How to split big files on MAC?
I needed a bit more detail than Hamed's answer offered, here's what works for me, based on comments at hints.macworld.com:
split -b 1024m "YourFile.iso" "YourFile.iso."
This results in as many 1024mb files as required, (and one smaller file at the end) like so:
- YourFile.iso.aa
- YourFile.iso.ab
- ...
- YourFile.iso.af (the last file will be less than 1024mb)
I like to use the original filename and add '.' at the end so that its really clear what the file is at a glance.
I chose 1024mb files because VOBs seem to be that size, and Toast splits files to 1024mb, too - they must have a good reason!
To join these up again:
cat YourFile.iso.* > YourFile.iso
Note that the first argument here ends in .*, which will get all the aa, ab, ac, etc at once.
Also, if the file your producing already exists, it is silently overwritten (no renamed duplicate like in Finder). The mac version of split is slightly different to the linux version, it seems (for one, numeric suffixes (-d) are not supported).
Update...
Revisiting this following Andy Ibanez's comment that his before and after didn't match... here's my test:
ls -la
total 22336
drwxr-xr-x 3 ptim staff 102B 20 Feb 23:10 .
drwx------+ 76 ptim staff 2.5K 20 Feb 23:09 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ptim staff 11M 20 Feb 23:10 test.mp4
split -b 1m test.mp4 test.split.
ls -la
total 44672
drwxr-xr-x 14 ptim staff 476B 20 Feb 23:10 .
drwx------+ 76 ptim staff 2.5K 20 Feb 23:09 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ptim staff 11M 20 Feb 23:10 test.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.aa
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ab
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ac
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ad
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ae
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.af
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ag
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ah
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ai
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 1.0M 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.aj
-rw-r--r-- 1 ptim staff 927K 20 Feb 23:10 test.split.ak
cat test.split.* > test.reconstituted.mp4
cat test.mp4 | md5
08db84d1806ec293582d217ed53b034c
cat test.reconstituted.mp4 | md5
08db84d1806ec293582d217ed53b034c
I'm on OSX, but using bash from homebrew, and I been bitten by discrepancies between OS's before... maybe somone else can suggest a reason for md5's not matching in the above scenario...
You can use this command on the shell:
split -b YOUR_EXPECTED_SIZES YOUR_FILE_NAME PATTERN_NAME_AS_OUTPUT
and for recovering it
cat SPITED_FILES_AS_LIST > NEW_FILE
I hope it be useful for you!
Using hard disk utility you can create a sparse bundle on your fat drive. Inside this also larger files are allowed - the system will take care of the rest.
You can also format the stick with HFS or if you need it also on Windows install NTFS-3G and format the drive NTFS