Windows 10: Dragging files to an external drive

Here's an odd one.


I've been doing this for years, but today I hit a brick wall.


I've two external drives brand new, both two Tb one a Seagate nd the other a WD, both are empty.


My new laptop, has a problem and Dell want me to do a factory reset. SO I thought I would put my important files on to one of the drives.


I selected all the files in my documents folder and tried Send to and just dragging on to the drive name in the directory tree in the left pane of file explorer.


Each time, I got a message saying there is not enough space on OS


Not there is a C:OS in the tree, but I am not dragging there.


I have formatted one of the drives to NTFS and the other is FAT32 just to see if it is that, but the same problem occurs.


I have checked the remaining space on OS and it matches the space being reported as available in the drag and drop dialogue box.


I an definitely sending the files to the right chosen drive.


If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.


Thank you in anticipation. Keith

:)

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.

 

File back up to bitlockered external drive

Thanks John.

By trial and error the solution is,

• Set the file back up to the desired external USB drive, Back up using file history.
• Run backup to completion.
• Dismount, (Remove) the drive used.
• Remount (Plug in) the drive used for the file back up (Steps 1&2) and encrypt using Bitlocker.

Note you can only encrypt drives using some versions of Windows (Pro for eg not Home)

• Once the external drive has been encrypted dismount.
• Remount the drive, go to the file back up option, Open, Settings, Backup,
  Back up using file history.
• The drive should now still be visible and has been encrypted.
• Accessing the drive will be dependant on how it was set up in Bitlocker,
  Open with this PC, password, pin code etc.
• Repeat file back up as in the first two steps.

Hope this helps someone else.