Large file support refers to a computer’s ability to handle files over 2GB, which was the limit due to early computer architecture. With updates, the limit has increased to over 1TB. Large files are usually media or corporate databases and can cause crashes or destroy an operating system.
Large file support is the ability of a computer to accept and work with files that are considered to be quite large. A large file was once defined as a file that was 2 gigabytes (GB) or larger, but this value has increased with technology updates. Large file support was needed because computers were originally built with a 32-bit size, which only allowed for the creation of a 2GB file; as businesses and consumers needed larger files, computer manufacturers had to find a way to overcome this limitation. After the 2GB limit was conquered, this term started to be used to refer to the largest file a computer could feasibly handle. So-called large files can be anything, but are usually media files or large corporate databases.
When large file support was new, the largest file that could be created was 2GB. Any file larger than this cannot be handled by your computer, so it would be impossible to open, create, edit or do anything with a file larger than this 2GB limit. Updates in operating systems (OS) have forced this limit to increase.
The 2GB limit for large file support was not an arbitrary number; there was a reason this was the original limit. Early computers were built with 32 integers or 32 bits. This architecture only allowed a file of 2GB at most, although more than 2GB of memory could be saved if each file was below the limit. While this limit originally held, consumers and businesses eventually needed larger file sizes, and computer manufacturers built operating systems with higher bit configurations, allowing for much larger files.
While 2GB is the traditional definition of a large file, support for large files has changed and is now related to the largest file a computer can support without crashing. As of 2011, that goes over 1 terabyte (TB). Just like with the 2GB problem, if a file exceeds this threshold, the operating system won’t be able to handle or work with it. Minor problems with a large file can include crashes, while huge problems can wipe out or completely destroy an operating system.
A large file can be any type of file, but there are some files that normally take up a lot of memory. For example, a simple text document must contain an enormous amount of information to approach the large file limit, and this will rarely increase by a few megabytes (MB). Files that commonly consume a lot of memory include multimedia files, databases, server programs, and some design programs, because it takes a lot of computer resources to handle the information.
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