[FWTools] Overviews using TIFF? TIFF size error ... Need BIGTiff?

[Lance Dyas]

Not sure if this is the right group to ask.....
GDal supports BIGTIFF  atleast in gdal_translate
http://resenhagis-en.blogspot.com/2008/04/gdal-with-bigtiff-support.html
but Apparently based on errors I am getting the BuildOverviews method on 
a dataset doesnt use it?

ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: GetBlockRef failed at X block offset 1, Y block offset 191
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: GetBlockRef failed at X block offset 2, Y block offset 191
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: GetBlockRef failed at X block offset 3, Y block offset 191
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: GetBlockRef failed at X block offset 4, Y block offset 191
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: TIFFAppendToStrip:Maximum TIFF file size exceeded
ERROR 1: GetBlockRef failed at X block offset 5, Y block offset 191

is there an option to force it to BIGTIFF in this context

Im still wondering if there is another way to get nice subsampling..
when reading from an image and writing to a smaller one besides
creating the Overviews..