Trying to copy old files onto new portable hard drive

[luminosity]

I just got a portable hard drive today for the purpose of consolidating by ridiculously large and scattered collection of backup data CDs/DVDs. It isn't going well so far, because I quickly get an error message about not being able to copy a particular file because its name is the same as the one on the destination folder, or something close to that. Is there any way I can deal with this or bypass it?

 

[gr8tfly]

Which format is the drive? Many, out of the box, are formatted at FAT32. Sometimes, there are file naming conflicts when writing from Mac HFS+ to FAT32.

I'm assuming you are copying the files to separate folders, so there aren't any direct duplicate file conflicts.

 

[luminosity]

I hadn't thought about the file system. The new drive is, as you said, FAT32. But, the files are all from my Windows 98 days, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I've tried copying everything over en masse, and by individual folders, but inevitably, something causes the error message to come up, and instead of just bypassing that single file, it stops the entire transfer.

Any ideas? I've got a few folders, and a lot of individual documents/files.

 

[gr8tfly]

I can see what you mean about file names - if they were ok in Win98, they should be ok now.

But, anyway, if you don't need do mount the drive on a PC, try reformatting it as HFS+. It will be much more efficient anyway.

 

[luminosity]

How do I reformat it in HFS?

Also, it worked normally and without a problem in my Windows partition, which just adds to the confusion for me.

 

[gr8tfly]

Disk Utility will do the reformatting.

If you have a Boot Camp partition, it won't be able to see the HFS+ without 3rd party software.

If you're using Parallels, you can set the drive up as a shared volume (any format).

 

[luminosity]

I should probably keep it as FAT32 then.

That means I'll have to do most (if not all) of my file moving in Windows, which is a bummer. I guess it gets the job done though.

If I do want to reformat as HFS, how specifically do I use the disk utility? It's pretty confusing to me, starting with the two different listings for the portable hard drive.