Backing up network desktop sources to External Harddrives (Problems!)

[user127]

Hi All,

>>>The Background:
I don't keep a file server as yet in my personal studio so keep live data locally on each machine (a Mac Mini, a WinXPsp2 PC, and WinXPsp2 Laptop). I've got a set of LaCie external harddrives with which I do a manual backup each week; I use USB flash pens to capture immediately any important changes I make in-situe.

>>>The problem:
The LaCie D2s are formatted in NTFS filing system and so I can't just plug them straight into the Mac Mini as it won't write to this. In any case I would rather connect the backup to a single machine and drag everything else accross the network - to save physically plugging things in and out multiple times. Unfortunately I keep on getting an error message when I drag anything from the Mac directly to the external drive (working from the PC) - I've had a couple of error messages: "Delayed write failure...", "Cannot copy... Volume label or syntax is incorrect..." etc. Surely there shouldn't be an issue with the drive being external, as it's mounted just like any other drive right?

Know this is a litte vaigue - but would very much appreciate any advice anyone has with respect to what settings to check or diagnostics to do...

Thanks for your help.

PixelSmith

 

[user127]

OK - I've had a suggestion that the problem may be the fact that the external drive is connected to the PC via USB2 - and the Mac tries to copy the data too quickly and causes the transfer to fail - is there any truth in this does anyone know?