WD external drive won't allow pictures to copy..?

joelle129 · 01-25-2009, 01:39 PM

I have a 250 GB WD external hard-drive that i received in january of 2008, but have recently just opened it, so it is brand new. I have a mac mini OSX 10.4 & am having problems trying to copy pictures from iphoto onto the drive. I drag the photos from iphoto onto a folder i made on the drive, and after copying 99% of the photos, it reports that some picture file ( ex: DSCN0107.jpg) is busy and cannot be copied. After clicking Okay, all the files just dragged and copied are wiped off the external drive, leaving the drive empty. I have thousands of pictures, so i tried breaking up the photos into smaller groups, however each time it chooses a different, random photo to be "in use" and removes all the photos. I'd like to eventually put all my pictures on the drive to free up my computer, however i can't trust that it won't just delete them. how can i get past this problem?

**raptor_pa** · 01-25-2009, 01:43 PM

What happens if you just copy the files rather than trying to do it thru Iphoto?

joelle129 · 01-26-2009, 02:18 PM

All my pictures are saved in iphoto & iphoto only ( that where i have had my camera upload them.)so im not sure how access/copy then outside of opening iphoto. is there another way to access the files outside of the program? any idea why it might be saying the pictures are "in use"? or why it then deletes all the pictures? could it be the drive?

**raptor_pa** · 01-26-2009, 04:06 PM

Not sure how to do it on a MAC, but I assume there is a way to look at the raw disk surface similar to my computer or explorer in Windows.

**blah789** · 01-26-2009, 06:17 PM

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=81310
suggests you can make your digital camera act like a digital camera, or a disk drive.
can't test because I don't have a mac either, but you can try it and reports your results.

01-25-2009, 01:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
joelle129 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Mac OS X version 10.4.11	WD external drive won't allow pictures to copy..? I have a 250 GB WD external hard-drive that i received in january of 2008, but have recently just opened it, so it is brand new. I have a mac mini OSX 10.4 & am having problems trying to copy pictures from iphoto onto the drive. I drag the photos from iphoto onto a folder i made on the drive, and after copying 99% of the photos, it reports that some picture file ( ex: DSCN0107.jpg) is busy and cannot be copied. After clicking Okay, all the files just dragged and copied are wiped off the external drive, leaving the drive empty. I have thousands of pictures, so i tried breaking up the photos into smaller groups, however each time it chooses a different, random photo to be "in use" and removes all the photos. I'd like to eventually put all my pictures on the drive to free up my computer, however i can't trust that it won't just delete them. how can i get past this problem?

01-25-2009, 01:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,792 OS: XP	Re: WD external drive won't allow pictures to copy..? What happens if you just copy the files rather than trying to do it thru Iphoto? __________________

01-26-2009, 02:18 PM	#3 (permalink)
joelle129 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Mac OS X version 10.4.11	Re: WD external drive won't allow pictures to copy..? All my pictures are saved in iphoto & iphoto only ( that where i have had my camera upload them.)so im not sure how access/copy then outside of opening iphoto. is there another way to access the files outside of the program? any idea why it might be saying the pictures are "in use"? or why it then deletes all the pictures? could it be the drive?

01-26-2009, 04:06 PM	#4 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,792 OS: XP	Re: WD external drive won't allow pictures to copy..? Not sure how to do it on a MAC, but I assume there is a way to look at the raw disk surface similar to my computer or explorer in Windows. __________________

01-26-2009, 06:17 PM	#5 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,293 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: WD external drive won't allow pictures to copy..? http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=81310 suggests you can make your digital camera act like a digital camera, or a disk drive. can't test because I don't have a mac either, but you can try it and reports your results.