File already exists.... no it doesn't!

I suggest you ask on the nTFS-3g forum as this is almost certainly an issue with NTFS-3g
http://tuxera.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=fc8e7e30f00dc3200b02a9d0f858a89f

Its not NTFS problem. I have two external drives WD320Gb and My Passport 500 Gb. Both are formatted as FAT32.

As i recently purchased My Passport 500Gb, I was transfering all my data from WD320 GB onto it. I had movies folder present in both drives. I started copying 10 movies. As it was nearing end, Finder said "File already exists". To my horrow files got deleted both at source and detination drive!! Those were my favourite movies. I did a bit google and find that there was some drag and drop bug in finder 10.5.X but it was fixed.

I switched to Copy/Paste and then Delete on original drive. After some time it again started giving file exists problem but this time as I was copying, files on original drive were safe. I tried searching them through spotlight on destination drive and when I click on files it says "Fix aliases!!"

I am recent convert to Mac world and It was really disappointing to see such a buggy code in mainstream OS.

i had the same problem, you need to...

1. select applications - utilities - disk utility
2. in left hand column click drive icon for your external hdd
3. select partition tab
4. change volume scheme from current to 1 partition
5. select mac os extended (journaled) from the format drop down menu
6. click on the options button
7. select the partition type you need (GUID for intel based mac)
8. click ok
9. click partition and let it format.

hope this helps.

I'm assuming he is formatting it to NTFS so that he can share the files with a windows machine. Therefore, formatting it to HFS+ won't do him much good.

if you are sharing it with a windows machine have a look at this...

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/shareextdrive105.html

This is a new problem with the recent update. The only way to get those files to the drive you want is to move the files themselves and not the folder structure.
The way to get around that is to format your drive for the MAC and not the MS format. The problem only seems to occur with the MS format.

Hello,

I also am experiencing the same problem. Can anyone tell me how to transfer the files to my external hard drives. An online application or something. Because in big folders, almost every time i try to copy them i get this enormous and (mac) disapointing bug.
Thanks

Same problem here! So rubbishy. I already had a WD 500 GB MyBook which was running out of room, and so I bought a new 500 gig My Passport Essential. Both are formatted at FAT32, but I can't copy from my MyBook to the new My Passport.

What's the point? Better yet, what's the problem?

It just keeps telling me that "the process can't be completed because "xxxx" already exists."

No it doesn't. The drive is empty! 500 glorious gigs worth of space that I can't transfer a **** thing to!

I'm probably going to return it to the store if I can't figure out the problem. A shame, because it's such a handsome little beast.

Hi Fitzy777,

One of the way to go around this problem is copy individual files across, which is very stupid I know.

The best thing is to use terminal "cp" command. Following command copies everything from My book HD to passport drive.
cp -rv /Volumes/My\ Book/* /Volumes/MY\ PASSPORT/.

I am using -v just to verify whats going on. You can skip it if you want.

I successfully copied everything but for few files, I got this error:
"cp: : unable to copy extended attributes to No such file or directory"
I have removed file names from msg.

Copying files between HDs, even if they are FAT formatted is basic functionality and they screwed it big time in Mac. Once I was moving files from my WD HD to MY PASSPORT. Due to this stupid bug, I lost lost of Important data. Why can't they fix and provide new patch. Do We need to raise it via any bug tracking tool here. I must admit that I am little scared to use finder for moving files now.

There is a thread to this exact problem with copying files to Fat32 in version 10.6.2. Have a look.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2231287