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Copying files to external disk

Avatar Roy Rainford
I backup to an external 160 GB LaCie external disk via Firewire. This has been ok until recently when I have tried to copy a folder of jpg images. I now get the following message: "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "Boat.jpg" could not be read or written." (Error code -36).
I removed "Boat.jpg" from the folder & tried again but the same error occurred, this time showing the next image in the folder as the problem.
The disk has 6.5 GB of available space. The folder which I am trying to backup is 110 MB.
The OS is 10.5.2 but previously the backup process worked successfully on 10.5.1. Could this be the problem I wonder?
Roy


Re: Copying files to external disk

Avatar Roy Rainford
I have just checked System Prefs - Startup disk & find the external disk is shown as OSX 10.4.5 so perhaps this is the problem?
How is an external disk updated to the latest OS?

Re: Copying files to external disk

Avatar Terry Willis
Roy - A few thoughts...

An external disk is just a volume, it has no OS. The fact that you are registering a OS naming error within system prefs would worry me. Also, the recommended "usual" guidelines for spare capacity on a volume is approx 10%, therefore your 6.5GB is way below this, it should have about 16GB of free space. As the disk is very near capacity I would tend to work on the principle that it needs reformatting and reshaping (changing and reducing its content) as soon as possible. Possibly archiving content if possible.

Also, I know quite a few members use SuperDuper as a backup program. Have you done this in the past and created a bootable volume? If so, that could be where it is getting the system naming information from?

To prove the files are fault free, you could copy these to another device, a another HDD if you have one or failing that a USB memory stick.

HTH

Re: Copying files to external disk

Avatar Roy Rainford
Many thanks Terry. I didn't know about the 10% spare capacity guideline. I will archive some content & reformat as you suggest, making this (hopefully!) a bootable volume using SuperDuper. I have failed to make a bootable volume on another external disk after several attempts so I will use that as an archive. That disk btw accepts the images which wouldn't copy to the other one so this proves the images are OK.

 
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