why cant i copy any of my folders from my laptop(macbook pro) and paste onto my external hard drive?

I had this problem with my harddrive, it turned out that my external harddrive was only readable on macs ( meaning that I cannot back up or upload my information onto the external harddrive from my mac; on PC it works perfectly.) The external harddrive that you have is not fully functional on macs. The only thing to resolve this issue is that I bought a new external harddrive which was both PC and mac compatible.

EDIT: Your external harddrive is in NTFS file format. Macs are able to read FAT file format but not NTFS. You need a FAT format external harddrive.

Actually you can always transfer files to ANY hard drive if it is recognized.

Need a lot more info first.

How is the external drive formatted - NTFS / DOS / LINUX / Mac?

How large are the folders - over 2GB?

How is the external drive hooked up - USB / FireWire / SATA?

Formatting on the external drive may prevent Large Size folders - over 2GB.

USB to a DOS external drive exceeds the data range for DOS - 2GB.

You should always get a FireWire drive for transfer of folders at a good speed.

eSATA is even better but then you may need an adapter - PCMCIA.

hi, Open the folder the position the archives are Open the exterior hadpersistent real click on the record you want to replica pass and drag it into the WD hardpersistent once you launch it domicile windows will ask in case you favor to replica right here or pass right here Make your determination Mike

your harddrive maybe has to much memory on it to put on more files try and create more space.

it could also mean that your files are corrupted by a virus etc try and email the place where you bought your computer, file etc

try from command line

cp /usr/whoever/wherever/file /media/name of harddrive/