How to transfer files from a laptop to an external hard drive

Hey everyone, I’ve been dealing with this one headache for a while now and I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.
So, I have this old laptop sitting around that I haven't really touched in ages, but it's packed with stuff—mostly old family photos, videos, some important docs, you know the drill. I finally bit the bullet and bought an external hard drive to move everything over because this laptop is pushing ten years old now... it's definitely on its last legs and I'm terrified of losing everything if the hardware finally gives up the ghost.
The thing is, when I plug the external drive in via USB and start the transfer, things seem fine at first, but then it hits a wall. About 20 to 50% of the files just refuse to move. The transfer speed drops straight to zero, hangs there for a bit, and then the system just gives me the option to "skip file" and moves on.
The weirdest part? I can still open and play those specific files perfectly fine on the laptop itself—they don't seem corrupted or anything—but they just won't budge when I try to copy them off.
Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or how I can fix it without losing my mind (or my memories)?
Thanks so much in advance for any help you guys can give...

It’s possible, I suppose, that the underlying issue stems from either the sheer size of the file itself or perhaps some sort of incompatibility within the hard drive's file system.

mistyotter35 said:It’s possible, I suppose, that the underlying issue stems from either the sheer size of the file itself or perhaps some sort of incompatibility within the hard drive's file system.

I don't know about that, man. For instance—I've got this folder full of photos—and whenever I try to move them, half the shots transfer fine, but then another batch gets stuck at like 90% and just hangs there... eventually throwing an error saying the file can't be moved and asking if I want to skip it. It’s the exact same deal with my videos, too. Some of the 3 or 4 GB files go through without a hitch, but then some tiny 300 MB ones just fail. If it were really a file system issue—like whether it's NTFS or FAT or whatever—it would either work for everything or nothing at all, right?

stormyangler32 said:I don't know about that, man. For instance—I've got this folder full of photos—and whenever I try to move them, half the shots transfer fine, but then another batch gets stuck at like 90% and just hangs there... eventually throwing an error saying the file can't be moved and asking if I want to skip it. It’s the exact same deal with my videos, too. Some of the 3 or 4 GB files go through without a hitch, but then some tiny 300 MB ones just fail. If it were really a file system issue—like whether it's NTFS or FAT or whatever—it would either work for everything or nothing at all, right?

Just try zipping them up first, then move the zip file...😉

William Richardson12 said:Just try zipping them up first, then move the zip file...😉

It just hit me—it’s not even letting me zip them. I tried uploading everything straight to Google Drive, but even that's failing.

Go ahead and provide it along with Unstoppable Copier

stormyangler32 said:I don't know about that, man. For instance—I've got this folder full of photos—and whenever I try to move them, half the shots transfer fine, but then another batch gets stuck at like 90% and just hangs there... eventually throwing an error saying the file can't be moved and asking if I want to skip it. It’s the exact same deal with my videos, too. Some of the 3 or 4 GB files go through without a hitch, but then some tiny 300 MB ones just fail. If it were really a file system issue—like whether it's NTFS or FAT or whatever—it would either work for everything or nothing at all, right?

And that 300MB one that keeps stalling... will it actually finish copying if you try moving it directly to a thumb drive?
Have you tried running chkdsk on your laptop yet?

Michelle Bennett5 said:And that 300MB one that keeps stalling... will it actually finish copying if you try moving it directly to a thumb drive?
Have you tried running chkdsk on your laptop yet?

Nah, it won't. It hits a certain percentage and just... freezes. After a bit, I get that annoying pop-up asking if I want to skip the file or just cancel the whole thing. I already ran chkdsk and it finished up fine—Drive C shows zero errors. Which is honestly super weird.
If I can't just move these two folders onto an external drive, I swear I'm gonna chuck this laptop off the roof of my apartment building.

Alright, looks like you've got a problem—something's locking that file down and won't let you move it anywhere.

Try booting into Safe Mode first, then see if you can zip them up or just copy them over while you're in there.

Basically, pull up System Configuration, hit the Boot tab, and check the box for Safe Boot at the bottom.

Let me know how it goes when you're done. 🙂

stormyangler32 said:Nah, it won't. It hits a certain percentage and just... freezes. After a bit, I get that annoying pop-up asking if I want to skip the file or just cancel the whole thing. I already ran chkdsk and it finished up fine—Drive C shows zero errors. Which is honestly super weird.
If I can't just move these two folders onto an external drive, I swear I'm gonna chuck this laptop off the roof of my apartment building.

So, we're talking about one 300MB file that apparently refuses to move to a USB drive, right?
Can you actually move that specific file to another spot on the local hard drive?
And does the video file actually play all the way through in a player?
Is the filename normal, or is it just a massive string of gibberish?
What's the actual file system on the USB?

Unfortunately, when files refuse to copy like this, it usually means the drive is failing.

cosmicbadger9 said:Go ahead and provide it along with Unstoppable Copier

+1

it's saved my skin a few times, I guess

stormyangler32 said:I don't know about that, man. For instance—I've got this folder full of photos—and whenever I try to move them, half the shots transfer fine, but then another batch gets stuck at like 90% and just hangs there... eventually throwing an error saying the file can't be moved and asking if I want to skip it. It’s the exact same deal with my videos, too. Some of the 3 or 4 GB files go through without a hitch, but then some tiny 300 MB ones just fail. If it were really a file system issue—like whether it's NTFS or FAT or whatever—it would either work for everything or nothing at all, right?

Or, as @mr-crime pointed out, "something is locking the file"... or you simply lack the necessary permissions (meaning you don't have the right to move certain files or mess with them at all).

Try this on your laptop: create a few new folders (call them a, b, c, d). Select a handful of images and move them manually—right-click and "move here"—one by one. Not literally one by one, obviously, but move as many as work into folder 'a'. Whatever fails stays in the original folder. Then try moving those leftovers into folder 'b', and so on.

Grab a task manager (Windows Task Manager works, though I'm not sure if newer versions handle this specific check) to see which process, service, or app is currently preventing changes to a file.
Personally, I’d start by trying some "take ownership" tools first.

If there weren't any ownership rights involved... he’d probably let us know. The "in use" part is a bit more of a headache, though. Sometimes it just doesn't trigger right. 🤔

William Richardson12 said:If there weren't any ownership rights involved... he’d probably let us know. The "in use" part is a bit more of a headache, though. Sometimes it just doesn't trigger right. 🤔

I’ve been living and breathing computers for a really long time now, but honestly, I haven't run into the specific issue you're describing before—unless you count those old-school headaches with CD-ROM drives.

The way I see it, that hard drive in your laptop is likely compromised; for example, even just resting a smartphone on top of the laptop can be enough to mess things up, and I don't think the software's claim that everything is fine actually matters here.

Here’s what I’d do:
- grab another computer
- pull the hard drive out of the laptop
- pop that drive into an external USB enclosure
- plug that enclosure into the other computer

That way, if it fails to read the problematic file or whatever else is going on... it's game over.

I went through a similar headache once where nothing I tried seemed to work—I couldn't get the files to copy over no matter what I did. I eventually sorted it out by just slapping an Ubuntu live USB together; once I booted into Linux, I was able to move everything over without any issues at all.

stormyangler32 said:Hey everyone, I’ve been dealing with this one headache for a while now and I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.
So, I have this old laptop sitting around that I haven't really touched in ages, but it's packed with stuff—mostly old family photos, videos, some important docs, you know the drill. I finally bit the bullet and bought an external hard drive to move everything over because this laptop is pushing ten years old now... it's definitely on its last legs and I'm terrified of losing everything if the hardware finally gives up the ghost.
The thing is, when I plug the external drive in via USB and start the transfer, things seem fine at first, but then it hits a wall. About 20 to 50% of the files just refuse to move. The transfer speed drops straight to zero, hangs there for a bit, and then the system just gives me the option to "skip file" and moves on.
The weirdest part? I can still open and play those specific files perfectly fine on the laptop itself—they don't seem corrupted or anything—but they just won't budge when I try to copy them off.
Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or how I can fix it without losing my mind (or my memories)?
Thanks so much in advance for any help you guys can give...

Try opening the files and saving them back onto the same internal drive under a new name—just adding a simple hyphen as a prefix should suffice. This was my own little workaround 🙂which served as a permanent fix for various glitches within all MS programs (as well as the OS and Office suites) during the era of Microsoft Windows XP. It resolved most hiccups immediately without even requiring a reboot.
If that fails, attempt the same procedure while running in Safe Mode. Let us know how it goes...