External drive goes read only with error -50 after time

Running the special release of 10.8.2 for Mac Mini (2012) that was recently released. I have two external USB drives. The first contains my iTunes collection and the second is my time machine backup disk. The iTunes drive seems to go read only after it's been mounted awhile. I can read files off the drive, but I can't make any changes. I can't delete files nor edit them.
If I try to do anything with the disk including a repair permissions or disk on it, I get an error -50. The only way to get out of this state is to unmount the drive and remount it forcibly or reboot.
Anyone have ideas on what is going on or experienced a similar issue?

I did a little more research and there are quite a few people who've seen this error. I don't think it's the drive.
I suspect the controller in the enclosure, a jmicron 0x2336, is responsible for my problems. It looks like Linux and FreeBSD both had software updates to work around bugs in the controller. If OS X did not get updated, it would explain everything. The drive sleeps and then won't wake up fully and OS X marks it as in error and goes read only.
The enclosure is a Thermaltake Silver II USB + esata. It looks like a lot of people have had similar problems with them. I saw posts on macrumors, adobe's support forums, etc.

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I did a little more research and there are quite a few people who've seen this error. I don't think it's the drive.
I suspect the controller in the enclosure, a jmicron 0x2336, is responsible for my problems. It looks like Linux and FreeBSD both had software updates to work around bugs in the controller. If OS X did not get updated, it would explain everything. The drive sleeps and then won't wake up fully and OS X marks it as in error and goes read only.
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kibbles1053 wrote:
I've tried DiskUtility, and this is what happens:
Invalid sibling link
The volume "" needs to be repaired.
*Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.*
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Message was edited by: Theresa Mesa

Thank you to everyone who has posted about this issue -- it just happened to me AGAIN this morning (this is my 3rd time), after I installed the 10.5.2 update. The first two times were right after I hooked up my external Iomega 500GB drive to use with Time Machine and I thought it was something I was doing. Then it seemed to work fine for a couple months so I thought the problem was over. Guess not! It is frustrating because I just lost about 2 months worth of backups. So finally I searched Apple's discussion forums and saw that I am not alone. However, no one was really posting a solution other than to say "reformat the drive".
So I did a Google search about this topic and encountered the following article. I have just gone through the steps he outlines and although I won't know for awhile if it works, I figure at this point it can't hurt to try. I hope this proves useful to others as well. (One note -- in his article, he says to skip the Erase tab and go right to the Partition tab. If you don't see the Partition tab, first erase your corrupt Time Machine backup disk and then follow his steps.)
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/leopard-disk-utility-format-issue-screws-with-t ime-machine-but-theres-an-easy-fix-316573.php
Cheers ~
Message was edited by: sneebish

Make flash drive read only with no copying

Here is the Situation. I have a 2h video of a high school play that i am editing and selling but with final cut you can only export 480 p video on dvd so i am going to sell hd digital copies on flash drives my question is can i make it so that the flash drive are read only and copy protected so it can't be distributed can i format the flahs drive insuch a way a way that prevents copying?

jfoppes wrote:
… can i format the flahs drive insuch a way a way that prevents copying?
technicallly, to playback you have to 'copy' content (from stick/disk/whatever to device) ....
So, the harder you make it to 'copy protect' your content, the more inconvenient it gets for your paying customers!
for example, on commercial DVDs I'm 'forced' to watch minutes of promos and 'legal advice', talking to me like I'm a 1st degree suspect No fun! And: When I like to watch/listen on diff. devices. again trouble to 'rip' it (anyone remembering the first slogan for iTunes? "Rip.Mix.Burn." Holy innocence ........... LOL
Forget the few copy-cats. Convince by quality (e.g. spelling ) .
Deliver an excellent product, perhaps bundled with some 'extras' (a nice designed box, with pics/t-shirt/memorabilia/…) And, hey - who copies a school-play????

External drive goes read only with error -50 after time

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