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We are in the process of transferring project information and drawings, that was archived on CD-Rom disks, to a hard disk drive and then on to our Dropbox account.
We are finding that the first disk will transfer over without any problems, using either drag and drop in Windows Explorer or SycnchronizeIt. When we insert a second disk, things grind to a halt forcing a computer restart. We are experiencing this on two different computers, one with a portable usb drive as the target drive and an internal hard disk on the other machine.

It's as if there is some sort of cache that is filling up when the first disk is processed and not being purged before the second one starts.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

How old are these CD-R's? I'm sorry to say that they do have a limited lifespan even when stored in the best of conditions. The dyes used will degrade over time and the silver substrate can oxidize reducing its reflectivity.

Dave

These disks are probably 10 years old or so. That's why we are trying to get the data transferred over to a safer location.

We are able to read the data from the disk in Windows Explorer and the data will transfer ok from the first disk. It's the second one that causes trouble. We have to reboot the computer and then the disk will copy without issue.

Is this, by any chance, on Windows 7?

Indeed it is.

I will then also assume that the external USB drive is formatted as NTFS. If the data on it is not needed, try reformatting the external USB drive as FAT32.

Dave

I wrote:I will then also assume that the external USB drive is formatted as NTFS. If the data on it is not needed, try reformatting the external USB drive as FAT32.

This will slow the transfer rate, but it may fix your problem.

Dave

It is formatted as NTFS.

We will pickup another portable drive and give your suggestion a go.

Thanks as always.

Jim:

I really hate to see you go out and spend money based upon an unsubstantiated suggestion by me. I mean if it actually works, that's great. However, if it doesn't I'll feel really bad. My suggestion is based not upon personal experience, but rather an understanding of a Windows 7 shortcoming (bug). Usually, this bug can be circumvented via my suggestion. However, there is no guarantee. Please keep that in mind.

Regards,
Dave

I understand that this may not work, but the cost of the experiment is less than the cost of the time we are spending trying to coax these damn disks to cooperate.

I have been looking into other methods of moving the files from CD to hard drive, and those are even more expensive than the new drive will be.

There was an article in the DeLorme forum having to do with large capacity SDXC cards that suggested a similar approach (changing the format of the disk to FAT32) and it worked. I am thinking that the (bug) may be related.

Besides, we can always use another USB portable drive.

I will let you know how this turns out and I appreciate the suggestion either way.

Download a Ubuntu iso and burn that to a cd, boot a computer from that and try copying from the cd's to the usb drive with Ubuntu.

We will try using a machine that is running Windows XP as well.

Always fun to work on a computer mystery.

Jim

Is this copy problem is limited to CD/DVD transfers? I have been moving large files from hard disk to a SDXC card without any problems.

jimgoodman wrote:Is this copy problem is limited to CD/DVD transfers? I have been moving large files from hard disk to a SDXC card without any problems.

That's my understanding.

Dave