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trouble copying iso's to external hd

A

adamkesher234

macrumors member
Original poster
Hey guys, I'm using a macbook and would like to copy over several games over to my friend's external harddrive. The files are rather large -8gigs, 6gigs, 4gigs. For some reason it wont allow me to copy the files to the HD. only prompting me with the message "the operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code 0)". I presume that it's formatted correctly because I was able to copy a smaller file (363megs) without any troubles. However, whenever it involves these large torrents it prompts me with that same message.

Suggestions are appreciated. I have these files just sitting on my macbook and can't go anywhere.

Thanks in advance
 
oh I see. how would I work around this? would I need to reformat it to something else? If so what to? any other work-arounds?

Cheers
 
Check out the various file systems here: MR Guide: File Systems

Both Windows and OSX can read/write FAT32
But there is a 4GB file size limitation

If you format for Windows (NTFS), you will need something like NTFS-3G or Pargon NTFS for OSX to read/write

If you format for OSX (HFS+), you will need something like MacDrive for Windows to read/write
 
sorry another thing, I'm copying from my macbook to this external harddrive, but I then intend to copy it to my PC.

so....what would you recommend me do?

Cheers
 
I would format the external HDD as NTFS and use NTFS-3G to write the files from OSX
It is a free solution

MacDrive (the opposite solution) is $50
 
would I just reformat in disk utilities in my mac applications or through something else? btw what is NTFS-3G? Sorry I'm noob when it comes to this kinda thing. Alternatively, could I buy a 32gb flash drive and use that? seeing as flash drives seem to work without any problems across different operating systems. Is there any file size restriction on usb flash drives?

Cheers
 
trouble copying iso's to external hd

hey guys, this is a follow up on a thread I created recently, I'm real noob in this field so apologies in advance... I'm trying to copy over some large iso files (6-9gigs per file) onto my friend's external harddrive, so that I can copy them back onto my desktop pc. I'm certain that his harddrive is formatted as fat32 as it runs on both mac and pc, trouble is that the iso's are too large for fat32 format, as I only recently learnt that fat32 only supports a max of 4gigs per file. so.....

I've been looking for a workaround, only my recent post someone suggested I "format the drive as NTFS and use NTFS-3G to write files from OSX"

could someone please explain to me how I go about doing this, would it be done in disk utilities under applications of should I download something in order to format my external hard drive?

*ps on the other hand, would it be possible for me to just purchase a 32gb usb flash drive and transfer the iso files that way? seeing as those usb flash drives dont need to be formatted to work on either mac or pc? or is there a file size restriction for flash drives as well?

your knowledge would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

Cheers
 
Every storage medium needs some kind of formatting, as a file system is needed to properly store and address the files and the space they take.

So even USB flash memory sticks are formatted and they use FAT32, so again no files bigger than 4GB.

With the NTFS-3G drivers you can format any HDD with NTFS as a format via Disk Utility.

Just download the NTFS-3G driver, install it, open Disk Utility, select the HDD and choose NTFS-3G from the drop down menu and hit the Erase button.

filesystem.png


Also MRoogle is an extraordinary tool to search these forums and would have answered your questions in less than ten minutes.
 
cool, thanks heaps for that. so installing that driver, then reformatting it to NTFS means that I'll be able to use the external hard drive with both mac and pc, and with no file size limitations?? if so, what good is fat32? is fat32 an "oldschool" format that no one uses now? again sorry, I'm noob with this so a little insight would be appreciated. I just want to know what's the standard format/thing to do if you want a hard drive that works with macs and pcs these days.

cheers

spinnerlys said:
Every storage medium needs some kind of formatting, as a file system is needed to properly store and address the files and the space they take.[...]
Click to expand...
 
FAT-32 (and other FAT variants) is a pretty old drive format, yes, but people continue using it fairly widely, because it mostly works just fine (most users don't have files larger than 4GB anyways). So most USB flash drives in use today are formatted in some FAT variant.

It has also stuck around because some other formats, like the ones that MS and Apple have preferred to date (NTFS and HFS) are proprietary... NTFS has been around for a number of years now, but there have only been good solutions for reading and writing it on non-Windows PCs in the past few years.

For what it's worth, NTFS and HFS are getting old themselves, and there is plenty of talk about the next generation of filesystems after that.

(Also, please don't create a new thread as a "follow-up" to your old thread. That's what replying to your old thread is there for.)
 
Another alternative would be to format the drive in Mac OS Extended and install MacDrive on your Windows machine.

I like making Windows conform to a Mac standard better than making my Mac conform to a Windows standard... But that's just me...
 
cool thanks a lot guys, I feel like I have a much better understanding of all this. apologies for the new thread, felt like my old one became rather dead and I needed answers quickly :s sorry!

thanks though for the help

peace
 
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