Transferring 929 gigs from one external to another?

[Will-Evo]

Hey everyone,

I know I am new, and am asking a ? right off the bat but I am having a problem. I am trying to transfer from 1TB HD to another 1TB HD about 929 gigs worth of files. Problem being my mac just wont let me transfer the folder with the info in it straight to the new HD. It keeps giving me an error, then starts the transfer and stops after a while only transferring a few files out of the 3000. I tried a 3rd party app called AAsync, but it also encountered an error. I basically need a app that will transfer a large amount of files between two drives, regardless of the file type or condition, and if it encounters a problem with one of the files, it will just bypass that file and continue the transfer. Any help would be appreciated. I have a 15" Mac book pro with the newest update of OSX. Thanks.

Will

 

[edesignuk]

Firstly, are both the drives formatted with the same file system?

After that I'd use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to duplicate the drive.

 

[Will-Evo]

Ok so I downloaded SuperDuper and it told me that my new external is formatted for windows, so I went through disk utility to format it into Mac extended, BUT it failed and now my computer doesn't recognize the drive what so ever, and it wont format it cause it gets an error(No error code or anything). So now what? I have an external not recognized by the computer at all, and no files transferred...I didn't realize what a headache this would be. My external is a Western digital My Book and is compatible with mac and windows, only reason I went to format it is cause SuperDuper said it wont work without it. HELP!

Will

 

[edesignuk]

Can you see the drive in Disk Utility?

 

[nplima]

I went through disk utility to format it into Mac extended, BUT it failed and now my computer doesn't recognize the drive what so ever, and it wont format it cause it gets an error(No error code or anything). So now what?

.. so now you test that drive on some other computer to find out whether to replace it or not....

if you can get to format the drive with no significant errors, try using your friend's PC or booting your Mac with Windows, then use Microsoft SincToy to get all those 900GB of files across while ignoring the files with errors.

 

[OllyW]

My external is a Western digital My Book and is compatible with mac and windows, only reason I went to format it is cause SuperDuper said it wont work without it. HELP!

Will

Which My Book have you got. They should all be Mac compatible.

I've got a 1TB My Book Essential that came formatted for Windows which I re-formatted with Disk Utility without any problems. If you can still see the drive in Disk Utility, try deleting the current partition and then create a new one and format it in Mac OS Extended.

 

[edesignuk]

The drive will work with the Mac, there's no doubting that.

Your original problem was probably due to the fact the drive almost certainly shipped formatted FAT32, this has certain restrictions, the biggest being that you cannot have single files larger than 4GB. When your copy hit a big file that's when it fell over.

You should still be able to see the drive in Disk Utility, it just won't mount in the Finder because the formatting is all screwed.

Use Disk Utility to splat any current partitions, create a new one then format it HFS.

SuperDuper will make a quick and easy job of your copy when the drive is formatted correctly.

 

[DoFoT9]

The drive will work with the Mac, there's no doubting that.

Your original problem was probably due to the fact the drive almost certainly shipped formatted FAT32, this has certain restrictions, the biggest being that you cannot have single files larger than 4GB. When your copy hit a big file that's when it fell over.

You should still be able to see the drive in Disk Utility, it just won't mount in the Finder because the formatting is all screwed.

Use Disk Utility to splat any current partitions, create a new one then format it HFS.

SuperDuper will make a quick and easy job of your copy when the drive is formatted correctly.

i think the problem might also lie around permissions, quite often when i am transferring large files/folders the transfer will cancel because of a stray permission file (be it from a installer, or something else).

a clone program is a good idea, however first we need to get your drive back online!!

if mac cannot see the drive in disk utility, try a PC as sometimes they can detect things for odd reasons. if the PC does detect it, format it for FAT32, then put it back into the mac, then format from there.

just take your time and im sure it'll be sweet.

 

[RedTomato]

I think 1TB is about 930GB formatted, so it might be some obscure thing to do with filling your 1TB drive right up to max capacity and having no working room left. Try clearing or transferring about 30GB to your MBP or a third external drive before dealing with the 900GB.

Your MBP also needs about 10GB free to do its own stuff. (technically a lot less is needed, but I like to leave working room) OSX starts failing in mysterious ways when hard drives get full up.

This is in addition to the fine tips above.

 

[DoFoT9]

I think 1TB is about 930GB formatted, so it might be some obscure thing to do with filling your 1TB drive right up to max capacity and having no working room left. Try clearing or transferring about 30GB to your MBP or a third external drive before dealing with the 900GB.

Your MBP also needs about 10GB free to do its own stuff. (technically a lot less is needed, but I like to leave working room) OSX starts failing in mysterious ways when hard drives get full up.

This is in addition to the fine tips above.

931.19GB to be exact

thats a great idea, transferring a little bit across. the new drive might have a tiny bit less capacity so yes, great advice.

ditto, i like leaving at least 10gb free for the OS HD, however i now have a 500gb HD in my lappy so thats not an issue anymore (at the moment anyway).

 

[MacUser2525]

Hey everyone,

I know I am new, and am asking a ? right off the bat but I am having a problem. I am trying to transfer from 1TB HD to another 1TB HD about 929 gigs worth of files. Problem being my mac just wont let me transfer the folder with the info in it straight to the new HD. It keeps giving me an error, then starts the transfer and stops after a while only transferring a few files out of the 3000. Thanks.

Will

If you are using Finder then I have found it to be useless when trying to copy large amount of files as I have yet to have it ever successfully complete such an operation. What I have done with the exact same files Finder will fail on is open Terminal then as root user use something like this.

cp -Rp /Volumes/SOURCE_DRIVE/* /Volumes/DESTINATION_DRIVE/

Now this will take literally hours upon hours going from one external to another so once you get the other drive fixed/replaced bear this in mind and you may just want to do it directories at a time instead of all the contents of the source drive.

 

[TheCheapGeek]

I had the same issue, disk utility cannot format a 1 TB hd if you intend to boot off of it. IT booting is not an issue uncheck the boot flags or mbr when you re format and it will work.

 

[Will-Evo]

Thank you for all the help, all was helpful but none resolved the problem. The HDD was able to re partition to FAT32..but was unable to then format to a mac format. I tried everything mentioned and nothing worked. SO I guess I will be using a regular PC to to be the platform for the transfer. It just seems like the mac is living in a windows world right now, so until that changes, there are just some things the mac cannot do with 3rd party hardware. Again thanks for the help!

Evo

 

[edesignuk]

Nothing to do with the mac living in a windows world. It's just a hard drive, nothing special.

Somewhere you're doing something wrong, I'm certain of it.

 

[RedTomato]

As said above, you should be able to format a MyBook to HFS+ with your MBP without any problems.

I'm starting to suspect a dud disk. Try running some drive diagnostics on it, either mac or windows based.