New external HDs recognized by Windows but won't transfer files

[Guest]

I just bought two new Seagate FreeAgent 500GB external HDs with the intention
of transferring a bunch of my music and movies from my noisy 1TB western
digital external HD to something quieter. Overall I have about 700GB of data
to transfer.

I hooked up the first Seagate and windows recognized it as the E:/ drive, I
opened it and the only thing on it was the warranty information so I jump
right into transferring some music. The WD (G:/) is hooked up through
firewire 400 and the Seagate is hooked up through USB. After about the first
200MB transfer it stops and I get the error

“Cannot copy XXXX: Cannot find the specific file.
Make sure you specify the correct path and file name.â€

I have to then shut down the computer before anything else can be done to
the Seagate. I have successfully tried to transfer files smaller than about
200MB and it works but if I try to transfer a larger folder or multiple files
it will only work for a short period of time before it stops.

As I said I have two of the Seagates so I tried the other one and it does
the same thing. I then tried to format one of them. After a few hours and it
looks like it is almost done formatting, I get another error that says
“Windows cannot format this drive.†Now I can’t even move anything to that
drive.

I have also tried transferring to the C:/ drive first then to the Seagate,
but that also does not work, so I know it is not the WD that is the problem.

Also just a few weeks ago I transferred about 200GB of stuff onto a 320GB
Seagate FreeAgent HD and it worked… kindof. I had an error at first that was
like the one I am getting now. It transferred a few GBs of data before it
froze. But when I tried smaller forlders of 50-70GB it transferred just fine.

I really don’t want to transfer 700GB, 200MB at a time. So is it something
with the Seagate 500GB HDs or Windows?

 

[Guest]

I then try to delete the stuff that was not fully transferred and I get a
“Windows – Delayed Write Failed†popup from the taskbar and it creates a
folder called “RECYCLER†on E:/

 

[Guest]

The it pops up the error

“Windows was unable to save all the data for the file E:\$Mft. The data has
been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or
network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhereâ€

 

[JS]

Have you tried the 'Quick' format option on the drive that failed to format?
Also the error you mentioned ($MFT) is the NTFS Master File Table. It's
possible that since the drives arrived pre-formatted the MFT reserve slack
may not be (just a guess) the normal default and copying numerous files
causes the expansion of the MFT to fail. A successful re-format may
eliminate the your problem.

JS

 

[Guest]

I tried a full format first, then I got the error. After that, full or quick
format will not work on that drive.
I don't know if I should try a quick format on the other drive.

 

[DL]

As they are new perhaps you ought to contact Seagate tech

 

[Guest]

Seagate Tech support could not figure it out. They told me to format it.
Which I couldn't. I took it to another computer and it allowed me to quick
format the drive so I know it is my computer and my version of Windows that
doesn't let me format drives.
I still took them back and swapped them for a 320GB (for testing purposes)
since that is the one that worked before on my computer. Again this one will
not format.

I have a feeling this is a complication between Windows XP and Seagate plug
and play software.