Cant get all my files from external hard drive onto my MBP

I have a seagate external hard drive with music on it. When I drag files to my MBP, it does not copy all of them. I've tried everything, but some files just won't copy to my MBP. Any ideas how to resolve this?

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I've already set up my new MacBook (which is Lion, I think the other mac had the snow lepoard version)...so I guess I'll have to use the Migration Assistant, not the Setup Assistant? I know if I do that it'll set up a new user account instead of synching it up like I wanted but that's OK. But when I plugged my external drive into the new mac, it just backed up the mac and didn't give me an option to transfer files. I guess I'll study this link and see if I can't figure it out...thanks for the link! If you have any other advice about specifically migration assistant, let me know...

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Spilled iced tea into the keyboard of notebook and after drying out it will not power on. If I try a hard restart it is indicated that i would lose all the info in the memory and I can not afford to lose the photos of my mother that are on the hard drive. Is there a way of getting the hard drive to work in some other fashion so that I can get my photos and other files.
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Very happy to help.Valued family photos are a treasure.
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Hi All, I recently bought a Mac Book Pro and transferred all my photos from my hard drive onto the Mac. I realised that there were some folders which didn't have the camera information embedded in the files and these files refuse to open on iPhoto. HELP!!

Hi All, I recently bought a Mac Book Pro and transferred all my photos from my hard drive onto the Mac. I realised that there were some folders which didn't have the camera information embedded in the files and these files refuse to open on iPhoto. I know that the folders that have the problem were not transferred to the hard drive via a photo transfer application (I have a Canon camera) but I simply copied them out of the photo card and onto my old PC.
Is there some way I can open these pictures on my Mac? They work fine on a PC.

Thanks for your reply.
The files don't open in preview either. In preview I get the error message 'The file "xxxx_xxx.jpg" could not be opened. It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn't recognize'. The folders with these un-openable pictures do not even get imported into iPhoto. When I try to import them I get an error message about the files being unreadable.
The color profile information on the un-openable files is not visible but I see that all the other files from my old drive are RGB.

I able to copy and paste files from external hard drive to mac, but not the other way around. Please suggest. Thanks

I m able to copy and paste selected files from external hard drive to my mac but not the other way around. Im not able to copy files from Mac to external hard drive.
The same is working fine with USB flash memory.
Please help.

Vijay Raymond Daniel wrote:
The only thing is we need to buy this software. if there is a free solution to inter change files between NTFS and HFS it would be better,
Don't use NTFS, remove your data off it first and change the format to something the Mac and PC can read, but doens't cost money or require software.
Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC's

How do I import data from external hard drive onto new iMac?

How do I import data from an external hard drive onto my new iMac?

If you think about it logically if you want to move something from one place to another well do just exactly that
Drag & Drop its as simple as that click on the file/folder keep it pressed down & move the file/folder to where you want it on your Mac
If its photo's drag them onto the iPhoto icon on the dock if its music drag it onto the iTunes icon documents into guess what documents
Hope this helps

Installing recovery HD accidentally deleted all my files on External Hard Drive - How do I get back??

I am preparing my mac for selling, and I wanted to keep mountain lion on it, so I tried to install Recovery HD. however I accidentally clicked yes when it said it will delete from the external hard drive. So now all the files I had saved on there, including all my songs, are gone. I can't use time Machine because my time machine backups were on that hard drive. Someone please help me!!

If you erased that hard drive accidentally, there's not much you can do to easily recover. You can try some recovery utilities, like Data Rescue or File Salvage. The results are not likely to be pretty, as you will have lost the entire directory structure.
For the future, one set of backups is not enough, for precisely this kind of reason. Also, storing other data on the same drive as your backups is a similarly bad idea. Maintain a minimum of two separate backups, on two completely separate physical devices, and do not put any other data on any of those backup drives.

How to get files from external hard drive on new user on iMac?

My wife has an iMac, and I want to transfer my time machine info from my external hard drive that it ultimately from my laptop...onto a new user name on her iMac for myself. How do I do this? Because every time I connect my external hard drive, it just wants to save the content from her iMac....and will this erase her user stuff if I do this? Thanks.

Connect the extermal drive to her iMac and run the program called Migration Assistant. (It is in the Utilities folder.) This program will create an account on her iMac and copy your user folder to the new account. It will not erase anything (unless you tell it to.) Assuming your external drive is large enough you can also back up her account onto it. One drive can be used to back up multiple accounts. It keeps each account separately.

Can't delete file from external hard drive

Hi,
There is a permition problem with my external hard drive (no time mashine on it!) - can't delete certain files.
I copied my documents on my external hard drive from previous computer with windows and later with linux system on it and there had been changed icons at certain folders previously. I mention this, becouse what linux did was that it locked the changed icon files and I couldn't delete them until I unlocked them manually. But at least it showed me that i don't have permition and i could change it. Well, now I mounted the disk on my new macbook and wanted to delete some files and it seems that there is the same problem with permition, at least it seems to happen with the same files. When I want to delete them, the system asks me for admin password, I give it allright, it makes the sound as if the folder was moved to trash but that's all. the folder is still there even after dismounting and restarting. I already checked the permitions and it says in the info that i can read and write with the file so it looks as if my rights were ok...
Please help, I desperatly need more space for new backup and can't get rid of the files I don't need any more...
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Message was edited by: brevon

Thanx for such qucik reply!!! The pages were great, it had an answer for my problem, but unfortunately it also involved me dealing with it only on the MacIntosh HD itself, not on mounted external drive I suppose... So it didn't work they say that there is an icon in the left corner indicating locked folder - I don't see any icon on it. It says you can untick the box to unlock the folder - there is no tick to be unticked. Finally, they say that if I don't have permition or rights I cannot delete it. But how do i change permittion which already says that i can read and write in it? So everything appears to be normal only I cannot delete it. there is not even any warnig telling me I don't have enough rights, it just requires the password and after me typing it in it makes the sound of scraping paper but does nothing more. I aslo had some problems with emptying Trash after being seemingly succesful with one file and had got so far to have them appear in the Trash (no clue how this one actully got there though..) I followd the advice and emptied the Trash with Terminal. The Folder is still there but it shows 0 Kb... So far so good BUT: It is still on the external drive, so I obviously only managed to copy it into the Trash!!! Phew, innit a bit too tight to poor owners, this macbook?? I want my rights back!

Hard Drive Crash--Restoring music files from External Hard Drive

My hard disk crashed, but I think (at least I hope) that I'm backed up. I had copied all of my Itunes music onto an external hard disk before the crash, although I'm not sure I copied everything that you are supposed for a full backup (i.e. all files in the Itunes folder). I'm uncertain as to the process to get everything restored.
Right now, Itunes is not installed on the new hard disk. Obviously I need to download and reinstall Itunes, which I'll do. But from here I'm confused, and I haven't seen a straightforward explanation of the next steps. Is it then as easy as copying all the old music from the external hard drive into the new Itunes music folder once Itunes is reinstalled, then synching? Or, do install itunes, then reopen it while the external hard drive is attached, and "consolidate" the old library into the new? Or do I first have to plug in the Ipod, authorize the new drive, and move the purchased music from the Ipod to the new drive through the manually managing music process that I've read about? Is there a relatively straightforward "step by step" process someone can point me at?
I'd appreciate any guidance anyone can provide, or any directions to some materials that I can read. Thanks very much.

If you copied the entire iTunes folder to the external, then all you have to do is install iTunes like normal, then start up with these instructions and point it to your backup on the external...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Assuming that works, you can either leave everything as is and continue to use it directly off the external. Or close iTunes, then again copy the entire iTunes folder back to your internal drive, then reopen iTunes with those instructions again and re-point it back to your internal drive's copy.
Patrick

Transfer files from External Hard Drive to PC?

Sadly, my iBook g4 1.2 GHz (2005) is on the fritz (see my other question on Apple Discussions if you're curious as to why) and so I must get a new laptop. Unfortunately, I can't afford any of the Macs available, and so will be purchasing a PC. I have been using a 250GB external hard drive to store my iTunes library (about 25GB, too much for my iBook's 30 GB HD to handle) and as a Time Machine. I need to know how to be able to put all of my music and docs onto the new PC. Would it be best to not use TM and just put everything I want on the external HD and then access it from the PC? Alternatively, I do have a small home wireless network (using an Airport Express)...if that's the better option, how do I use it to transfer files? Any help would be wonderful!

The easiest solution is to erase the external hard drive and re-partition it to use on the PC:
Extended Hard 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. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to MS-DOS. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to MBR then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Open iTunes and de-authorize your computer.
Copy your iTunes library in it's entirety (/Home/Music/iTunes/ folder) to the drive along with any other data you wish to transfer.
See the following about how to convert your iTunes library for the PC:
Macworld - How to transfer iTunes libraries between PC and Mac;
Geek to Live- How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back).

Moving files from External Hard Drive TO Macbook Pro

I just got my Macbook Pro and want to move some files from my external hard drive to my Mac but this message keeps pooping up: "There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?" and my options are "Stop" or "Continue". I selected "Continue" but the same dialogue appears with only the option "Okay" so when i click on it, nothing happens (i.e. nothing moves)
However, my trash is empty so i don't get what the "locked items" are.
Can someone please advise me on what to do?
Any help would be really appreciated.
If this helps, i have a macbook pro with retina display, 13-inch, Early 2015 (OS X Yosemite - Version 10.10.3)
(3.1GHz Dual Core Intel Core i7, 16GB 1866MHz)

Have you tried reformatting the drive with Disk Utility?
If the external was formatted by windows, the it's likely in the wrong format.

Lost iPod in fire and trying to restore files from external hard drive

I've got a similar issue to folks who are trying to restore their Library from an external source, but with a new twist. We suffered a house fire, and my iPod was destroyed. Amazingly an external hard drive I had done some backups to survived (mostly) and I have several of my iTunes songs, but when I tried to import them into my new computer (and new license of iTunes) I can't get anything to work. I tried manually copying the files over to the iTunes folder and then "importing a file" into my Library but it doesn't do anything. any ideas?

Thank you for the suggestion. I was moving them in Finder, (just as the Genius showed me but obviously he wasn't quite a genius after all!) However, even after moving a file onto the external drive within iMovie like you suggested, it's still not working. Trying to open the files from the external drive, they will only open in QuickTime Player, and also only as individual clips. Any other suggestions would be very much welcomed!
Thank you.

Cannot delete Time Machine file from external hard drive

Hello,
I'd like to delete my original Time machine file from an external hard drive ( Lacie mini ). I move the file into the trash bin and it constantly "deletes". At one time I left it deleting overnight and the file still wasn't trashed.
I am going to hook up Time Machine to a different, dedicated external hard drive, but I'd like to gain space on the drive that Time Machine is currently on.
I currently have Time Machine turned off ( I do have everything backed up with my home folder on another external HD ). Should Time Machine be turned on for me to trash the file? Is there a better way to delete the file?
Much thanks in advance.

V.K. wrote:
... the best and the quickest way to delete it is to erase the TM hard drive....
But what if a person doesn't want to erase the TM drive? My MacPro came with tiger installed, but since tiger-intel-retail discs don't exist, my copy of tiger is what i have. I was all manner of foolish directing TM to that drive, but damage is done. What can someone in my position do?

Can't delete files from external hard drive

So here's an interesting problem that I've never run across. I have a Western Digital hard drive plugged in and I was deleting some files off it today when suddenly it started saying that there were some files in use and it couldn't delete those. I hit "Continue" which usually does the trick but it just deleted everything else and left a bunch of folders with these weird empty files in them. So I quit all programs and tried again. Same thing, "Cannot delete, file in use." Tried rebooting both my computer and the external, again "Files in use." Did a google search, followed numerous suggestions, terminal sudo rm -r +file name, a force delete app, secure delete, holding down the option button while deleting... No dice. When I try the sudo rm thing in terminal it tells me that the folder doesn't exist AND that it isn't empty and won't delete it. (I love computers) When I do a right click->Get info on it, it says that I have read-write permissions but that the files are locked but won't let me unlock them (I'm the system administrator). When I look at the files in finder, it says they're actually aliases. What's really weird is that the file names are all messed up and have asian characters and stuff in them. I didn't create these aliases or have files with those characters in them. Soooo... Any suggestions? Cause I've read the threads and tried just about everything. I'm concerned this drive is headed for a crash or maybe just needs to be wiped and then put my stuff back on cause it's gotten errors over time. I don't know, I've never had this happen before and I'm pretty good with computers. If it was a windows computer I'd be doing a scan disk and defrag on it but I don't know how to do that on a mac to an external hard drive. I honestly don't know if this is a hardware or software problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Oh... well this is interesting... disk utility is say that it IS formatted MS-DOS (FAT32). Is that what's causing these errors? This thing has been running with my mac beautifully for years. So do I pull my stuff off, wipe it and reformat it for a mac? Or since it is FAT 32 can I hook it up to a windows computer and fix the problem? Since I had the wrong format, I can delete the files but if I don't fix the format this will keep happening?
Volume repair reported:
Verify and Repair volume “750GBEXT”
** /dev/disk1s1
** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
** Phase 2 - Checking Directories
/.../SpryAssets/_NOTES has entries after end of directory
Truncate? yes
/..../My Work has entries after end of directory
Truncate? yes
** Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters
95906 files, 181003968 KiB free (5656374 clusters)
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
And thanks!

Cant get all my files from external hard drive onto my MBP

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