Copying and pasting files on Macbook Pro

By Zack, 22 January, 2015

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello all,

I am a new Mac user. I recently switched from using Jaws with Windows 7 to using OS X 10.10 Yosemite on a Macbook Pro. I had been figuring things out pretty well until I hit this particular snag. I've looked at several tutorials from this site and others, but I can't seem to figure out how to copy files and paste them into a folder. I have tried the copy and paste method as well as the drag and drop method and neither has worked for me. I have made sure that the Finder window that I am working in has been brought to the front of the screen. I have also made sure that cursor tracking is on as instructed by several tutorials. The keyboard cursor and VO cursors are set to follow one another. What I am trying to do is move some files from the root directory of an external hard drive to one of the folders on that drive.

At this point, I'm pretty frustrated and am not sure what else to try. I'm sure there is something very elementary that I am missing, but I can't seem to figure out what it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Options

Comments

By mehgcap on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

Is your view set to one you are used to? If you aren't yet used to any, I strongly recommend List View (cmd-2). This is the one that is closest to the way Windows works, and it is the one that makes the most sense to me. In this view, find the folder you are pasting into, open it with the standard cmd-down, and then cmd-v to paste, or cmd-option-v to paste and cut (rather than copy).

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

  1. go in to list view with cmd 2. I always teach in this method when I train my clients.
  2. copy he file(s)
  3. go in to th efolder you want to paste in to.
  4. Hit cmd V. if you want to move those files hit cmd option V. If you want to find out more about what I do go here

Blessings and happy Wednesday.

By Zack on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

I identified the problem. It was not with anything I was doing or not doing, it is with the file system on the external drive. I apparently have a ton of work to do, as I have to transfer all my files off the drive and reformat it. In any case, thanks for the help.

By John Lipsey on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

It is possible to get your Mac to be able to write to NTFS drives, which is most likely what your drive is currently formatted as.

Unfortunately, the name of the program to do this escapes me at the moment, and I'm not home to check. I found it here on applevis, and will search if you wish so you don't have to poke around too much to find it.

HTH,

-John

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

That method does not work too well. I used to use that method. I just reformated all of my drives as EXFat and HFS extended journaled

By Usman on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

Mary,
I've been using this method for over a year now and I have had no problems with it at all. Maybe the driver you used was the issue?

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

Maybe. It was a regular drive. But now that I formated all of my drives to either EXFAT or the mac equivelent I notice it runs a lot btter since NTFS is slightly slower. XFAT has a file size of 8 gigs, that's about 8-9 hours of 1 wave file, which is a lot of audio.

Take care.

By Zack on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 23:45

I've done some research and it seems that driver doesn't work well with Yosemite. I also discovered that there is a way built into OS 10 that allows for writing to NTFS drives, but it involves altering files in Terminal. As a new user, I'm a bit wary of poking around in Terminal right now. I guess I'll continue to look for a third party driver to do the job, or perhaps just reformat the drive. Thanks all for the suggestions.