problem:pulled harddrive outa old computer & transfering files to new one...

so I got a new computer (HP quad core) and I yanked my old harddrive outa my old problematic computer and dropped it into my handy external "box" and I have been transferring precious photos and documents to my new one, it works ok but seems to keep making "explorer" and the computer hang up at times, I am transfering to my Buffalo external but it I did try my desktop to, it does some files very easily but with more than half it just shows the spinning circle for long periods of time and showing no signs of data moving...

anyone have a suggestion that might help speed this up or at least make the files transfer smoother? thanks in advance!!

 

Can you explain what you mean by this?

 

yea its weird, when it stalls out I get this window "explorer has encountered a problem and needs to restart" then my windows I have open to transfer files close, I dont know, its weird, the main thing is when it stalls out for so long and the blue circle comes up and its just spinning...

 

The problem you are encountering is Windows File Explorer (explorer.exe rather than iexplore.exe which is internet explorer) hanging.

I have a couple of questions to ask to get some more background info from you.

1. What version of Windows are you running?

2. What version of Windows was the old PC running? (This could easily make a difference)

3. When was the last time you defragmented either the source or target drive?

 

oooooo... this is startin to make more sence already, my new computer is running Vista, the old one was XP home, defragmented the old HD a long time ago(maybe), the target computer is only 2 weeks old and has almost no files on it, , I dont think Ive defragmented the Buffalo drive, its not very old, I can transfer the files it just takes a long time and I can only do a few at a time...

 

...so you have a 2 week old computer running Vista with almost no files on it and you are transferring those few files to the Buffalo external? What sort of files (size wise) are you transferring? I suspect the Buffalo is formatted FAT32, most externals are and the file size limitation is 4 GB. If you are transferring large size files, you will get an error.

 

ah that could make sense, its been pretty much every file size possible, I would just select an entire folder of stuff and try moving it, I have tons of photos(im a photographer) and even photoshop stuff and other artwork, some documents like word and notepad files, that's all really care about off the old computer, ok so I will try keeping it to 4 gigs and under and see what happens...

 

you know what? this thing is stalling out on transfers at 500mb, its taking foooorrrrreeeevvvvverrrrrrrrr....

 

one thing I just noticed is that when I click on a file and open it up, it shows some photos right away and some it doesnt show (has a generic picture) or takes forever....hhhmmmmm....

 

any one got some new suggestions? should I defragment the old drive?

Im now transfering to my desktop but it does do the same thing

what I have found is that some photo files are not showing up and those seem to be the ones not wanting to move, I even get an error with those files and I have to cancel the transfer...

the ones with a thumbnail pic moves in seconds...