Help! Can't delete folders on external hard drive

SonicBlue82 · Mar 5th, 2006, 07:39 PM

I've got a 120 GB Seagate hard drive in an external enclosure, which had an NTFS file system on it when I was using the hard drive in a PC. Since I put in into the external enclosure, I realized I couldn't even delete any files (when connected to my Mac). I connected the ext. hard drive to a PC again and used Partition Magic to convert the file system from NTFS to FAT32. I can now delete files on the ext. hard drive when it is connected to my Mac, but I cannot delete any folders at all, as I get the error "Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred (Error code -1407). I have verified that I have read and write access on the hard drive ... how can I resolve this?? Thanks.

JPL · Mar 5th, 2006, 08:44 PM

I suspect that the problem is Partition Magic, have you tried to erase the HD while connected to the Mac? I assume this is a USB connection?

SonicBlue82 · Mar 5th, 2006, 08:49 PM

Nope .. this drive is pretty well full .. 119.5 GB used - it has all of my data and media on it - I can't afford to erase it. I hope there is a way to get around this.

rubeole · Mar 5th, 2006, 10:18 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by SonicBlue82
	119.5 GB used

Out of a 120?! You might have a problem right there.

SonicBlue82 · Mar 5th, 2006, 10:23 PM

yeah .... well I think between two or three different drives/partitions I can copy the data off and format the drive ... I hope that corrects the problem!

rubeole · Mar 5th, 2006, 10:26 PM

Erase real good and you might have your solution!

KingFish · Mar 5th, 2006, 10:29 PM

If you're primarilly a Mac user, I reccomend formatting the drive, on the mac, using Disk Utility, Mac OS Extended (HFS+) and using Mac Drive 6, on your PC's to mount, read, and write to the drive.

There are still several files, and programs on the mac, that use the resource data fork, which get's lost on a FAT32 drive.

Eventually, back and forth, with a FAT32 volume, on a Mac / Pc, some of your files on the Mac Side, that loose their resource fork, will become corrupt, or recognized as something else ie... audio files recognised as unix executables.

I'm back and forth on both platforms every day, and have had the most success, using MacDrive 6 on a PC, formatting my volumes on the Mac.

Good Luck.

SonicBlue82 · Mar 5th, 2006, 10:36 PM

Thanks Kingfish. I'm copying the data off the drive as we speak, and I plan to format it using Disk Utility as a Mac OS Extended (HFS+) drive. I'm in the process of selling the PCs, but that MacDrive 6 util may come in handy in the future. Thanks again.

SonicBlue82 · Mar 8th, 2006, 12:52 AM

Kingfish, you saved me! I formatted the 120 gig external hard drive as an HFS+ volume (which solved the problem of not being able to delete folders, btw). Not thinking, I connected the drive to one of the PCs that I used to store some of my data on so I could copy it back over. At that point I relaized it was an HFS+ volume and will not mount under Windows. Well ... MacDrive 6 saved me! I successfully mounted the drive and can now copy my data back to the external hard drive. Thanks again.

KingFish · Mar 8th, 2006, 02:33 AM

No problem - yeah MacDrive6 is a must if you're back and forth on both platforms.

Glad it all worked out.