Can't efficiently copy files in MACOS 10.4.7

[JHZR2]

Hi, I have a mac mini, a 160GB WD USB2.0 external hard disk, and a 2.0GB CF card from my Nikon digital SLR. The WD drive is formatted from the factory as FAT32 (which is what I plan to keep it as, since It will be used with both a mac and PC), and I assume the CF card is formatted as fat32 by the camera. I have a number of directories on the CF card that I want to transfer to the HD. Both the HD and CF card reader are plugged into a USB2.0 hub, connected to the mac. all devices on that USB port are 2.0 compatible. If I drag one folder at a time, they seem to transfer OK. If I drag multiple folders that only take up less than 100 MB each and copy multiple at once, they seem to work OK. If I drag my main 'DCIM' folder, which has the latest photos from my camera (about 1.24 GB) to the HD, if anything else s copying, it just stops midway in copying and does not continue. THe only solution is to hot remove the devices from the hub, or reboot the computer. If I select more than one folder and copy them at one time, the thing wont copy, itll get stuck midway. So, -ny ideas why Im having problems copying files from one drive to another on the same USB hub? -Is there a way to 'cut' and paste the files from one drive to the other, rather than having to sopy them from one to the other and then delete them from the original drive? In mac, of course... its easy to do in Win2k -Any suggestions how to better enhance my file transfer speed and prevent issues like what happened from happening? I transfer large files from various drives quite often. I really dont want to have to boot up my PC every time I want to transfer files from my memory card to my external HD. Thanks! JMH

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Are you able to successfully copyy all files in one large bulk copy from your CF card to a folder on your Mac HD (not your USB external FAT32 disk)?

 

[JHZR2]

nope... doesnt seem to work. It will work immediately on PC. JMH

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Sounds like OSX is trying to write the .DS_Store files to the media. I found this article at Apple's site: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301711 but sadly, it's only for network shares, not local volumes.

 

[JHZR2]

I found that eventuall it was some pictures in one file on my CF drive. The files were A-OK in and of themselves, and when I copied them one at a time, they moved, opened, etc. just fine. So it was just some issue with a lot f the files in one directory. The rest moved fine in bulk. I reformatted the CF card when I put it back into my camera... hopefully itll no longer be an issue. I dont know why the mac had trouble moving some files, whereas they copied on the PC effortlessly. Thanks, JMH

 

[gtoracer]

Hi JMH Fat32 has a 4 gig file size limit,if you exceed that it will stop in mid transfer,also fat32 will not accept some charecters in the file names that OSX will, so while fat32 will work with OSX there are some quirks to be remembered. I have a 300 gig LaCie firewire external drive I partitioned it for two 150 gig partitions, I formatted one side for nfts on my XP machine and the other half OSX extended(journaled) and it works great on either OS..Pete

 

[JHZR2]

Nope, didnt transfer more than 1.5 GB total... two ~600 MB folders and then the rest in some other foders. The naming convention/character issue is a good suggestion, except that my nikon SLR names all the files the exact same way, and it was just a few bad actors (which open up totally fine) that caused the issue. Oh well, go figure. Thanks for the help! JMH