How to Enable Paste Menu Item in System 7

Question

I recently got a Macintosh Color Classic running System 7.1, and I am trying to move old files off of it. My goal is to copy files from the Macintosh to a floppy drive, then read them from a USB floppy drive on a modern Mac.

The issue I am running into is that the Macintosh Color Classic does not seem to let me paste any files through Finder. The files in question are stored on the internal drive, and when I attempt to paste files to any location from the clipboard, the Paste menu item (under Edit) is unavailable.

I have tried to use keyboard shortcuts (CMD + C and CMD + V). I also let the Macintosh format the disk, in order to avoid any compatibility issues. I am not able to connect the Macintosh to a network, so floppy drives will be my only option. How can I enable the Paste menu item or otherwise copy files to a removable disk?

Answer 1

From comments - just try drag & drop instead.

Whatever limitations System 7 had for copy operations, I really can't recall. It just seems like the simplest workaround ;)