Trouble copying files to external portable hard drive

[NotQuite]

My Win 7 machine is having issues and I would like to do a 'rebuild' of it. To this end I intend to copy all my important documents etc. to a portable hard drive and then restore the tower hard drive to factory and start over fresh. I have all the programs that I need to install etc. However, when I plug in an external drive and try to copy a file to it, I get 'Windows Explorer stopped Working'. I have tried different hard drives and different usb ports. I have also tried doing this in 'safe mode'. Same results.

I seem to be able to copy and move files to different places on the C Drive however, just not to a usb connected portable drive. I can however, copy files from my Win 7 Laptop to the portable drive. Any ideas ??

[viking33]

When you plug in the Portable HD, does it get recognized in Device Manager? ( without any yellow "stop signs" )
When you runWindows Explorer and before you try to copy any file, do you see the HD listed anywhere in the list of drives?
If you click on view problem details, what does it say?

[NotQuite]

When you plug in the Portable HD, does it get recognized in Device Manager? ( without any yellow "stop signs" )
When you runWindows Explorer and before you try to copy any file, do you see the HD listed anywhere in the list of drives?
If you click on view problem details, what does it say?

Thanks for your reply,

Yes it appears to be recognized in Device Manager without any yellow signs

Yes the HD does appear as 'MyPassport (E)' under Hard Disc Drives

This is what I see when I click on 'View Details'

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Explorer.EXE
Application Version: 6.1.7601.17567
Application Timestamp: 4d672ee4
Fault Module Name: psdprotect.dll
Fault Module Version: 3.1.76.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4aa9003b
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00000000000012de
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: b303
Additional Information 2: b3036ebbffbc1c2f88d0201c1b4a1ca4
Additional Information 3: 7ea0
Additional Information 4: 7ea0121b7933a6d2378992557a5aa38f

[viking33]

Looking around for that Problem code and with that exception error number, I get more results than good answers, so it seems.
One solutuion that appears a few times suggests that you run SFC ( system file check )
Start>run>cmd>run as administrator from the command prompt:

SFC /scannow>enter.
There is a space between the SFC and the /scannow.
It may take a little while to complete but it will attempt to auto fix any system errors it runs into.
Reboot and test again. Luck!

[NotQuite]

Looking around for that Problem code and with that exception error number, I get more results than good answers, so it seems.
One solutuion that appears a few times suggests that you run SFC ( system file check )
Start>run>cmd>run as administrator from the command prompt:

SFC /scannow>enter.
There is a space between the SFC and the /scannow.
It may take a little while to complete but it will attempt to auto fix any system errors it runs into.
Reboot and test again. Luck!

Thank you. I have already tried that and SFC did find some 'corrupt' files and dealt with them. No luck. I have now run SFC from an 'Administrator' account, using the 'run as administrator' option, several times. It found and corrected 'corrupted' files and then found files that it couldn't fix.

I do however seem to have found a 'work around'. I seem to have been able to copy files I want to save to Google Drive and from there, save them also to a portable hard drive. I will also be making an Image of my C Drive prior to restoring my system to factory and rebuilding it. I believe in a suspenders and belt approach to things.

Thanks for your help.