Copying files greater than 4GB into pen drives

You might have got an error "Not enough space in disk" or similar when trying to copy a file greater than 4GB in size. This occurs because the pen drive is formatted in FAT32 or older file systems which do not support storing files larger than 4GB. There are two methods to overcome this:

1) Split the larger file into smaller parts:

Winzip and WinRAR both archiving softwares support splitting large files into multiple parts of any size you wish. Remember that to merge the files you will need the same software in the system where you merge those files.
If you are looking for a simple and freeware splitting software check out:
www.freebyte.com/hjsplit

2) Change the file system of pen drive to NTFS:

Windows XP by default doesn't give an option to change file system in the format tool(Right click on pen drive and click format...).



So, you need to go to 'Device Manager'(Right Click 'My Computer' -> Properties -> 'Hardware' tab). In 'Device Manager' under 'Disk Drives' find your pen drive. Right Click it and go to 'Properties'. Under the 'Policies' tab choose 'Optimize for Performance' option.



Now you can change the file system of pen drive to NTFS through the format tool.



Note: If you change file system to NTFS then before removing pen drive you SHOULD use the "Safely remove hardware" option. This method is also applicable to other removable drives.

Using Torrents to download files

If you wish to ignore the technical aspect of how torrents work move down to Downloading files section.

What is a torrent?
A torrent is essentially a p2p(peer to peer) file sharing protocol. A torrent file(usually sized in KBs) has the extension(.torrent) . The torrent file holds information on the file being shared.

What is p2p?
It is a networking technology where computers share data between them without requiring a server in between. So essentially similar to a direct cable connection for data transfer between computers, but here the cable connection is the internet protocol.
When this kind of network exists there comes two kinds of file holders:
Seeds: the computers holding the complete shared file.
Peers: the computers holding only partial shared file or currently downloading from seeds and other peers.

Tracker is a server which assists the p2p file sharing. For a peer to start downloading file it has to contact the tracker to get the list of seeds and peers for that file.

Why prefer torrent?
Consider this situation. You have a 2 MBps internet connection. You need to download a linux distribution(an ISO file of 700MB). The linux website provides only 256 Kbps download speed to you. It'll take hours together for you to obtain that file. Now suppose in a tracker there is the same file with 10 seeds each with 0.1MBps free internet bandwidth. So now when you download through torrent you get 0.1MBps X 10 = 1MBps speed for that same file. Hence you can download the file in 700 seconds rather than hours!!!

Downloading files

You will first need the torrent file(with extension .torrent) that refers to the file being shared. These files can be searched and downloaded in various websites. Some popular ones are:
www.isohunt.com
thepiratebay.org
www.demonoid.com (Private tracker)
www.mininova.org

Remember, the more the seeds, faster the download.

Once you've downloaded the torrent file of the file you want to download you need a BitTorrent client(a software) to download the file using the downloaded torrent file.
The popular BitTorrent clients are:
uTorrent
BitComet
BitLord(has built-in torrent file search engine)
Azureus
BitTorrent Client(first client to come up)

Once you've installed the software(Torrent client) open it up and change the general settings if you want such as:
*Directory where the downloaded file must reside
*Limit on number of concurrent downloads
*Limit on downloading and uploading bandwidth, etc.

Now open the torrent file in the client and start the download. The time taken for download depends on the number of seeds and peers to that file and the speed of their connection. The more seeds the better.

The downside of torrents are that other peers will be downloading from you and hence you need to keep a check on your upload rate, sometimes your upload will be more than your download rate! This happens when there are many peers to the file and very few seeds.
The technology has been in lot of controversy due to sharing of copyrighted media through internet.