There are several methods to share files on the internet. Smaller attachments can be included in an email, while larger ones can be uploaded to a cloud service and then shared via a link with the person who will receive them. Another method is to use dedicated file sharing services for big files. Most email attachments have a size limit of 25MB. File sending services have a limit of anywhere between 5GB and 25GB. Cloud upload may seem a reliable option, but it has one problem. If the internet connection at the receiving end is unstable, downloading a huge file in one go is not a good option. Then what to do?
How about if we can divide an extremely huge file into smaller chunks and send them individually? And then, at the receiving end, all the chunks can be joined back again to get the original file. Sounds good?
And that's what we're going to learn in this tutorial. No matter the file size and the type of file, this method enables you to send and receive extremely large files in smaller chunks for easy transfer.
GSplit: The Easy Way to Transfer Extremely Large Files
Here's a powerful file splitter called GSplit that enables you to divide any type of file into smaller chunks of your desired size to send them easily one by one over the internet.
It's available in both installer and portable formats. So go ahead and install it on your PC.
It comes in two parts. The Splitter and the Uniter. The former is used to split files, and the latter reunites the split files on the destination PC.
Let's see how to use it.
Step 1: Select the File and Destination Folder
Start by selecting the file you want to transfer. For demo purposes, I've used a smaller 1.7GB file, but the application can split large files too.
Click the Browse button and select the file. You can see the file properties after choosing it.
Now, click the Destination Folder option from the left side menu. Once again, click the Browse button to specify the folder where you want to store the split files.
If the folder does not exist, GSplit will create it for you. If it exists and is empty, you are good to go. But, if it exists and contains some unwanted files, check the 'Remove Destination Folders Before Splitting' option to delete it and create a fresh one automatically.
Step 2: Apply the Necessary Constraints
After file selection and specifying the folder for storing the split files, it's time to apply some constraints before triggering the splitting process.
Go to the Type and Size option through the menu and first select the type of pieces you want to generate. They come in two flavors. Which one to choose?
- Spanned Pieces: These are ideal when using removable storage devices like USB sticks or external hard drives.
- Blocked Pieces: These are used when storing split pieces on your PC's fixed hard disk partition. This is one you are going to use in most cases, as it enables you to specify the size or number of pieces you want.
By default, GSpit automatically calculates the optimum piece size for you. But you can specify a custom size as well. In my example, the file size is 1.7GB, and I've decided to split it into 200MB chunks. A total of 9 pieces will be created in such a case.
The pieces can be created in kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes. So feel free to customize the size of the pieces as per your needs.
Instead of piece size, you can also specify the number of pieces you want and let GSplit calculate the right size for that number of pieces. To do that, select the appropriate option from the dropdown menu as shown in the image above.
Step 3: Split the File
Several other attributes and constraints can be configured or tweaked, but I recommend ignoring them and keeping them in their default state. And now comes the final file splitting process.
To get started, click the 'Split File!' option from the menu and click the 'Split!' button. Optionally, you can increase the buffer size to speed up the process. Make sure to increase in multiples of 64KB to get the best results. Similarly, thread priority can also be increased to speed things up.
If the file size is extremely huge, the splitting process may take a few minutes. So please be patient!
Once the process is complete, you can view all the split files in the destination folder you've selected earlier. Here, you'll notice there's an .exe file as well with a name similar to the first piece.
This executable file is used at the destination PC to unify all the split pieces to bring back the file in its original form. Because of this self-uniting utility, the destination PC doesn't need GSplit to be installed.
Step 4: Upload to Cloud Storage and Share the Link
Finally, it's time to send the split files to the destination PC. The process is dead simple. All you have to do is upload all the pieces to your favorite cloud storage service and share the link with the receiver through email or instant messaging.
But wait! There are some things to take care of.
Some cloud services do not allow the download of .exe files. So, before uploading it, make sure to compress and zip it into a password-protected archive. You can use your preferred archiving application.
And, if the file is extremely huge, it is possible that your cloud account cannot accommodate all the pieces in one go. So upload in batches, and once the receiver has downloaded the currently uploaded batch, delete it from the cloud and upload the next batch, and so on.
Conclusion
File sending is one of the common activities among internet users. Small to moderate-sized files can be easily shared in one go. But, for extremely huge ones, one of the viable solutions is to split them into multiple parts.
GSplit is the best application for easily splitting huge files. It also creates a self-uniting utility to ensure one can easily combine all the pieces back in their original form.
So go ahead and try this method to transfer big files in a few easy steps.
