New Windows 7 Computer Won't tRansfer Files To/From External Drive

[Mahdi]

My new Hp Pavilion laptop with windows 7 will not receive/send large files to my external drive. I was able to transfer a couple small things - a 20 minute video, the windows transfer file, but when I try to move a 350 mb video or my music or anything like that it will say it is copying then ten minutes later an error message will pop up saying it is unable to do the requsted task. Once when transfering my music abour four songs out of my 15 gb went, but that was all.

The external is a Simpledrive 1 TB. It is only 14 months old and still works fine with my Vista computer.

Any suggestions?

[Andrew]

First make sure windows update is up to date.

I'm not sure on a solution, but a workaround is if you still have vista laptop, then I would suggest hooking your external up to it, and have your two laptops connected via wireless network (through your router). Then while on win7 laptop you can transfer files over wireless (or wired) to your external hdd via the vista laptop. Maybe it will work, or maybe you get same error.

Sounds complicated but only solution I can think of. Another benefit would be that if you had external hooked up to vista laptop, you could transfer files to it whenever you want and still be free to move around with win7 laptop without having external usb hooked into it all the time.

I forget what it is called on windows. On ubuntu it is NFS. Which is usefull since my nettop is hooked up to printer/scanner. So I scan stuff my desktop can access the scanned images. Same for sending down print jobs to printer even though I'm not physically connected to it (printer does not have wireless, thus nettop has to be on).

EDIT:

Wireless home network could help with that.

[Mahdi]

Windows is up to date. It's weird, it only happens with certain files. My picture files moved fine, and certain video files move fine, but others do not. I can move some individual music files, but not most. I get the same error - cannot read from source disc, which suggests a problem witht he external drive. But the drive works fien with my Vista laptop.

My netwroking isn't working properly. It never has with the vista laptop. Sharing is all set up and turned on, but it never detects other computers ont eh entwork and other computers cannot detect it.

[Mahdi]

Crap, maybe it is the external drive. My vista laptop is now having the same problem. For example, one particular video file I can play from my external drive onto my laptops, but I cannot move it from the external drive to either laptop. Is that a sign that it's fried? Only 14 months old....

[Andrew]

Maybe it is some weird permission issue (kinda like read/write attributes "This file is read only").

If getting another external I recommend getting external enclosure and normal internal 3.5" hdd

That way you can shop around and get good quality/prices.

I shop at newegg. Got enclosure for $42. Can get cheaper but I got more expensive because it has esata (and usb) for my desktop which gives faster read/write speeds. You can get non esata for less ($30) if you have no need for esata ever. I don't think your new laptop has esata, and not a lot of devices make use of it.

My 1tb caviar green sells for around $68 (I paid $80).

With buying external enclosure, you can swap out hdd if needed, or if hdd fails toss it and just put in new hdd. Whereas with allinone external you get poor quality, and if it dies you pretty much have to throw out whole thing I think (try taking it apart before tossing).

Looking at futureshop they sell allinone 1tb for $80. But the hdd inside is crap. Example:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/iprodrive-1tb-external-desktop-hard-drive-hde11tb-black/10126630.aspx?path=451e52dd05e81b2955a605119770475een02

Only has 8 mb cache. My 1tb green has 64mb cache. I see one with only 2mb cache. I'd suggest staying away from allinone external hdd. Normally poor quality.

EDIT:

futureshop does sell enclosures. and even have a 1tb green for $70

[Andrew]

Install

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

To get info on your external hdd, and whether it thinks it is failing.

[athanasios]

Good idea. Nevertheless it is odd that the 'corrupted' video is playable. Can the file on the ext. disk be copied to the same disk?

[Andrew]

Forgot to suggest doing a windows diskcheck of the drive. I dunno what it is in win7, but winxp it was under programs->accessories->system tools->scandisk.

[athanasios]

Every newer Windoze gets more more complicated to do simple tasks. Soon you will need a university degree to run it-yet another brilliant idea of Billy to steal peoples wealth and fill shrink offices with customers.

[Gruntlord6]

Every newer Windoze gets more more complicated to do simple tasks. Soon you will need a university degree to run it-yet another brilliant idea of Billy to steal peoples wealth and fill shrink offices with customers.

Things are always changing, people have to learn to adapt.

[gryphon]

You can scan the disk for error although I don't think you find any.

What type of filesystem does the drive use and are the files possibly encrypted either by Windows or linked to an iTunes account (something like that).