Cannot copy files from external hard drive to desktop hard drive in Window 7

Question

I'm trying to copy some old files from one of my external hard-drives to the hard drive of my desktop PC. Some files can not be copied but giving the error like 'Cannot read from source file or disk'. Those files are videos files (.DAT, .VOB, .MPG) and I watched them all the way through with no issues so the files aren't corrupted.

I'm running Windows 7, with admin permissions. Could any one let me know the reason and a solution?

Solution

This may be better treated as a comment, but too much detail for a comment.

A suggestion is to use Robocopy

Open Notepad and type the following, editing the source and destination path with your source and destination (please note)

robocopy "sourceFolder" "destinationFolder"

if you want to copy all the subfolders then use the /E like:

robocopy "sourceFolder" "destinationFolder" /E

Save the file as copy.bat and then run the script (double click it to run).

Let me know if you get the issue still.

Comments

[Scott - Слава Україні]

FWIW, I’ve been able to watch a video (movie) file (on Windows) that I couldn’t copy. In my case, there was reason to believe that the disk was damaged. As I recall, I could see the video freeze part-way through, while the audio kept on playing. I offer this as anecdotal evidence that at least one audio/video player can read the parts of a corrupted file that are good and just skip over the parts that are bad, while most other programs insist that the entire file be error-free. Maybe you are getting glitches in your playback that are just too small for you to notice with the naked eye.

[Mohammad Reza Selim]

Thanks but I am getting the same problem. It says "Data error <cyclic redundancy check>"

[Dave]

I think this is suggesting your external hard drive is faulty. Please download for free this disc checker acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/download/drive-monitor and see what it says. It's very easy to use and is a SMART tool.