Can't copy files from external HD (FAT32) to internal (FAT32) partition

I have precisely the same issue. I'm copying files from one FAT32 to another FAT32 partition. This is a major flaw.

yes me too, it would be great if someone can help and share info related to this. thanks

Same with me, I am reduced to make the transfer with my Windows PC. Apple, what do ou say about this?? Hehe. Any idea how to solve this?

Same problem when transferring data from external HD to external HD.

Still no clue, anyone have got this fixed, quite bothering me when copying many folders and files within. Any clue would be great shared here. Thanks.

I've got this same problem. Cant move certain (most) files from macintosh OS Extended Journaled drive to 3 different FAT32 Drives I've tested so far.

I'm on 10.6.2 and I've tried a 16GB Fat32 Thumb Drive, which has worked fine in the past on this same Mac Pro until tonight?, I only updated iTunes recently in last week, in 10.6.1 and 10.5 and never any issues. Suddenly, I get errors when copying to dmg files certain drives IE: *The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code 0)*

One was a thumb drive 16GB that was 1/2 full. Copying a number of known good dmg files, ranging in size up to 4.5GB and some would start then quit. Others give an immediate

While copying from internal desktop SATA stock drive to my external Oxford 911 Chipset Firewire Drive. While this same drive, its 2nd partition that os Mac OS Ext Journaled, copied that SAME 4.5GB file just fine!? What gives with the Fat32 Errors? These drives all work on my other Mac on 10.5 and on my PCs and PS3 No problems at all.

The drive partitions for this external oxford 911 drive was 'storage a' and 'storage B', I renamed storage B to B storage and repaired disk on it and repaired permissions on the Macintosh HD, then reinstalled 10.6.2 Combo update on top of itself and it seems better at the moment. But I'm not sure what fixed it or if I just havent tested it enough to see it fail again.

I just used my Mac parition instead to move the files and it all worked for the time being. But ya, anyone who knows what the **** causes this bug or issue chime in Please!!

I'm so glad I found this thread. I thought I was going nuts there for a second. I have the same issues in Snow Leopard:

- Cannot copy from a SMB shared network folder to a FAT32 volume
- Cannot copy froma FAT 32 volume to another FAT32 volume
- Cannot compress a folder from a FAT32 volume (It's the ZIP format, so it follows MS-DOS / FAT32 conventions)
- Cannot decompress/unZIP a folder zipped succesfully on another machine (see note below)

- I can copy TO a Mac (HFS+) volume
- I can compress the folder of the above example if it stays on the original FAT32 volume
- I can copy the folders if I painstakingly recreate the folder hierarchy and copy the actual files manually - that's ridiculous in practice.

I have tried it with 4 different devices (2 HDs, 2 Flashdrives) and 2 different SMB-enabled fileservers with a variety of folders, so it is DEFINITELY not one corrupt file or drive.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, NONE of these problems happen with the SAME files, drives and network shares if I use either Windows (both a Dell and Bootcamp) or, more importantly, plain old LEOPARD !!!

It all seems to point to a serious screwup of the MS-DOS / FAT32 filesystem code in Snow Leopard, and I am surprised that this not gotten more attention yet...

If anybody has any advice I'd welcome it, since we interface with Windows a lot and this pretty much blocks any further deployment of Snow Leopard on our machines.

Try installing MacFUSE to see if that helps with FAT32 support. I have it installed and can copy between FAT32 drives with no problem.

I am having problems with my FAT32 drives as well. Seems like a problem that came about with 10.6.2 update.

Hopefully apple techs will come out with an updated version soon that addresses this issue, but in the mean time try using "Get Backup RE" if you have Toast Titanium 10. (Not sure if it's bundled with earlier versions or not).

didn't work for me, using MacFUSE.
anyone, any clue?

hope this issue get fixed soon by Apple.

OK, got around to trying MacFuse, installed it, easy enough. But the documentation is not that clear about mounting an actual filesystem...

SSHFS and NTFS-3G are easy to find, but where can I get a FAT32 implementation?

Ok, had a chance to try out Get Backup RE that comes bundled with Toast 10 Titanium and it works for me.

If you don't have a copy of Toast you can download the program at the bottom of this site:

http://www.belightsoft.com/download/download.php

(The download is a free trial that has full functionality for 30 days)

To copy files without errors:

1 - Plug in drive(s) and open Get Backup RE

2 - Go to Synchronize-->Show Synchronize View from top menu

3 - Click the arrows in the center of the program under the word Synchronization and select "Left to Right"

4 - Drag the file(s) you want to copy into the black box at the top left corner of the program (or click "Choose..." in the left target and toggle to your files)

5 - Click "Choose..." for right target and select a destination for where you want to copy your file(s)

6 - Add as many files as you want to transfer, then hit the big blue start button.

Works for me hope it works for you too.

You can also keep the bidirectional arrow option on if you want full synchronization between files or drives.

Hopefully Apple will have a farkin update before the 30 day trial runs out!

Thanks for the tip, arosuperfly!
Seemed to be a good idea, things looked like working, but copying of large file was not successful. Log says: File too large (27).
Thanks a bunch, though!

The problem is with 10.6.2 I have seen this in another thread and I have tested it... I have a computer I had just formatted using the original 10.6 disk and it works fine for copying files over... but when I upgraded to 10.6.2 it stopped working. I was transferring from a external hard drive to a flash drive.

That helps if it can be limited to 10.6.2 at least. I also want to add that I can't even DELETE some folders.

As far as I can tell, it is related to the read-only flag, which makes the deletion fail instead of asking for an admin password or similar. I'm not even sure where the read-only flag was set since that particular folder was only accessed from Macs.

As always, not a problem from Windows.