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    Can't transfer files onto a USB Harddrive?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Bwen, Jan 25, 2009.

  1. Bwen

    Bwen Notebook Evangelist

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    I have a 250Gb Maxtor Harddrive which is 2.5" and formatted as FAT32 (so I'm able to use it on my Mac and work PC), I have roughly 100Gb worth of research documents on there already which I constantly update every fortnight. Just recently I tried to copy some video files onto the harddrive but it doesn't seem to work?

    A few problems, it wouldn't copy as the little box always said 'preparing to copy' but never did anything so I kept restarting my Macbook untill it finally would copy and now it has copied over but I don't see the files on the harddrive?

    Is there anything I can do? I'm running 10.5.5
     
    Bwen, Jan 25, 2009
    #1
  2. lixuelai

    lixuelai Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    It can be that some of the files exceed the 4GB/file limit of FAT32. I just format to NTFS and use NTFS-3g to read and write to my external.
     
    lixuelai, Jan 25, 2009
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  3. Bwen

    Bwen Notebook Evangelist

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    The files are only roughly 170mb each, in total they're only about ~3Gb so I don't think that's the problem, any other ideas?
     
    Bwen, Jan 26, 2009
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  4. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    Does the HD work fine when you try to use it with a different computer?
     
    Budding, Jan 26, 2009
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  5. Deathwinger

    Deathwinger Notebook Virtuoso

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    I'd recommend this. FAT32 has no place on a drive holding more than 4GB.

    The reformat of the drive will also help any fragmentation problems it may have, which may be causing the files to be preparing to copy, but never actually do.
     
    Deathwinger, Jan 26, 2009
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  6. Bwen

    Bwen Notebook Evangelist

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    The harddrive works fine on other computers, I tried copying file by file and it starts copying say '28mb out of 170mb, 30 seconds remaining' and it just sits on that forever and doesn't move. I try clicking the x to stop copying and it doesn't do anything, the only way I can stop it is by relaunching Finder through Command+Option+Escape then my Finder just freezes, there is nothing left on my desktop so I have to restart my computer.

    Edit: The only way I can turn off my Macbook is by holding down the power button, because there is no task bar on the top after I force relaunch Finder and after I boot it up the volume is always on maximum, I don't know if that means anything?
     
    Bwen, Jan 26, 2009
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  7. satrycon

    satrycon Notebook Enthusiast

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    bad sectors ?
     
    satrycon, Jan 27, 2009
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