I'm in urgent need of help! I'm trying to transfer important files from my external hard drive to my internal hard drive, but it just isn't working. I can copy files onto the external drive without issue, but when I attempt to copy them back, it starts but then the speed drops to zero and the process freezes. It takes forever to cancel, and trying again leads to the same problem. I can still delete, rename, and create folders without any issues, and I successfully copied a blank folder over.
The trouble seems to be primarily with large files, like the one I'm trying to copy which is about 500 GB. This used to work fine, but now it's been an issue recently, and my external drive is a bit older. I suspect it could be a problem with the drive itself, but I'm not certain. I absolutely need to recover these files for my freelance work, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
If all else fails, consider plugging the external drive into a different USB port or even a different computer just to see if that changes anything. Sometimes just changing the port can fix weird issues like this. And don't forget to back everything up whenever you can!
First off, make sure you have enough free space on your internal hard drive. Since you mentioned the file is 500 GB, verify that you have at least that much free space available. If you do, check how your external drive is connected. Is it USB? Sometimes the connection can cause issues. Also, running a check with CHKDSK might help identify any problems with the external drive. If all else fails, you might want to try using a program like Fast Copy to see if it handles the transfer better.
It sounds like a frustrating situation! Since you can copy smaller files without problems, there could be an issue with how the large files are being handled. Sometimes, older external drives struggle with large file transfers. You might want to try transferring the files in chunks instead of one huge file at a time. That could bypass some of the freezing issues.

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