Problem Downloading Video Files on a Toshiba External Hard Drive.

I recently bought a new toshiba portable external hard drive and then converted it into a mac compatible hard drive. I have downloaded pictures, music, and documents beautifully on that hard drive. However, when it comes to video files I hit a bit of snag. I tried to download a couple of mp4 files onto the hard drive and some of these videos download onto it and for some it says there is an error in the video file. Even thought the video works perfectly. And most recently, I was downloading a couple of iTunes videos on to the hard drive and it did the same thing to a couple of those videos. Is there a way to fix this problem?

Which disk format did you use?

Hey

Well, if you are talking about the disk format that was used to covert the toshiba to a Mac computer, then the format was MAC OS Extended Case Sensitive. But if you are talking about the disk format that is needed in order to download video files onto the hard drive then it would still be set to the normal factory settings.

Fire_Phoenix said:

But if you are talking about the disk format that is needed in order to download video files onto the hard drive then it would still be set to the normal factory settings.

Click to expand...

I'm sure he's talking about the format of the external disk. One of the common errors is that format FAT32 limits individual files' max size to 4 GB. Video files are the files that most often exceed this size.

I'm a bit confused by your use of downloading.

Are you downloading a video file onto your Mac then copying the file to the external.
O are you downloading the file direct to the external.
Do both ways give an error?

Is it all mp4s? Or just ones from iTunes?

What's the exact error you get? And what gives you the error?

I'm downloading videos on to my Mac laptop and then I like to have a backup copy of the video on a external hard drive. I also buy videos on the itunes store and I also like to store them in the external hard drive as a backup. I have a 1 TB external hard drive, so there is enough space to store almost all my videos on my desktop and more. Mp4 and itunes videos are the biggest video files I store on it, but I have also stored flv files on there (I have had problems loading wmv files on the external). The error that is shown when one of videos I download onto it is as follows: "The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “(video file name).mp4” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)". Like I said before, the video file plays perfectly on my laptop.

From what you've said I'd suggest your disk or it's enclosure is failing.

Open Disk Utility and do a disk verify and repair on you're external drive

Fire_Phoenix said:

Well, if you are talking about the disk format that was used to covert the toshiba to a Mac computer, then the format was MAC OS Extended Case Sensitive. But if you are talking about the disk format that is needed in order to download video files onto the hard drive then it would still be set to the normal factory settings.

Click to expand...

Is there a pattern to the filenames that do not work? Especially if you try to go from say a name in all caps to one that is mixed case. I have noticed that sometimes when a drive is formatted as case sensitive the drive seems to balk a bit if you make that kind of change to a filename.

Well, I verified the disk and repaired it twice and it still shows the same error for my videos that won't work. I also checked to see if the names of the videos would have that problem, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I try to get all the names of my video files in the same category so that they match and the itunes videos names are all correct when it comes to caps and non-caps. Should I try to erase the hard drive and re-format it again? Or is there another way to fix the problem?

Do you have another disk or pendrive to try?
Yours or borrowed? It would help narrow down the issue. After the disk check came back clean a faulty controller in the disk enclosure is my bet but trying another disk would support or wipe out that theory

What do you mean by another disk or pendrive? I not sure what to look for on the external, but from looking at the external I think I only made one disk just for myself.

I think he wants to know if you have another drive (hard drive/usb stick) that you could copy some of the files onto? If the files work then that would suggest the controller in the other drive enclosure may be bad.

Spot on