Can't move files from my external hard drive to the desktop?

Hi folks, for some reason I am unable to copy files (irrespective of type) from my usb 2 external hard drive to my desktop. This is only a recent thing. Up until a few days ago I was able to transfer files back and forth without problem. Now it is only possible to move unto the harddrive and not the other way around. The harddrive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (journaled). I have tried running disk utility to repair the disc on both external and internal drives, and it advises me that no repairs were necessary. I have also checked the info and read and write is permitted and none of the files are locked. When I attempt drag a file off the harddrive to the desktop the cursor turns into a stop sign (circle with line through it). If I attempt to copy and paste, the file copies and then will not paste as "paste" does not appear in the contextual menu. I have had some limited success by dragging files off the external hard drive to the trash and then dragging then back out of trash unto the desktop. But this only seems to work sometimes?
It would be great if someone could suggest a reason and solution for this. Thank you in advance.
Jono

Sure sounds like permissions are goofed up somewhere. You weren't really clear about exactly what you had checked. Since you can copy TO the drive let's assume things are OK there. How about your Desktop folder? Did you check it with GetInfo to make sure you are the owner and have read and write permissions to the Desktop folder? I have seen these get messed up before.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Similar Messages

I have moved old Back Up files from my external hard drive to the trash and as the Trash previews the files, i.e. counts them (over 850,000 files) it then begins to delete but then stops. Is it possible to move the files out of the Trash file and then onl

I have moved old Back Up files from my external hard drive to the trash and as the Trash previews the files, i.e. counts them (over 850,000 files) it then begins to delete but then stops. Is it possible to move the files out of the Trash file and then only delete a small amount at one time?

See
Deleting backups via the Finder on Lion 10.7.x or later:
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
Hold option (alt) while emptying the Trash.
See also
http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html
Message was edited by: WZZZ

How to move files from an external hard drive to a time capsule that is part of an extended network

What are the steps for copying or transferring 235 GB of files (primarily .mts movie files) that are on a Western Digital external hard drive to a 500 GB Time Capsule that I want to use as an external hard drive? After the files have been moved, I will be returning the Western Digital external hard drive to my son's coach and will be using iMovie to access the 500 GB Time Capsule to create a highlight video.
Currently, I have a 1TB Time Capsule that is serving as the wireless router for my network and for Time Machine backups to two Macs. The 500GB Time Capsule is set up as an extended part of the 1TB Time Capsule's network.
I can copy and paste files from the Western Digital exernal hard drive to the Desktop of my iMac but when I try to move a file from the Western Digitial external hard drive to the empty 500 GB Time Capsule, the following error message pops up:
"The item “filename” can’t be moved because “Linda's Time Capsule (2)” can’t be modified."
Thank you. Linda

Click anywhere on the open desktop so that the Finder menus are displayed at the top of the screen.
Click Go > Network
Double click the Time Capsule icon, then double click the icon representing the drive to mount it on the Mac's desktop. It is named "Data" unless you have changed it
You can drag/drop files to the "Data" icon on the desktop
235 GB is going to take forever if you try to do this using wireless. If at all possible, connect an Ethernet cable from your Mac to one of the LAN <-> ports on the Time Capsule.
Even using Ethernet, you are probably looking at 10-12 hours for the file transfer. All bets are off with wireless only, but a guess would be several days....or even more.

How can I copy files from an external hard drive without creating copies on the disk?

I recently purchased a MacBook Air as part of a requirement for schoolwork. I decided to use it to sync music to my iPod and iPhone, and it worked perfectly well, however, i keep most of my music files on an external hard drive. Recently, it started sending me messages about the hard drive being almost full. I checked on the about this Mac screen, and it said that up to 95 gigabytes on the disk drive had been taken up by music. This was not my intention, as i had previously assumed the music was kept on my external hard drive as it had been on windows. I attempted to delete the folder, but it now said that my disk drive was taken up by "other" files. I want to still use my iTunes without these files copying. How?

Hi flyingroastchicken,
If the songs are being stored on your Mac, then make sure that the location of where the iTunes media is being store. Take a look at the article below to verify that you have it set up the way you want.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201562
Take it easy,
-Norm G.

How can I copy files from one external hard drive to another, without erasing anything?

Hi,
I have video and photo files on one hard drive. I'd like to keep that one intact but also copy all the files to a second external hard drive. When I try to do so, I can't figure out how to open both hard drives at once. (If I open one, it closes the other window.)
Thanks for your help!
CB

Open a finder window and open up one harddrive. Then go to file>new finder window. This way you can have two finders up and select a different harddrive in each one. Then just copy and paste the files.
Hope it helps!
Ryan

How do I import movie files from my external hard drive into I-Tunes?

Hello
I have a whole load of movies and tv shows stored on an external hard drive. I would like to import a few of them into I-Tunes and then on to my Ipad because I'm going travelling tonight.
I'm dragging the file into I-Tunes but it won't copy. They are mp4 files.
I have one mkv file which I am trying to drag also.
If anyone has any tips I would be grateful.

im not sure why the mp4's wont go i, but the mkv is not a supported format. i would look into some sort of video converter.

Can I transfer files from an external hard drive to iCloud?

I have been looking for a great alternative to backing up my all of my photos (I am a photographer). I own two externals that I'd like to get certain files backed up once more in another place just to make sure they are safe. So can I transfer my photos and files from my externals to iCloud? Or is this not a good back up plan? Thanks so much in advance!

Hi rswhite90,
This article gives a good overview of using iCloud Drive -
iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Sincerely,
Brett L

How can i copy files from one external hard disk to another using macbook pro with retina display

How can i copy files from one external hard drive to another using macbook pro with retina display?

That's odd - if you open Disk Utility (Applications->Utilities) and select the disk(s), how are they formatted? If you're only going to be used with your Mac, they should be formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Clinton

Can I import .MTS files from an external hard drive into Final Cut Pro X?

Can I import .MTS files from an external hard drive into Final Cut Pro X?

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:
b) Use an utility like Clipwrap or MPEG Streamclip to convert the mts file to a quicktime (mov) file
Luis,
Just to clarify one point…in order for Streamclip to convert the MTS I believe a plug-in like the AVCCAM QuickTime importer from Panasonic needs to be installed. (Credit David McClain over at the FCS boards for that info.)
Russ

I can't copy iTunes media files from one external hard drive to another.

Hi, I am running the latest iTunes and Mavericks software on my MacBook Pro. My iTunes library is stored on an external Seagate 2tb hard drive and it is almost full. I want to transfer the files to a WD Elements 3tb external hard drive and have made that new volume the destination folder for my iTunes library. However, even though I have enabled read/write on both volumes and made the iTunes media folders on both shared folders, I can't copy all the files from the Seagate drive to the WD drive. It comes up with an error message that says "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058)". I can transfer files from my MacBook hard drive to the new volume, but can't copy files from the old Seagate volume to my MacBook hard drive; it makes the "boing" sound that indicates it is copying but nothing transfers. Files that won't copy include all music files, some video files and all podcast files. Some transferred with no problem. Any ideas out there?

Hi Limnos, thanks very much for your reply.
both external drives came preformatted for Windows but I erased each and reformatted them for Mac before using them.
i made the destination folder on the new WD drive the new iTunes folder using Advanced preferences in iTunes.
my original iTunes folder on the first drive contained all my iTunes files, as that, also, was the destination folder that was linked via Advanced preferences.
If I download new content now with the new drive attached, iTunes has no trouble finding where to place the files.
in Preferences I have both boxes checked (copy files" and "organize") that deal with copying iTunes files.
When I first attempted to copy all iTunes files from one media folder to the other on the external drives, I just did a drag and drop of the whole iTunes media folder from one to the other while both were mounted on my desktop. It started copying immediately with no problems, but as it progressed it started skipping files, each time displaying the error message I reported earlier. that included my entire Music folder. When I open, for example, a season folder that contains files that would not copy, eg, Modern Family Season 5, the episodes that won't copy are there and visible but any attempt to drag and drop them into the correct folder on the new drive results in the error message. There is no pattern to it; it will choose some episodes from some seasons but not others, and no music at all.
when I look at the "missing" files in iTunes they have the small exclamation mark that indicates the file is missing, but when I locate it through iTunes it doesn't copy the file on the old external drive to the new one. It just plays it having found the file on the old drive.
originally I had to make the iTunes folder on the old drive into a shared folder using the Get info window after either a software upgrade or an OS upgrade (I can't remember which, it was several years ago). For some reason the upgrade changed the preferences of that folder to a Read Only folder and after researching the problem found the only way to keep using the drive was to make the folder a shared one. I can't remember why and I apologise for that but it was a long time ago.; I can tell you that at the time it was necessary.
thanks again for your time; I have a good working knowledge of iTunes and Macs in general so I truly believe I have done everything according to how it should be done,, but clearly I've done something wrong!

I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive and my trash won't empty. I get an error code -22. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive and my trash won't empty. I get an error code -22. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

JLCruz wrote:
I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive ...
If this is related to Time Machine Backups...
See here > Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
From Here > http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
If the TRASH still won’t Empty...
See Here > http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html

I have macbook pro 13" I want to know how to copy files from my mac to the external Toshiba Hard Drive. I can't even delete files from my external hard drive. please help me my macbook HD is almost full and I have to copy my images to the Toshiba HD

I have macbook pro 13" I want to know how to copy files from my mac to the external Toshiba Hard Drive. I can't even delete files from my external hard drive. please help me my macbook HD is almost full and I have to copy my images to the Toshiba HD

To delete files from your external HDD, attach it to your MBP and drag the unwanted files to trash and then empty trash.
Then you select the files that you want to transfer by 'drag and drop' to the external HDD and trash the files on your MBP.
Ciao.

Why Can't I Copy Files from an External Hard Drive or SD Card?

Major problem here... Why when I try copying files from an external hard drive or an SD card onto my internal iMac hard drive, it doesn't work? The status bar that pops up, shows that it completes the transfer of the files to 100%; however, when it does in fact finish, the files actually do not appear on my hard drive.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is one of many problems I have been finding with OS X Lion and am very much on the verge of going back to Snow Leopard.
Thank you.

Have u tried the usual? Safe boot. Delete finder plist files? etc. And the drives are formatted for mac yes?

How do i download my files from an external hard drive to my new macbook pro

how do i dowload my files from my external hard drive onto my new macbook pro?

Can you not just drag them from the external drive to a folder on your new computer?

How do i switch wma files from an external hard drive to mp3 on itunes?

how do i switch wma files from an external hard drive to mp3 on itunes?

Can you not just drag them from the external drive to a folder on your new computer?

Can't move files from my external hard drive to the desktop?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for