By avoiding the usage of the MBR, think of the magical
>things that are possible :-)
>
>*******
>
>If you needed to simulate this, I have seen some new
>capabilities added to virtual machines, which can be
>used for "try before you buy" on USB sticks. But at the
>moment, this would be bar bet material, in terms of
>getting it set up. It's not all that practical.
>
>Microsoft has some free virtual machines (a container
>with an OS inside it), and that saves the frustration of
>dealing with the WinXP SP3 CD when installing WinXP into
>a VM. Even though the copy of the free VM has been removed
>from the microsoft web page, you can still get it :-) But
>again, a PITA, as the site allowing the download of it, runs
>at 300KB/sec (sloooow).
>
>"Much fun can be had... for just pennies a day".
>
>You can see I am easily amused.
>
> Paul

Tnx for the answer but that amount of know-how is beyond me.

I am going to buy one of those 64 or 128 GB sticks and screw around
with it, seeing what I can come up with. The price is low enuf.

Tnx to all again.

Paul wrote:
> On 3/9/2022 7:23 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>> On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>>>> TV via Rocku.  I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>>>> size.
>>>>
>>>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>>>
>>>
>>> My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>>>
>>> That is short of any limit that I know of.
>>>
>>> That should work fine.
>>>
>>>     Paul
>>
>> Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
>> temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
>>
>> Is that why you asked the question you did?
>>
>> By the way, Tnx for answering.
>
> "Paul In Houston" and "Paul" are two different people.
> I'm the guy who is not in Houston.
>
> I'm not aware of a mechanism, where the size of the USB
> stick is constrained by the size of the C: partition
> or the hard drive C: is on.
>
> You are free to use your USB flash stick 128GB as you please.
>
> *******
>
> "Paul In Houston" may be thinking of a case, where you have
> a USB enclosure (box that holds a hard drive) and you place
> a hard drive inside it, and there might be rules for that.
>
> WinXP does not support GPT partitioning, and MBR partitioning
> uses 32-bit numbers for some of the fields and that causes a
> relatively large limit of 2.2TB when trying to describe such things.
>
> There are two ways a person can lay down a partition.
>
> Normally, the MBR comes first, and the first partition
> starts at a certain offset from the beginning. That's
> the "normal" way to do it.
>
>   +-----+----------+--------------------+
>   | MBR | "track0" | D: MyDataPartition |
>   +-----+----------+--------------------+
>
> But you can also start a single partition right at the
> very beginning of the USB flash stick. The first sector in such
> a case, has "NTFS" text string in it and the partition
> just occupies the entire device. There might not be
> a size limit (for data purposes) if it is done that
> way, but then again, you can't put a boot OS on it
> that way. The first sector will also end in 0xAA55 in
> the same way that an MBR would end when initialized
> properly.
>
>   +-------------------------------------+
>   |          D: MyDataPartition         |
>   +-------------------------------------+
>
> By avoiding the usage of the MBR, think of the magical
> things that are possible :-)
>
> *******
>
> If you needed to simulate this, I have seen some new
> capabilities added to virtual machines, which can be
> used for "try before you buy" on USB sticks. But at the
> moment, this would be bar bet material, in terms of
> getting it set up. It's not all that practical.
>
> Microsoft has some free virtual machines (a container
> with an OS inside it), and that saves the frustration of
> dealing with the WinXP SP3 CD when installing WinXP into
> a VM. Even though the copy of the free VM has been removed
> from the microsoft web page, you can still get it :-) But
> again, a PITA, as the site allowing the download of it, runs
> at 300KB/sec (sloooow).
>
> "Much fun can be had... for just pennies a day".
>
> You can see I am easily amused.
>
>    Paul

I was curious what hdd format (FAT32, NTFS, exfat, etc.) he is using and
did not know his comp knowledge but figured that he would know partition
size.

Can XP format a usb stick with FAT32 to 64 GB or 128 GB in one partition?

On 3/9/2022 8:30 PM, Ant wrote:
> bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>> On Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:23:52 -0600, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>
>>> On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>>>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>>>>> TV via Rocku. I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>>>>> size.
>>>>>
>>>>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>>>>
>>>> That is short of any limit that I know of.
>>>>
>>>> That should work fine.
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>
>>> Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
>>> temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
>>>
>>> Is that why you asked the question you did?
>>>
>>> By the way, Tnx for answering.
>
>> I think I might have found the answer here -
>
>> https://www.diskpart.com/articles/copy-4gb-or-larger-file-to-usb-0708.html
>
> I can't remember if Windows XP SP3 can do exFAT if you want more
> compatibilty instead of NTFS.
>

It can, but it takes a separate download from Microsoft.com to do it.

I think it might be an example of an IFS (Installable File System),
which allows adding file systems after the OS design is finished.
That's just a guess on my part.

As for the 4GB limit, of course you don't use FAT32. No manufacturer
should be shipping a stick with FAT32 as the default file system on it.
Disk Management should show how the stick has shipped.

It should be "willing" to format a 128GB stick to NTFS.

The stick should really be prepared on Win7, to get the
partition aligned to 1MB. WinXP is a poor place to be applying
the initial MSDOS "MBR" partition table, because of the weird offset
used for the first partition.

You could also use Linux for this.

If WinXP discovers the 1MB alignment, it should not complain. It is
utilities like PowerQuest Partition Magic that complain.

Paul

On 3/10/2022 12:33 AM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> On 3/9/2022 7:23 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>> On Wed, 9 Mar 2022 18:59:04 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 3/9/2022 5:15 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:
>>>>> I have some very large videos - MP4s - that I wish to play through my
>>>>> TV via Rocku.  I'm wondering whether to get 64 GB ones or the 128 GB
>>>>> size.
>>>>>
>>>>> Are there any problems with USBs that size with XP?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My 128GB USB stick is 128,980,615,680 bytes.
>>>>
>>>> That is short of any limit that I know of.
>>>>
>>>> That should work fine.
>>>>
>>>>     Paul
>>>
>>> Does the free space of C: matter because the System needs to create a
>>> temporary file in order to save to the USB stick?
>>>
>>> Is that why you asked the question you did?
>>>
>>> By the way, Tnx for answering.
>>
>> "Paul In Houston" and "Paul" are two different people.
>> I'm the guy who is not in Houston.
>>
>> I'm not aware of a mechanism, where the size of the USB
>> stick is constrained by the size of the C: partition
>> or the hard drive C: is on.
>>
>> You are free to use your USB flash stick 128GB as you please.
>>
>> *******
>>
>> "Paul In Houston" may be thinking of a case, where you have
>> a USB enclosure (box that holds a hard drive) and you place
>> a hard drive inside it, and there might be rules for that.
>>
>> WinXP does not support GPT partitioning, and MBR partitioning
>> uses 32-bit numbers for some of the fields and that causes a
>> relatively large limit of 2.2TB when trying to describe such things.
>>
>> There are two ways a person can lay down a partition.
>>
>> Normally, the MBR comes first, and the first partition
>> starts at a certain offset from the beginning. That's
>> the "normal" way to do it.
>>
>>    +-----+----------+--------------------+
>>    | MBR | "track0" | D: MyDataPartition |
>>    +-----+----------+--------------------+
>>
>> But you can also start a single partition right at the
>> very beginning of the USB flash stick. The first sector in such
>> a case, has "NTFS" text string in it and the partition
>> just occupies the entire device. There might not be
>> a size limit (for data purposes) if it is done that
>> way, but then again, you can't put a boot OS on it
>> that way. The first sector will also end in 0xAA55 in
>> the same way that an MBR would end when initialized
>> properly.
>>
>>    +-------------------------------------+
>>    |          D: MyDataPartition         |
>>    +-------------------------------------+
>>
>> By avoiding the usage of the MBR, think of the magical
>> things that are possible :-)
>>
>> *******
>>
>> If you needed to simulate this, I have seen some new
>> capabilities added to virtual machines, which can be
>> used for "try before you buy" on USB sticks. But at the
>> moment, this would be bar bet material, in terms of
>> getting it set up. It's not all that practical.
>>
>> Microsoft has some free virtual machines (a container
>> with an OS inside it), and that saves the frustration of
>> dealing with the WinXP SP3 CD when installing WinXP into
>> a VM. Even though the copy of the free VM has been removed
>> from the microsoft web page, you can still get it :-) But
>> again, a PITA, as the site allowing the download of it, runs
>> at 300KB/sec (sloooow).
>>
>> "Much fun can be had... for just pennies a day".
>>
>> You can see I am easily amused.
>>
>>     Paul
>
> I was curious what hdd format (FAT32, NTFS, exfat, etc.) he is using and did not know his comp knowledge but figured that he would know partition size.
>
> Can XP format a usb stick with FAT32 to 64 GB or 128 GB in one partition?

That requires the Ridgecrop fat32formatter program.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200424145132/http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20200410224838if_/http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/download/fat32format.zip

It handles the stuff that Microsoft would not, namely
everything from 32GB to 2.2TB . And, it picks a cluster
size for each.

Paul

On 3/9/2022 8:50 PM, bb@gigglemail.com wrote:

> Tnx for the answer but that amount of know-how is beyond me.
>
> I am going to buy one of those 64 or 128 GB sticks and screw around
> with it, seeing what I can come up with. The price is low enuf.
>
> Tnx to all again.

I tried testing above 2TB in a VM, and the results were horrible.

Just stick with your 128GB stick and you'll be fine.
Pick NTFS format for it, as that's a good compromise (compatible
with a few things). While ExFAT might have some benefit, it might
not work with third-party devices like it should. I don't use ExFAT
here, just because it wouldn't work in all my kit. And FAT32 has
the 4GB file-size limitation, not a good choice for your "big MP4"
files particularly.

If the stick had no file system on it (unusual), then you would
prefer to prepare the stick on Win7 or later. This gives 1MB alignment
of partitions, which causes slightly fewer writes (more efficient)
than the WinXP alignment. If you find a file system already on the
stick, the company will have already done this for you (1MB alignment).

Some parts of WinXP can "see" exceedingly large devices,
other parts of the software cannot. This makes it as
aggravating as heck. Acronis Capacity Manager and some
seagate tool, can help Windows XP deal with >2TB devices,
but again, I stopped using the Acronis thing because it
was getting on my nerves.

I tried preparing a raw NTFS partition on an 8TB virtual
device, and really, no part of WinXP was remotely interested
in the thing I made in Linux. I thought that was supposed
to bypass some of these issues -- the problem is, WMIC claims
all my devices are 2TB and will not allow their true size to be
supported. And that's what is trashing some part of my experiment.
We were told years ago that "Oh, USB can go to the moon and
back, you'll see". But WinXP says the devices are 2TB in size,
even when they're a lot larger than that.

It's also possible that the VirtualBox I was using had a few
bugs in it. 6.1.32 release.

I can't test on real WinXP any more, because my motherboard
blew out. The old machine is now gone and buried.

Paul