How to transfer files to external hard drive

[Careyst]

Hi, I have an IMAC and I am having problems transfering video files I download to my external hard drive. I had trouble playing the files at first because it was not readable with Quicktime. I downloaded VPN and it played with VPN.

I dont want to save those files on my computer so I would like to transfer it to my external harddrive. When I try to drag it over, it won't let me drop it in. Is there a simple fix for this? I am new to the MAC world. Is there a way to choose where it will save itself right before you download like there is on windows. I click on it and it does not prompt you, it just starts downloading. Any help would be great. Thanks.

[stujmac26]

Hmmm well it should work as you expect it to.

How big are the files? Can you drop any other doc onto the external drive? It may be that your drive is FAT32 (Windows) formatted so that files over 4GB in size can't be stored. If that's the case you would need to reformat the drive in Disk Utility to OSX (Journaled) or some such format, whereby you don't have the 4GB limit....

[Careyst]

The files are pretty big, but I don't think they are 4GB. Probably a bit less. I did not try to drop anything else into the external hard drive. When I get home later, I will try that and if it does not let me drop anything in, I will try to reformat it.

[stridemat]

You need a plugin called NTFS for mac (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/) from Paragon. This allows your mac computer to read and write to NTFS external hard drives.

Its only a trial unless you purchase and Im sure that there are freeware options available on the internet.

EDIT

Found a free version from google!!!!!

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

[Careyst]

Wow, Stridemat. Thanks! :)

So, after I download and install that, it will let me just drag the stuff right in?

[stridemat]

exactly!!!!:cool:

[ZizousamA]

You can tell your browser where you would like your downloads saved. Go to the browser preferences and you'll find "save downloaded file to:" option. From there, choose whatever folder you want as the destination. As to why your external drive wouldn't let you drag items into it, it could be due to format incompatibility.

[Careyst]

Great. Thanks guys. Can't wait to get home later and try all these.

[JLandis]

Good tip.