My initial guess is that you're hitting the 4GB file size limit of FAT32.
Sonic Foundry software will let you attempt to create files larger than 4GB
but these files won't be usable.

Are you capturing straight DV format .avi files? If so, are you capturing
more than about 19 minutes? If you are, then your files will be too large
for Windows 98 to handle. You should let VidCap automatically split them
up for you into 4GB pieces while it's capturing.

If my guess about the file sizes is correct, you'll probably have to just
delete the files you've got now, and then run scandisk to correct your
hard drive's FAT tables.

Well here is an example: If I open the folder where the files are stored and just highlight the file in question I will see a number displayed for size that says "-94543872." If I right click and go to properties it says that the file is: 3.91GB. This is an example of a file that I cannot copy or move.

I imagine that Chienworks is correct that these have exceeded the file size limit for fat32 in Win98SE, but then that begs the question (unless I'm missing something); I thought the whole point here of these files was that one could now capture - seemlessly - a large continuous DV clip,...say 30 minutes and also output a rendered 30 min clip back to the camera.

I will try letting vid cap make smaller files...that will probably solve the problem, though I'm not yet sure why a 3.91GB file is too large to move/copy???

Thanks to you both for your comments!

i'm no expert here but....vv3 will absolutely let you capture video in lengths greater than 19 minutes, using win98se, by creating sequenced 4gb files (4 gig being the max file size for win 98se fat 32).

That said, I suspect one of your drives is not formatted fat32. Fat32 vs fat16 would explain the negative numbers which you report.

it's a limitation of the FAT 32 file system. you can't have a file bigger than 4GB. Win2k or WinXP can use NTFS instead of FAT32, which doesn't have a 4GB limitation. if your files still don't copy or move after setting the option to segment your files, then something else may be wrong.

i haven't seen those negative numbers before... i'm guessing it's an error caused by the files being too large. i don't understand the explanation given about fat16 vs fat32.

- ben

I have Win98SE on my computer and am using the FAT32 file system. I've discovered that I can capture and manipulate files up to 4GB in size using VV3. BUT Windows File Manager will not let me move those files. I set the capture utility to a max file size just under 2GB. Now I can do whatever I want to the files in Windows File Manager.

David _DSS

Thanks David, and to all. I will try the 2gig file limit and it will probably fix everything!