Problem with file copying to USB/FIRE Wire drive!?

Hi,

I am a motion graphic designer and I rendered a huge movie file (15GB). The problem is that now I can't get that out of my computer. I have Intel mac (MacbookPro) and I have tried to copy the file to USB and FireWire external drive, but everytime i try to do so I get an error saying that it couldn't complete copying the file in about half way.

This is pretty annoying and I have the same problem with my other computer which is minimac.... Does anyone have any idea?? Please help! many many thanks in advance.

Design Agent

How is the external formatted?

surfwax95 said:

How is the external formatted?

Click to expand...

How do you check what format the external disk is? Sorry for the super newbie question....

many thanks,

design agent

It sounds like you have the external HD formatted with FAT32. FAT32 partitions have a file size limit of 4GB. I suspect that is why your copy fails. If you use this external disk only on Macs, you may want to reformat it with HFS+ file system (the Mac native system). If you need to use this drive on Windows machines as well...you could use a ZIP program to split the file into <4GB size files.

To check the file system in use, right-click the drive icon and select "get info." I believe that will tell you (I'm new to Macs, so I don't have it all memorized yet and I'm not near one to verify that statement).

Select the drive and hit 'Command + I' (apple+I) to bring up the info window.

Check under format. (Mac OS Extended means HFS+, MS-Dos means FAT32).

Aptmunich said:

Select the drive and hit 'Command + I' (apple+I) to bring up the info window.

Check under format. (Mac OS Extended means HFS+, MS-Dos means FAT32).

Click to expand...

Thank you! i just checked two of my externl drives and the are both FAT32. I had no idea.... I am trying to move all the files to my mini mac and will format the disk. Can you please please let me know how to format the external disks on OSX? (I have also recently switched to Mac from Dell

many thanks,

design agent

Open the Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities. The external drive will show up there and you can format it. Higlight the drive and select the Erase Tab.
He is a pic.

Erase using dtravis' advice and format it to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).

Thank you for the suggestions. Since I don't have enough space in neither of the two drives I ordered one more external hard drive and I am waiting for it now.

Design Agent