I use a 250GB Maxtor HD in an external box connected to my PC by USB2.0 for backup. My computer is a P4 CPU on a Soltek MB, 1G RAM, XP pro. File system FAT32 on both units.
Whenever I try to copy a large file to the external (don't mention large file limitation, its about 50MB and up), the "activity lamp" on the external box starts flickering, but suddenly lights constantly, and the connection is lost. Error message: "An error occurred in copying the file or folder" or similar. It is possibly worst when copying .avi and .bmp-files.
I must power the external off and on again to reestablish connection. I have tried to mount the HD into the computer instead, and there is no problem. It seems like the external HD is going into an eternal loop or something which makes it unreachable.
I don't think it is an XP-problem, as the same behaviour occurs in W98SE installed on the same computer.
This is really annoying. Thanks for any help.
How-To Geek Forums » Windows XP
(Solved) - External USB drive locks up when copying large files.
(3 posts)
Well, as far as I know, Windows has some silly problem about copying large files (which I guess is your problem?)
To get around this, you have to zip a file, and then extract them to the drive, rather than simply just copying them
It is a pain I know, but as far as I know, you cannot get around it!
Thanks for the answer. In the meantime I have found out, that it is not a matter of file-size, but of file types/errors. The phenomenon has occurred only when copying .avi, .bmp and .jwl-files and only if they are somehow corrupted, or maybe if there is a disk-error inside the file-location.
I think we all have tried to copy a folder, and the process stops before its ended, and having the trouble of finding out which files are copied and which are not. Here I have found a fabulous tool in Karens Replicator, that wil copy only the missing files.
So I will take the advantage of this as a way to find corrupted files...
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