SanDisk Cruzer 256GB Will only accept 26GB of files

Recently purchased 3 SanDisk Cruzer’s, each 256GB; I wanted to store videos on them, 202 GB on each Cruzer. HOWEVER, when attempting the first file transfer, it will only accept 26.1GB…one-tenth of stated amount. What’s the issue??  Is this possibly a situation where I need to reformat the flash drive to format other than FAT32??  If so, and assuming I attempt to try changing the format, will this in any way affect my PC and/or the Windows 10 loaded on it?  I’m not hugely computer savvy, but surfing the internet gave this as an option, but want to make certain I won’t change anything on my PC.  Any advise/help someone can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Drives 64 GB and greater made by SanDisk are formated as exFAT, not FAT32, and will accept file sizes up to 16 EB which is larger than the flash drive itself.

If your drive is FAT32 it is used of counterfeit.  If it is exFAT than the problem you are having is not due to the flash drive.  Maybe the app you’re using to write to the flash drive.

You’re not writing to the Secure Access system are you?

Thanks Ed_P for your reply.  I just checked the drive again (in properties) and it is formatted in FAT32.  I purchased three (3) of these from Costco about 10 days ago.  I would think Costco would verify authenticity before purchase, but who knows in this day and age.  To answer your question regarding writing to Secure Access…I don’t know!  I don’t think I did, but I don’t understand the secure part of a flash drive.  I simply plugged it into my PC and started the file transfer.  When I look at the flash drive, I see the files in a folder that I transferred and I also see a file about Secure access, but my file transfer is not within that folder.  It appears  that only files under 4GB transferred to the flash drive.  The flash drive still shows space of 206GB, however the remaining files I want to transfer are all larger than 4GB and and when I try to transfer to flash drive, a box pops up and says “file too large to transfer”.  MY remaining files to transfer are over 4GB, but less than 5GB each.

To use Secure Access you would have to sign in to it so if you didn’t you aren’t writing to it.  :smiley:

If the drive is showing it is formatted as FAT32 reformat it to exFAT.  I believe Windows supports Converting the Drive to exFAT so you shouldn’t have to backup everything first.  If I’m wrong copy the files and folders on the flash drive to your harddrive, reformat it, then copy everything back.

You do not have to nuke the drive to reformat it so don’t get carried away with the process or use an app from Google.  And do NOT format it as NTFS.

How to CONVERT FAT32 to exFAT on Windows.

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/convert-fat32-to-exfat-0310.html

Thank you again, Ed_P.  I did reformat the SanDisk Cruzer 256GB to exFat  and I successfully was able to download all of my videos (total 203GB) to the SanDisk Cruzer.  It did take about 4+ hours, but I expected that due to the large volume.  Thank you again for all your help…I learn something new everyday, and for an old man who is not too computer literate, that’s pretty good!

That’s what life is all about, learning.  When we stop learning we die.