USB Hard Drive issues, please help....

[BrownCow5]

Howdy all,

Right, i have a small (i think) problem. I have an old hard drvie form my last PC which contains oodles of music which i wish to transfer to my existing hard drive or at least back up to disc. So having got a desktop box and thus not having any room to put in the new hard drive i bought a IDE to USB 2.0 cable.

It all seemed to work fine, the disk shows up in my computer and i can go in and see all the files i'm wanting. But when i go to copy, move or back up to disc i get a variation of errors. Mainly "cannot find specified file". When i try to play them in Windows Media Player 11 it says:

"Windows Media Player cannot find the file. If you are trying to play, burn, or sync an item that is in your library, the item might point to a file that has been moved, renamed, or deleted."

I have searched and searched the interweb for a solution but to no avail. Please help me....

Oh and one more thing, i keep getting a message pop up in the bottom right corner of my screen saying "Delayed write failed....", probably something to do with it as well me thinks.

Thanks in adavance for help..

 

[ASG0856]

If your old drive was your old c:\drive, then the computer may be getting confused because it is seeing files registered on two c:\drives (reading as such in the FAT or MFT). I would guess that the program is then trying to read from you actual C:\drive, where of course the music doesn't exist. With the drive connected, check in the disk management progaram that it is being read as the correct drive letter. You could also try deleting everything from the drive (system files included) except that which you want.
It may also be something to do with the Main Boot Record on the old drive, which will also still 'read' the drive as C:\.
The delayed write failed will be something to do with windows caching. I think USB2 drives go into a sort of hibernation mode, when of course it cannot be written to. Disable delayed write against the drive.

 

[BrownCow5]

Thanks for the help, as you predicted, the disk management system is reading it as drive g: as oppose to drive c: as it was on my old machine.

Is there any way to get around this? as it obviously won't let me change the drive letter of my current c: drive because it's my system/boot drive..

Once again cheers for your help.

 

[BrownCow5]

I also tried deleting some files, some randwom temp folders that were in the root directory, however it says that it cannot find the specified file again.

It did though, let me delete the contents of my "cookies" folder within the "my documents" on the drive?? Which, to be honest, has really confused me..

Also when i looked in the c:\windows folder, it seems to be empty, and it won't let me delete this either.

Quite a pickle i find myself in..

 

[Freestone]

I suggest getting rid of the IDE to USB converter and try the drive temporarily inside of the tower. Put it by itself as Master on the secondary IDE, or if that doesn't exist, use the CD/DVD end of the existing IDE cable, jumpering it the same as the CD/DVD drive.

 

[BrownCow5]

Freestone, your a legend. Worked a treat, temporarily connected the HD to the CD/DVD lead, however i forgot to unplug the other HD, but that didn't seem to matter as it let me copy whatever i wanted from the G: to the C: drive.

Must have been something to do with the USB wotsit, nevermind. Anyone wanna buy a USB 2.0 to IDE lead

Thanks again..

 

[Freestone]

I'm glad my suggestion worked and you were able to get your data copied!