External Hard drive getting errors when copying files?

When I'm copying files to my hard drive I keep getting errors that the file is in use. It was originally stopping at around the 167.8MB mark everytime when I try copying files over and giving me that error. As this is a 1TB HDD I have no way of backing it up until I get to the US (currently studying in Australia). So just wondering if anyone had ideas.
Things I've done:
- Tried using HDD over Firewire/USB and with other Macs still same errors
- Tried Disk Utility and sometimes it I get no errors with the disk when I do Repair/Verify Disk or I get an error where the disk can't be unmounted
- I get that error of unmounting when I normally unmount them and I have to unplug the HDD for it to be readable again.
- I try copying files from it or to it, and sometimes files copy to my Computer entirely even 2GB ones, but other times it stops at random intervals, and it always stops when copying files to the HDD that never works, usually stops at random times. :\
Any suggestions, help, or programs I can use for HDD repair would be great!
Thanks a lot,
godzillafan8686

Wondering if I could bump this up a bit, still having problems with it.

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External hard drive problem, error when transferring files

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There are differences in external volumes, how they were setup, and which Macs they will work on. So much for keeping things simple.
If I remember right, you can't use or have limited use of HFS+ drives on external firewire. On an Intel Mac, it has to be setup using gpt. You can do this using Disk Utility, there is a new option for this.
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Should I set up my external hard drive as HFS when copying PC files to MAC

I have just purchased an external hard drive and hooked it up to my PowerMac G5 running OS X. My Mac is networked to a PC via Wi-Fi. When using my Mac I can open/delete/save files to my PC and drag them to my Mac.
I would like to back up my whole PC onto the firewire external drive. I only have a firewire connection on my Mac, so I don't want to unplug it and set it up on the PC as well.
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Backing up an entire hard drive via Wi-Fi would be very slow and perhaps unreliable. I would really look into getting a firewire interface for the PC to accomplish the back-up. These cards are not very expensive and it would be a good investment.
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External hard drive eject error when computer is asleep

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imegs,
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HT1338 how to copy a external hard drive to other or copy songs from one to another

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Don't understand exactly what you want to do. Can you restate your question?
You posted in the OS 10.3 forum instead of the MacBook Pro forum. To get answers to your question, next time post in the proper forum. See https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa I'll request that Apple relocate your post.
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Do you want to copy some pictures to the external drive, or do you want to move your whole iPhoto library? The latter will free up hard drive space on your start up disk; the procedure is explained here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
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Hi!
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Try doing it this way:
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Been trying to copy some video files into iTunes. I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive. Haven't had any problems with this until today when I try copying videos into iTunes it pops up with an error saying:
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Hi.
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Hi.
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HT1229 Tried moving my library to an external hard drive and now when I open iPhoto, there are no pictures there!!!!

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My guess is that the library has been corrupted from being run on an overfull HD.
So, try rebuild the Library on the External
Try these in order - from best option on down...
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There's ways to move the movies to an external drive while keeping them in iTunes but the external drive iwll always have to be turned on and connected to the computer or you will see a bunch of broken link exclamation marks.
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So I went to disk utility, on the left selected "1.8 TB HitachiHDS722020ALA330", there's an indented selection right below that, which is the volume i think.... but I selected what I wrote above which I believe is what you're supposed to do. Under the erase tab, I selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the "Volume Format" options. I named the drive and then I hit erase. It begins "partitioning" and afterabout 3-4 seconds it stops and says
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Try this:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
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Use the Go to Folder command in the Finder's Go menu to navigate to /Volumes/, drag all of the folders inside to the desktop, unmount it, and then mount it again. This is not a problem with the drive itself nor a permissions issue.
(57068)

External Hard drive getting errors when copying files?

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