OS X :: Copying Large Files From A Bus Powered USB External?
Jun 18, 2008
I think I have found a bug in Finder where I cannot copy large files from a bus powered USB external. I get this error:
"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "..." could not be read or written (Error code -36)"
I think I have eliminated hardware as an issue:
1. The problem is repeatable (and always happens) on my Intel Macbook Pro, Intel Mac Mini and G4 Mac Mini
2. The problem happens whether I have formatted the external as HFS+ or NTFS (I can't use FAT32 for files over 4GB, e.g. VMWare disk images)
3. I can copy the files off the external with my Windows Vista machine (mostly dormant these days) and an XP laptop (I use for work), using Explorer.
4. The same problem happens with two different external enclosures (An Xtatix Portadrive and a Beyond Micro mobile Disk). I have also tried 3 different 2.5" drives in these enclosures.
5. If I boot my Macbook Pro into Vista using Bootcamp, I CAN successfully copy the files using Explorer.
6. I CAN also copy the files OK if I use Terminal and the 'cp' command (it works for all 3 machines)
7. I have NO problems with large files and Finder if I use a powered external with 3.5" drives via USB or Firewire (HFS+ or NTFS) on any of the Macs.
As you see, I think I've been pretty thorough. It seems as though Finder must be at fault when used with a bus powered USB external.
I should also mention that all 3 of my Macs are on Leopard 10.5.3, though I did also boot a my Intel Mac Mini into Tiger with the same result (Finder failed, 'cp' worked).
I have reported the problem to Apple, but wondered if anyone else has had a similar issue...and hey, a solution would be a great bonus!
I am having another problem transferring some larger folders from my old MacBook to my new MacBook. I am trying to move some very large folders and individual files from my old Mac to my new Mac, both running the latest Lion. I have tried this with both USB Flash drives and with external hard drives. Whenever I drag and drop from Finder to either the flash drive or the hard drive, the copying begins, but always gets stuck with the pinwheel at almost exactly 4.17GB. At first I thought that the formatting of the flash drive might be the culprit, but it also happens on the external hard drive that is formatted for Apple Extended.
A very "time and effort" intensive workaround is possible if I just copy fewer than 4 GB at a time, which is what I have been resorting to. But this won't allow me to transfer my Windows 7 Parallel virtual machine, since that one file is over 90GB. As additional information, it appears that Time Machine isn't bothered by this limitation, since I can backup and restore these huge files from a backup. Unfortunately, Migration Assistant doesnt seem to permit the granularity of restoring just one file. why the system hangs at 4.17GB of transfer? By the way, this happened with Snow Lion too. It didn't just start with Lion.
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 15" MBPB, 8G RAM 750GB, 500GB
I recently picked up a USB Hard Disk, I plan on copying large files to it (for example 20gb VMs), I am wondering whether or not finder can copy files as large as 20gb one at a time because the last time I tried to do this on a USB Stick, the file transfer would either freeze or would end up taking way too long to transfer and in the end I had to pull it out and having to reformat it. DOes anyone here know if such things will happen again copying these files?
I've recently purchased a NAS drive and would now like to copy about 500 GB of files onto it. Obviously this is a slow process! Is there a way I can set up the copy so that if it gets interrupted I can resume the transfer? At the moment the I just know X of 100 GB has been transferred. On the destination drive you can't see any of the files being transferred across until the entire operation is complete (on a pc you can normally see the files that have been transferred immediately) ... I'm a bit worried that if I turn my laptop off or I have any network issues the transfer will fail..
every time i try to copy a file that is over 6gb to my external drive i get this message "sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred. (error code 0) how di i fix this error?
I have two WD Elements external HDs. I use a Belkin powered 2-port USB hub to connect them to my Airport Extreme (used as a server). I started out with one of them, a 1.5 TB, and purchased the second one when the first started to get really full. I use them exclusively for storing music files. My plan was to move files from the nearly full drive to the new one. I began moving files, folder by folder (a painstaking and time-consuming process) from the one drive to the other.
The first problem that popped up was this: in the process of copying a folder to the new drive, an error message appeared saying that the "operation could not be completed because you do not have access to some of the items." I in fact have full custom access to both drives, and am the only one who uses them. Another message I would sometimes get would be, "[file name] could not be moved because its name contains too many characters."
I found this annoying but bearable until it started happening more frequently. What's more, when a folder failed to copy completely, that would leave me with an identically named but incomplete folder in the second location. An attempt to delete it would be met by another error message, "[folder name] could not be deleted because [folder or file name] is in use.
I have a 250GB WD external hard drive. I formated it in MS-DOD(FAT)/ExFAT using disk utilities.I have problem copying files from MacBookPro to an external hard drive. when i try to copy it says "The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data can’t be read or written (Error code -36) " The info of the files is shown as read & write?
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I am backing stuff up to an external drive (G-Raid 1TB, if that matters), and the process will randomly stop and not allow me to cancel out the copy process once it does so. I have had multiple problems with many drives (lacie and g-raid) in the past before, on different machines (G5 tower, mac pros, intel imacs, etc) so for some reason in my head I figure it as random. I'm guessing there's a hiccup somewhere.
They're all formatted correctly to handle large files, and I know it's not good, but if it hangs up and I pull power or shut down, it'll unfreeze and remount (about 80% of the time success rate, 20% of the time it wont even show up, not even in disk utility). This also occurs when I am going from external drive to external drive and internal drive to external drive. It seems very random. And finder seems to stall out too (like it is now) and when I try to relaunch it, it will not come back until one of the drives that is causing the problem is disconnected from the computer.
I am trying to transfer a large file (~7GB) from my macbook pro to my external drive... but seems that I keep getting an error. If I try to drag and drop from my Mac drive to the folder of my external hard drive I keep getting this message: 'The operation can?t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code 0).' I tried to use a UNIX command with the Terminal $mv file.xxx /Volumes/HardDrive/ at first it seemed to work, but after a while I receive this message from the Terminal: 'File too large' I am now frustrated... I need to save this large file for backup purposes and my external hard drive is not big enough to be used for Time Machine (it has 80GB out of 160 of space left)
I have a 38gb iMovie file on my MacBook. I also have a 160gb external HDD. I want to copy the file across, sounds simple right? It will start copying happily but when it gets to about 8-10gb I get this error message (EVERY TIME!): Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error has occurred (Error code -1309). I really do not want to delete this file as it is a wedding video I did for a friend only a few months ago. I am trying to copy across to a Freecom II drive using USB.
I have 1.9TB on one drive, 645GB on another; I want to copy all that data onto a separate 6TB drive....
What's the fastest way to do this? I have already begun w/ 2 cp -pR commands, running in different Terminal windows, but seem to be getting lower disk activity numbers in Activity Monitor than I was with a brief test of a Finder copy... is that possible?
Any suggestions? Also looking for a (relatively) efficient way to verify the copied data after the fact.
I have a 24" iMac and it was running fine the other week and now I get this annoying error=36 whenever I try to transfer large files from desktop to my external drives. It goes about 1/4 way with the transfers then stops with the error=36 message. I've tried to reset the pram but it won't let me. It just keeps on restarting to the same gray screen with the single short beep tone over and over until I let go of the option, command, P & R buttons and restarts normally but does not reset the pram.
I was just wandering if there is any software that people use for copying large amounts of data, or whether you just drag and drop/copy and paste with Finder?
My Macbook pro wouldn't turn on. I booted to the installation DVD and installed OS X to the external drive. Once the installation was done, I was able to access my laptop without any problem and I retrieved all my files from the USERS Folder. I tried to copy my old files to the external disk, before formatting the system’s internal drive and reinstalling OS X.
However, at every attempt, I’d get “some data can’t bet read or written (Error Code -36)”. I ran a Verify/Repair Disk Permissions and this is what I got:
I'm wondering if someone with the latest Time Capsule (announced last week) can post the results of copying a large file (such as your iPhoto library or equivalent - ideally over 500MB) from the HD on your Mac to the HD on the TC over GigE.
Please report the time in seconds for the copy to complete and the size of the file. I'd like to understand if they changed the QoS on transfers to the TC HD.
To get my Multimedia-Data off my MBP i5 SSD I am looking for a small, 1 2,5" hdd enclosure that is FW-800 powered. I was unable to find anything in the forums nor in the buyers guide about this. Any recommendations or tests? I am looking for something well designed if possible (imho like the LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra, which has two hds (double the power comsumption) and is too big).
I have a 2009 Mac Mini connected to a 22" LG monitor via Mini-DVI port and it's also connected to a 50" Pioneer Plasma (in the next room) via Mini-Displayport. Everything works perfect except that when I turn off the Pioneer Plasma, my mouse can still scroll over from the LG monitor to the Plasma.
I've also noticed that my screensaver is laggy even when the Plasma is turned off (usually that happens when it's drawing the screensaver on both screens) so it must still be sending a video signal out of the Mini Displayport.
This only happens when she copies files between internal hard drives. After copying the files, she verifies that files exist in both locations. She then deletes the files in the old location. Then, newly copied files are missing from the new location.
I've never heard of this happening before, except for with improperly unmounted external drives. I have run disk utility and verified that there are no problems with either drive.
Why does my mac stop downloading files, copying to clipboard, saving files to desktop, etc?
iMac g5 1.9 ghz 17" running 10.5.8. Had a hard drive crash and bought a new one. Loaded new OS leapord. Everything works fine at first, but after the computer has been on for a while, it will stop downlading files, disk verify doesn't work. I can't copy and paste stuff. It seems as if the hard drive is full, but I have only used 32GB of 300GB.
When I restart, it works again, then slowly not. Is it an overheating issue? How do I know if my fan is running? Is it a bad hard drive I put in it? Bought it new with three year waranty.
On several separate occasions, one of our users has had trouble with files "disappearing."
This only happens when she copies files between internal hard drives. After copying the files, she verifies that files exist in both locations. She then deletes the files in the old location. Then, newly copied files are missing from the new location.
I've never heard of this happening before, except for with improperly unmounted external drives. I have run disk utility and verified that there are no problems with either drive.
Could anyone help explain why this is happening or how to prevent it?
I'm looking for a way to connect an external bus-powered Firewire 800 hard drive (Glyph Portagig 800) to an iMac which only has Firewire 400 ports, and still powering the drive through just the Firewire connector.
All I've found are Firewire 400 to 800 adapters, allowing Firewire 400 peripherals to be connected to computers having only Firewire 800 ports. I need the opposite of course. Where can I get such adapters, and without sacrificing bus-power?
I recently discovered, after running Disk Inventory X, some really fat files in my Library. I haven't touched them, as I read on another forum that it could be dangerous but is there anything I can do to get rid of them? I thought maybe they were left there after a recent Time Machine backup because I read that happening to someone else in another forum...
I've attached screenshots (I think) of the two biggest files.
I was thinking that if i bought an external MOBILE hard drive (un-powered) i could take it with me sometimes when i need it in UNI (in Lectures where there is no power source to plug drive in), but also attach it to the mac and since it is un-powered and mobile time machine will work without needing external power.
I get the above error when I try to copy my music folder (not the iTunes folder) to another hard drive. Both drives are formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Its about 130gb of data.
