You have more than enough available space on a given hard disk, so why can’t you park your file there? Read on as we investigate why Windows will deny you even if there is plenty of space to spare.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader BumSkeeter is trying to figure out why he can’t copy a small file into a larger disk. He writes:

Although the error message he receives does provide a little insight into the problem, to a user unfamiliar with what a file system is or what file system the disk  they’re working with is formatted in, it’s of little help.

The Answers

SuperUser contributor Darth Android offers some insight:

Another contributor Elbekko, offers a useful reminder that you can upgrade a FAT32 disk to NTFS without a total reformat:

Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.