external hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Walter Goldschmidt
  • Start date Start date
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Walter Goldschmidt

When using my external hard drive it works fine except when I open the video
folder. Then when I try to open a video or delete a video my computer locks
up and I have to shut the computer off and back on. This is irritating.
Anyone know anything about this? I have Vista Home Basic.
 
I'd also like to add that when trying to copy PDF files from external hard
drive to my computer it also locks up. All other data works fine : backing
up, deleting, copying etc.
 
Is your external hard drive formatted NTFS?

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

When using my external hard drive it works fine except when I open the video
folder. Then when I try to open a video or delete a video my computer locks
up and I have to shut the computer off and back on. This is irritating.
Anyone know anything about this? I have Vista Home Basic.
 
Walter Goldschmidt said:
I'd also like to add that when trying to copy PDF files from external hard
drive to my computer it also locks up. All other data works fine : backing
up, deleting, copying etc.
Click to expand...


Not sure about the PDF issue, but there could be a corrupted file in you
'video' folder. Try connecting the external drive to another computer and
see if it exhibits the same problems..
 
You might have a corrupted or otherwise incompatible video file in the
folder or there could be a problem with your video decoders. For maximum
CODEC compatibility you can install FFDSHOW, but that won't help with
corrupt files. Third party file utilities or players might not be as
susceptible to locking up. Trial and error, i.e. moving batches of videos
into a different folder and testing to see which video folder continues to
cause lockups, is the simplest way I can think of to isolate problem
file(s). I've seen this sort of problem in the past with XP but haven't run
into it with Vista so far.You might be able to move the files in safe mode.
 
I tried to create a new folder on the external drive but when I tried to
copy the videos my computer froze up. Being that my external hard drive is
formatted fat32 could that be the problem? Can I format the external hard
drive to NTFS format? It doesn't work on my sons computer either. Maybe
changing to NTFS will fix the problem.
 
Walter Goldschmidt said:
I tried to create a new folder on the external drive but when I tried to
copy the videos my computer froze up. Being that my external hard drive is
formatted fat32 could that be the problem? Can I format the external hard
drive to NTFS format? It doesn't work on my sons computer either. Maybe
changing to NTFS will fix the problem.
Click to expand...


Try here..

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php
 
I tried the external hard drive on my computer and my sons computer. It
locked up both computers so that told me it wasn't the computers but the
external hard drive that was the problem. I burnt a CD-RW disk from the
external hard drive and saved everything but my video files. I then
formatted the external hard drive. Then I copied all the data from the CD-RW
disk I made back to the external hard drive and now it seems to be working
fine. Wish me luck.
 
But the reason for the NTFS format INSTEAD of FAT is the 2 gig limitation of
FAT32.
Click to expand...

FAT32's file size limit is 4GB. Some applications can't handle files
larger than 2GB, that would be the case regardless of what file system
was being used.
 
There are all kinds of video file formats and any of them can be smaller
than 2gigs. For example, one-hour AVI videos are typically 350MBs, to fit
two on a CD. Video CD MPG files are typically between 400-500MB for 1-1.5
hour play length. There are others, with greater or lower compression rates,
DV and VOB being the common disk space hogs of the bunch. I'm assuming
BluRay or HD video files are massive in comparison but I haven't got the
hardware to use those formats.

I tried the external hard drive on my computer and my sons computer. It
locked up both computers so that told me it wasn't the computers but the
external hard drive that was the problem. I burnt a CD-RW disk from the
external hard drive and saved everything but my video files. I then
formatted the external hard drive. Then I copied all the data from the
CD-RW
disk I made back to the external hard drive and now it seems to be working
fine. Wish me luck.
Click to expand...

Since I didn't really see them actually spell it out, I can't actually say
what
they were trying to tell you.

But the reason for the NTFS format INSTEAD of FAT is the 2 gig limitation of
FAT32. That was the cause of your problems. I'm just guessing but since you
say
video files, [haven't seen many smaller than 2 gigs], copying files like
that
would be definitely causing crashes.
 
At least you can still use the external drive. I don't think changing from
FAT32 to NTFS will make much difference other than allowing you to store
very large files (4GB+) on the drive. If you put the same problematic video
files back onto it I expect you'll get the same lockup problem again.
 
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