What does "Requires file system support for files up to 8 GB" mean?

[Mann]

I want to buy this game but that's been bugging me. A quick reply would help. Thanks

[cheshirm]

older windows versions used something called FAT32 file system where file sizes limited to 4gb.
newer windows versions are 64bit and use NTFS file system which allow file sizes > 4gb.
click on the help button top of steam window then system information then scroll down to:

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported

if you have some version of windows, you need to see this last line.

[Vellari]

And by old Windows versions, we're talking REALLY old. NTFS has been around since...well, Windows NT (hence the name nt-fs) which was initially released in 1993. NTFS filesystem itself did not become standard until Windows 2000 but since then it's been the default file system for Windows.

However, some external drives use FAT32 even today for compatibility with other-than-windows systems. Unless you are installing on one of those, no need to worry about this "limitation".

[J's]

Sorry for necroing and old thread, but I asked myself the same question.

Reading the answer from cheshirm and Vellari, I checked my drive first (an external SSD) before checking system information through steam.

Turns out it uses exFat which could theoriticaly handle 16 Eio but usualy handle 128 Pio (1,153e+9 Gb). Unless I'm missing something here, it seems to be superior to NTFS.

Edit : Also, a USB 3.0 connection is at 5 Gb/s versus older version of SATA at 1,5 or 3 Gb/s (newer SATA are slightly faster at 6 Gb/s).

[Vellari]

Looking purely at file/partition size limits exFAT and NTFS are both practically unlimited. ExFAT is a file system optimized for flash drives. It’s designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32 without all NTFS’s extra features and overhead, but without FAT32’s limitations.

[J's]

Originally posted by Vellari:

Looking purely at file/partition size limits exFAT and NTFS are both practically unlimited. ExFAT is a file system optimized for flash drives. It’s designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32 without all NTFS’s extra features and overhead, but without FAT32’s limitations.

Thanks mate, your answer (and confirmation) put my mind at ease.

I'm somewhat of a novice computer-wise, but I can read.

There should be a FAQ guide or post answering this question, and maybe more for more high-end tweaks.

Edit : I love your use of practically unlimited. This further reinforce your point that for this specific game, it does not matter.

[Vellari]

Originally posted by J's:

Edit : I love your use of practically unlimited. This further reinforce your point that for this specific game, it does not matter.

Or for much else either. The NTFS maximum theoretical limit on the size of individual files is 16 EiB (16 × 1024^6 or 2^64 bytes) minus 1 KB, which totals to 18,446,744,073,709,550,592 bytes.

With Windows 10 version 1709 and Windows Server 2019, the maximum implemented file size is 8 PB minus 2 MB or 9,007,199,252,643,840 bytes.

Both figures are so high it makes no difference even in very large enterprise environments.