Solved! Unable to copy folder and contents off external HD to C: drive on new laptop

[Crunchyhippo]

I need to copy the contents of a folder on my external HD to the C: drive on my new HP laptop. But every time I try, nothing happens. I've checked permissions, went into properties/security/advanced and tried to make some changes there - all to no avail. Someone suggested I make an "administrator" account, which I did, but when I go into it, none of my programs appear there, like all my Adobe programs, browsers, Microsoft Office, etc., so I don't want to start from scratch on this laptop just to be able to copy a folder.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[rgd1101]

use the admin account to copy file then logoff and login with the old account

 

[Crunchyhippo]

use the admin account to copy file then logoff and login with the old account

I just tried that. No success there, either. I went to copy the folder I need off the external HD onto the C: drive, and I got a quick pop-up saying "Preparing to copy folder," a quick progress bar that lasted about one second, then it all disappeared with nothing copied. The same thing that happens in the account with my name where all my software is.

 

[rgd1101]

can you copy new file to the external hdd?
try to copy to a different location on the c drive?
check event viewer for error?

 

[Crunchyhippo]

can you copy new file to the external hdd?
try to copy to a different location on the c drive?
check event viewer for error?

It's odd - I can copy and paste to my C: drive a sub-folder from the main folder from this external HD that I can't copy. Just not the main folder.

 

[rgd1101]

are you try to copy the whole main folder or just the files/subfolder in the main folder?

 

[Crunchyhippo]

are you try to copy the whole main folder or just the files/subfolder in the main folder?

I was trying to copy the main folder, which has three main sub-folders. After some experimentation, I could copy two of the sub-folders into a folder I created on the C: drive, but the third sub-folder wouldn't copy. Weird.

 

[rgd1101]

go into that sub folder and try each files could be 1 file having issue