new maxtor external hd can't copy imovie files

[ispeakmango]

i just bought a 120gb maxtor one touch external hd to store some movies i have made. i am trying to transfer them from the HD on my powerbook to the new HD and when i drag the file i made with imovie i get a message that says something like: cannot copy "icon " because the name is too long or the characters are not recognized by the drive. how do i fix this?

[carbonmotion]

i just bought a 120gb maxtor one touch external hd to store some movies i have made. i am trying to transfer them from the HD on my powerbook to the new HD and when i drag the file i made with imovie i get a message that says something like: cannot copy "icon " because the name is too long or the characters are not recognized by the drive. how do i fix this? Try formating the drive to HSF+ or FAT

[ephramz]

Yep, I've had that same problem with a PC-formatted external USB disk. You need to reformat it using Disk Utility to one of the Mac formats like Mac OS, or Mac OS (Journaled). Include the OS 9 drivers if you want to see it in OS 9 ever. This will make it unmountable on PC's however, but let you use long file names (and make aliases).

[crazzyeddie]

You want Mac OS Extended + Journaled (Apple's name) or HFS+ Journaled. Journaling is not needed, but is nice. Mac OS Extended is vital (the + on HFS).

[ispeakmango]

ahh, used disc utility and everything is working perfect now, thanks for the help.