Error code -50 or system hand when copying

Question

Hi all
I'm hoping someone can give me some extra info about an error code -50 / system hang that I keep experiencing. I've already done some research so I think I know where the problems might lie but not exactly how to solve them.
OK, my iBook hard drive is getting full, possibly too full, it's a 60Gb drive with 8.5Gb free space when I boot, which drops to around 7.8 Gb when I've been working for a while. I backup to an HFS+ formatted Lacie d2 drive connected by firewire.
To free up disk space on the iBook I decided to get a Netgear readyNAS duo, use this as a backup device. Then use the firewire drive to store and work on data which would previously have been on the internal drive.
So no I have the firewire drive set up, with all the data and I'm trying to backup to the readyNAS before deleting anything on my iBook drive. So far I have tried the following to copy data from the iBook, or from the firewire drive to the readyNAS:
1) Copy and paste using Finder
2) NTI Shadow backup software (supplied with the Netgear readyNAS)
3) Chronosync (trial copy)
4) Synk 6.4 pro
Using these methods (and the trial software within it's imitations) I get the following results:
1) Finder will produce "Error Code -50" message sometimes and stop. Other times the whole Finder will just hang after approx 650Mb of data has been copied. The whole Finder stops responding and the only solution has been to force shut down using the power button.
2) NTI Shadow will produce a series of errors saying the file or folder could not be created (I'm guessing this is it's response to a system Error Code -50) and sometimes will hand.
3) Chronosync will copy most items but not all - "error creating file/folder" is the result. Sometimes it hangs.
4) Synk 6.4 has the same result as Chronosync.
After looking though posts here and on the readynas.com forums, it seems the problem may be one of three things, in order of likelihood:
1) Characters used in some of the file/folder names are OK in HFS+ formatted disks but not compatible with whatever format the readyNAS uses for it's disks (I'm guessing a linux/unix format). The readyNAS does support AFS, which it says is the best file system to use for Mac systems.
Therefore, what characters should be removed from file/folder names before trying to copy? Is there a definitive list somewhere?
2) The current iBook disk space is not large enough to allow me to copy over all the files in one go. I don't think this is the case as I've not been trying to back up the whole lot.
3) There is a permissions issue. Again, I have set all permissions on the readyNAS volume to 777 so I don't think the problem is this.
4) Max file size on the readyNAS. One file tried to copy is a 700Mb zip file, this is the file which has caused Finder to hang more than any other, after about 650Mb has been transferred
Any comments / advise will be really helpful, even if it's just to help me discount a theory.

Answer 1

Hi BDAqua
We were talking about a similar topic here a few weeks ago! My answers are below:
BDAqua wrote:
-50 paramErr Error in user parameter list
Apple's advice...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107095
I can connect to the shared drive fine and can copy/delete/move most individual files to and from the NAS. The error-50 comes during copy of multiple files.
How big is the Firewire drive?
320Gb - easily large enough
I'm thinking you should make a complete bootable clone to it myself.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
This is exactly how I've been backing up in the past except using Superduper (not Carbon Copy Cloner) to create bootable backups. The issue now is that I need to free up space on the iBook hard drive.
If the NAS can be formatted for AFS/HFS+/MacOSextended, then that is best.
I don't know what format the disks use. I think the readyNAS uses a form of linux as it's OS. It does support AFS however.
Shame you already got the NAS, they're popular, but quirky.
Yes, beginning to regret it but still can't say for certain if I'm doing something wrong or if the unit simply does not work as advertised. I bought this unit because of it's advertised AFS support and OSX compatibility, also for it's RAID capability and easy expansion
filename/path length can be a problem as well as the illegal characters are / ? \ : * | ", as well as any character you can type using the Ctrl key.
That makes a long list of characters to check, especially over approx 175000 files... I was planning to use Spotlight to do the checks but maybe you know of a quicker way?
Just one more thought, I have an old Win XP box with more than enough space to try a backup to there. If the backup works without problems, it means a) I can try connecting to the NAS using SMB and b) it provides a good control case for working out what the problem is.
Thanks for the help!