Greyed out files and folders on external drive through Airport Extreme

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Level 1

9 points

Greyed out files and folders on external drive through Airport Extreme

Hi All.

I have maxed out on my old Hard Drive connected to Airport Extreme. I bought a new 6TB as that will do the job. I have copied my files for hours BUT there are loads greyed out ( files and folders ) so when you compare the overall folder size they are different. i am guessing there are files and photos etc missing. But a lot of folders (not all) are greyed out meaning i cannot open them or even delete them from my new hard drive. Whats happening?, Have i done something wrong ?. How do i fix this?. Many thanks in advance.

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jul 12, 2017 12:47 PM

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Answer 1

jonnyi73 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 12, 2017 11:17 PM in response to 1994firehawk

Hi. Both Seagate. Both USB. Old one USB2 new one USB3. both formatted ready foe mac use. i have the old one plugged directly into the Macbook Air and the new one in the extreme so i am sending files across the wifi network.

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Answer 2

Jul 13, 2017 7:52 AM in response to jonnyi73

I had a similar problem with greyed out icons, but it was with an internal HD that S.M.A.R.T showed was failing and I could not copy out files. In your case I can only suggest that you check your NEW drive with Disk Utility to make sure the "Partition Map" is GUID and then format/erase the drive. I have in the past formatted USB drives to Mac OS Extended, but didn't notice that the partition map was MBR and caused the drive to act strangely. I would connect both to the laptop to copy files. However if you want to use the WiFi, rather than selecting all the files to copy all at once, select a chunk of 20-30 files and copy them to the NEW drive. If that works try a chunk of 50 files, and so on.

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Answer 3

jonnyi73 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 15, 2017 7:15 AM in response to jonnyi73

Hi. you beauty. that did the trick. the partition extension was wrong like you say and connecting both drives into mac also meant it was quicker with no problems. Everything back to normal. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 4

Jul 16, 2017 2:20 PM in response to jonnyi73

I'm glad to hear that your drives are working. Thanks for letting me know! Also, would you please mark your question as "answered". Thanks.

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Answer 5

Jul 12, 2017 5:52 PM in response to jonnyi73

Hi, would you give more information about your old drive and your new 6TB drive. Make/Model #? Is it a USB drive?

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