I bought a 2021 Mac Mini and am trying to move my movie files from a Windows NTFS drive to an external drive on my Mac. Some files (mp4, MKV) copy fine, while at other times the copy process starts, stops, then the NTFS drive unmounts. It doesn’t seem to matter the file type or size of the file. Same thing happens on my 2014 Mac Mini. Help?
Hi,
So, if it happens on both Macs, I suspect the drive is unwell. Do you have another external drive you can mount along side the NTFS one and clone the NTFS drive to? I ask as if it on its last legs, you may only have one sustained chances to get the contents off it before it is gone.
Though Apple's Disk Utility can mount NTFS drives, I don't believe it can repair them. If you've a Windows machine, it maybe able to repair the MBR but I still think the drive will soon fail fully.
If those are important files, I'd try:
On the Mac format another external drive as exFAT (Master Boot Record). Or simply do the default exFAT format on a Windows PC (some reports claim that sometimes some exFAT block size setting might not then be compatible with a Mac, though).
On a known-good Windows PC copy the NTFS drive to the exFAT drive. If also that fails, then the NTFS drive might be failing.
Copying files NTFS external drive to Mac external drive
