What does it mean when it says '5 seconds left' ?

[Eugene51]

What does it mean when it says '5 seconds left' for more than an hour when I'm copying files from my Mac to my external hard drive?

 

[mindless728]

it means that OS's are generally bad at estimating time

 

[Eugene51]

When I'm copying files from my Mac to my external hard drive and a file has been copying for about 2 hours, then an error occurs, and I get this message, " Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred. (Error code 1309). Does it mean we have to start the file copying over again?

 

[sub mesa]

Please open only one thread, you now have three threads for the same issue; which lowers your chances to get a good reply IMO.