Copy from HD to HD problem

[RodNichols5]

I think I am in the right forum, if not sorry !!!

I just got a new WD 160Gig HD so I wanted to copy all of my avi and mpeg files from my WD 120Gig to the new WD 160Gig. I tried using the utility on the WD website that will copy one drive to another but I got an error. Since all of the files were either .avi or mpeg files I decided I could do this from within windows. I am running WinME and used a utility from Ontrack called PowerDesk. I used the free version and I believe this utility is not available anymore. Anyway I tried to copy several files at once. Several of these now have errors. The avi files will abend VirtualDub and some of the mpeg files will not play correctly. Has anyone else tried to copy files from one HD to another and had problems ? I thought maybe the HD was bad but I have run the WD disk utilities and the WinME disk utiilties to check the HD but there have been no errors. I wish I had used VirtulDub to copy the avi and maybe Tmpgenc to copy the MPEG, but I will do that the next time.

Any help, advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance !!

[babyboo]

You can't just drag them from one drive to the other within Windows Explorer?? Is the new drive formatted properly and with the same compression scheme (FAT32/NTSF)?

[RodNichols5]

Thanks for the repy,

Yes I could use Windows Explorer, it is just that I started using Power Desk about year ago and I really like it. The interface looks a lot like Windows Explorer, it just has more features. I guess I should have used Windows Explorer, I just didn't think I would run into problems copying a file over. I did use drag and drop btw, and I didn't discover the problem unti the next day, after I had deleted the original files. It is not a major loss, they were TV shows that will come on again, I just want to make sure that I can copy files with no problem.

As for the formatting and the compression, as far as I know, both drives are formatted the same(FAT32), I will verify that when I get home tonight.

Thanks !!

[babyboo]

I mentioned the formating only because of the problems you mentioned. You hadn't mentioned windows explorer before, however, if you can actually see both drives in windows explorer which you can, then they are formatted the same (FAT32 can't see NTFS drives and vice versa...at least I don't think so).

[RodNichols5]

Babyboo thanks for your help, I am hoping this is a one time thing, I probably should have converted everything first, burned it and then put the new hard drive in, I will remember that next time. i just hope I don't have a bad hard drive !! I have been considering switching to Seagate

Thanks again !!

[fritzi93]

They're almost certainly FAT-32. As for not seeing two drives at the same time with differing file systems - I can with my machine. When I got my new computer, I stuck an extra HD (FAT-32) in and Explorer saw it just fine. Files were copied back and forth no problem. It's been since converted to NTFS though.

Copying files is dead easy. Hell, I have a couple programs from well before XP, but they still work fine, e.g. HD Copy and Send To (both free). Send To integrates into the right click menu and is used often, to move files or put copies elsewhere. HD Copy is unwieldy except for very large files. Hey, I can't believe you couldn't find some freeware adequate for your needs that won't cause errors. When was the last time you defragged and are the HDs in question close to being full up?

Anyway, good luck getting it sorted.

[Nelson37]

OK, first, if you boot FAT32 you can't see an NTFS drive, but if you boot NTFS you can see a FAT32 drive.

How were these drives connected? If both on same channel, this could be a classic case of the type of drive incompatibility I often mention but many insist does not exist.

How does your BIOS identify the drive, and with what settings? How did you fdisk and format the new drive? Are you certain your BIOS supports drives of this size?

Why in god's name would you use some "utility" program to do something as tried and tested as copying files? Only one I trust is Norton Ghost, and then only when I want an exact duplicate of the original drive.

Unless you or your BIOS screwed something up, or the useless "utility" program gave you an error, strong suspicion you have a bad drive. Have you double-checked your cable connections?

[teegee420]

OK, first, if you boot FAT32 you can't see an NTFS drive, but if you boot NTFS you can see a FAT32 drive.

I boot from FAT32 and Windows is able to see 2 NTFS drives. Maybe I'm just special.

[jimmalenko]

OK, first, if you boot FAT32 you can't see an NTFS drive, but if you boot NTFS you can see a FAT32 drive.

I boot from FAT32 and Windows is able to see 2 NTFS drives. Maybe I'm just special.

I think that is something to do with XP. I have a dual boot setup with win98SE on a FAT32 drive and XP on a NTFS drive. Under win98, I only have 1 HD. Under XP, I have both.

I think 98 can only be run on FAT32 drives, and hence the problem occurred. Also, AFAIK most people run XP on NTFS.

[teegee420]

AFAIK most people run XP on NTFS.

That's true, most people do run XP on NTFS drives. I did too at first until I saw how quickly my NTFS drive became fragmented. Once I reformatted to FAT32 I went from defragging once every few days with NTFS to once or twice a month with FAT32. The funny thing is I have read from other people who swear that FAT32 drives become fragmented quicker. Not in my experience.

[pyscrow]

Thanks for the repy,

Yes I could use Windows Explorer, it is just that I started using Power Desk about year ago and I really like it.

Thanks !!

Powerdesk - I love it, but it does not copy large files very well.

If you want to copy lots of files disk to disk you are better of using the command line, it is faster and with the right switches recovery from a crash during copying is a lot simpler. Bung this into a *.bat or *.cmd file and run it. (You can run it straight as it is if you like) It will copy from hard drive "C:\movies" to hard drive "D:\movies", including all subdirectories. If it crashes, run it again, it will ignore previously copied files that have the same time. (Note the space between "d:\movies" and the switches)

xcopy c:\movies\*.* d:\movies /s/e/c/h/r/d/i/y