Plz help: ext. HDD with free space prompts me it's full... :(

Hi, I have a WD Elements 500GB external HDD. So far, I used around 180GB, so there's still lots of free space, however, when I try to copy something on it

I get prompted (any machine, XP) to create free space. Properties show around 280GB of free space...what is this?

Thanks a lot for any help.

Right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and select Properties. What is the drive format? If its FAT32, you cannot copy individual files larger than 4GB to it.

You have to format and either make it NTFS, or split the file your copying into smaller chunks (3GB or so).