Copying files between hard disks interrupted by error code -36

Hello all,
despite being a Mac-user since a (very) long time (nearly 20 years) this is my first contact with the apple support community. I would be thankful if somebody could give a hint on how to proceed if one encounters such an error as mentioned in the subject. This error probably indicates a hardware problem or some system malfunction. I usually try to find out what exactly went wrong to take measures to avoid the repetition of the same problem. Exchanging the HD and restoring the sytem may be the quicker solution, but I would miss an opportunity to reconfigure my system to make it more robust.
The system in question is a MacMini (Model A1347) with Os-X-Server 10.6.7. and 2 physical HDs: HD1 has 2 Partitions, the smaller for the server OS, the larger for the Shares (We use the MacMini only as a file server). HD2 is not used (was kept in reserve for cases like this).
That there may be a problem manifested itself first when the mounting of the shares on HD1 became suddenly slow (within 2-3 days) and eventually failed. I first tried to copy all the files from the shares on HD1 to HD2 before attempting any repair actions. Most of the files copied properly but a few failed with error (-36). Those few can be restored from backups, so there is no data loss. Remains the question, what went wrong?
It may be pure coincidence but just before the File-Server failed there was an attempt to upgrade a 3rd party software on one of the clients (17'' MacBook Pro / OS X 10.6.8) to a newer version. Could be that new version was part of the problem because the data files of this 3rd party software are stored on one of the shares on HD1 and the data file format has been changed between the versions. For obvious reasons I need to make sure that this data file conversion was not the cause of the problem
Therefore my plans (and questions) are:
1) first check the HD1 with a different tool than DiskUtility (It thinks the HD1 is in perfect shape), TechTool Pro or DiskWarrier comes to my mind, any reason to prefer one over the other?
2) Hopefully those tools can reliably test whether the HD1 is damaged or not. If it is the former the HD1 replacement option is the way to go and there is no more reason the 3rd party software may have been involved. However if HD1 is not damaged I'm left with the uncertainty of what exactly lead to the problem..?
3) Is there any check I should do before I just re-format the HD and re-install the OS and switch back to an earlier version of the 3rd party software to be on the safe side?
Thanks for any help or directions to solve the problem
Stephan

I took care to do my tests in such a way that I can (almost) exclude any network issues. Besides the Mini there are 3 other macs (2 PBs with OS X 10.6.8 and and iMac with 10.7. 3) on the local network and I recently updated all of them via software update. Additionally I had to "re-purchase" quite a few Apps to make them available on the iMac. It always worked like a charm, which removes the Router from the list of the supects.
Also the fact that the good files could be copied locally as well as over the Network to the PBs, but the bad ones gave always this error -36 independant of the destination volume takes out most of the unknowns. To make things worse, after the update failure it is no longer possible to boot the Mac Mini from the system partition. The downloads were probably written to a part of HD1 which was critical and this corrupted now the system partition too.
The issue can thus be narrowed to the following reasons
1) most probable: HD1 is toast (a reformat with writing 0s may confirm this, if this takes much longer than usual)
2) a slim chance may exist that the system partition was somehow corrupt from the beginning, because I noticed that the original Install DVD must be faulty (I couldn't boot from it now and when I tried to copy the DVD I was told that some items are missing). 18 months ago during the initial install we had problems to read from this DVD, but we thought it was a problem of the DVD reader and because we had a second Install DVD we switched to that 2nd DVD during the installation process (may not have been the most effective corrective measure if this has led to all my troubles now).
3) Another exotic reason which is neither connected to the HD1 hardware nor a possibly faulty installation
Next actions:
I already ordered a replacement Install - DVD.
I will then try to reformat HD1, if this succeds keep HD1, if it fails => replace HD1
Partition either the old or the new HD1 into a smaller system partition and a larger partition for shares or backups
Do a clean install from new DVD on the system partition
Do the same with HD2 and place a clone of the HD1 system Partition onto HD2 system partition.
From here on I'm still unsure whether I will add external hardware to build a RAID system for the file server shares.
Thanks for your answer
Stephan

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