Transferring Files to External Hard Drive

[mclark59802]

I have an iMac running OS 10.9.4. I connected an older external hard drive that I had used for back on a iMac G5 running OS 10.4.11. I created a new folder on the external hard drive, opened the Finder on the iMac and started to drag the Documents folder to the external drive. Poof, it was suddenly gone - same sound you get when dragging an icon off the Dock. I found all of my files back in the Finder but without Folders - just a huge listing of files.

Is there anyway to restore other than creating a new Documents folder and starting over dragging the various files back into those folders?

Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

I created a new folder on the external hard drive, opened the Finder on the iMac and started to drag the Documents folder to the external drive. Poof, it was suddenly gone - same sound you get when dragging an icon off the Dock.

Did you, by any chance, drag your Documents folder from the left side of Finder to the external drive, instead of dragging it from the right side of the Finder window?

 

[mclark59802]

Dragged from the left sir toward the right.

 

[GGJstudios]

Dragged from the left sir toward the right.

The left sidebar is only a collection of favorites (shortcuts). If you want to copy files or folders, drag them from the right side of Finder's window (not the left sidebar) to the destination. You can drag from the right to the left, but not from left to right.

 

[mclark59802]

Thank you for your help.