Finder won't let me move files to my External

I have a Macbook Pro and Lion. This problem  just started happening. I have an external hard drive that I store most of my personal stuff on. When I try to move a file from the laptop to the external, I get a message saying that the operation can't be performed because of error code -50.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
Chip

Error -50 is a very unhelpful generic communications error and can probably be related to a number of possible issues.  Something between the drive to which you are downloading and the drive from which it is all coming is not working correctly, which probably leaves several hundred options. Here are some:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12744967 - user had two identical drives
HD downloads are Broken with a #50 error - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3663076 - ISP had inadequate equipment for large download.
Error -50 and 8008 - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3669623 - user trying to download iTunes video from a different country.

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