External hard drive question

[hikeNM]

So I buy an external hard drive to back up my stuff, mainly video and pictures. When I start copying my files to the external, say for instance an iMovie file, everything in a folder will copy, until the external tries to copy the iMovie folder icon. Then my drive says it can't copy the file "Icon". I've tried to post a pic of the warning it gives me when it tries to copy the icon at the bottom.

For some reason, it doesn't like any different icons except the standard folder. Luckily, everything in the folder will copy, but the folder icon is now just a regular blue folder.

This really sucks too, since I have alot of customized icons for folders, and apple has alot of customized folders too!

Is this standard for external drives? Is there any way to make the drive not do this? Am I gonna have to just have regular folders for icons? I was hoping this external would work like an iPod. They don't seem to care about what the file is.

It's a Fantom external, by the way. Any help would be great!!

 

[TheMasin9]

same prob

So I buy an external hard drive to back up my stuff, mainly video and pictures. When I start copying my files to the external, say for instance an iMovie file, everything in a folder will copy, until the external tries to copy the iMovie folder icon. Then my drive says it can't copy the file "Icon". I've tried to post a pic of the warning it gives me when it tries to copy the icon at the bottom.

For some reason, it doesn't like any different icons except the standard folder. Luckily, everything in the folder will copy, but the folder icon is now just a regular blue folder.

This really sucks too, since I have alot of customized icons for folders, and apple has alot of customized folders too!

Is this standard for external drives? Is there any way to make the drive not do this? Am I gonna have to just have regular folders for icons? I was hoping this external would work like an iPod. They don't seem to care about what the file is.

It's a Fantom external, by the way. Any help would be great!!

I had the problem with the same drive. some help would be nice.

 

[hikeNM]

I was just reading the manual(yes, I know I should have done that before!), and it says, "If you plan to use the Drive only on a Mac, you may want to consider reformatting your Drive with the Mac OS Extended file system." It then goes on to explain how to do this, but doesn't really say why I "may want" to do this.

I wonder if this would fix the problem? Does anybody think it would. From the factory, the drive is both Mac and PC compatible. Hmmmmm.

I am also having problems with some file names with the "/" in them. None of my iPods have this problem. This is also very un-mac-like. Makes me think it could be the formatting, since PC's can't handle this.

 

[hikeNM]

TheMason9, have you tried reformatting in Mac OS Extended?

 

[mkrishnan]

I was just reading the manual(yes, I know I should have done that before!), and it says, "If you plan to use the Drive only on a Mac, you may want to consider reformatting your Drive with the Mac OS Extended file system." It then goes on to explain how to do this, but doesn't really say why I "may want" to do this.

I think going over to HFS+, if it's a possibility, *will* help with the naming convention issues. The HD might be in FAT32 by default, which has some issues like this, sometimes, and also does not handle really large files very well. HFS+ will probably also be good in the sense that it'll let MacOS X use its journalling features, and auto-defrag and so on. You might also need it if you want to Spotlight the drive later, although I'm not sure about that part.

 

[hikeNM]

Yes, it is formatted in FAT 32. I think I will try re-formatting since I haven't copied much yet. Anybody think I shouldn't?

 

[zach]

Nope. If you reformat in HFS+, it WILL fix your problems. I had the exact same problem on an external, formatted in HFS+, and voila, it works.

 

[mkrishnan]

Only reason not to is share with windows...and there are workarounds even there, although not ideal. Go reformat that mutha'!

 

[hikeNM]

Done!!! Works great!!!

Once again, thanks MacRumors!!!!

 

[zeppyfish]

OK, I have an external Fantom Hard Drive. When I bought it, it was formatted in FAT32. I moved a bunch of stuff onto it in order to free up space on my internal hard drive, and now suddenly the external doesn't work. I've tried everything they say to do in the manual (fixed disk permissions, unplugged it for 15 seconds, powered up & replugged, etc...).

Anyone? Any ideas? Advice? I would reformat it to HFS+ if I could mount it. Although, reformatting it will delete what I have on there, right? I can't really do that (or would prefer not to).

Help.