File copy inconsistency to FAT32 formatted external USB

Since most recent update rollout I have problems copying files and folders to my external USB drives.
1. While attempting file copy OSX gives error message "File/Folder already present" and fails.
2. Not all the files in the folders are copied prompting further verification of each folder. Occasionally it requires 3-4 additional attempt to further copy all the files.
3. Files copied have their names destroyed and replaced with "~". When trying to rename the file/folder I get error message "Filename already taken", which is absolutely incorrect.
This is extremely worrying, since I have a large amount of photos from various sessions/events I have to retain, not to mention all my personal files.
If anybody experiences the same problem, please add to this thread by all means!
Yours Sincerely

This is not an OS X-specific issue, but rather a FAT32-specific issue.
Namely, this occurs when an error occurs in the FAT32 partition's file allocation table. Remember that FAT32 does not use long filenames for files, but rather uses the old DOS 8.3 (8 characters plus 3 character extension; in FAT32, these start with ~) filenames, and saves the long file names as extended file info in the table.
What you are seeing is a file allocation table where the short filename is already in used but the metadata about the long filename is lost (so the filesystem can't tell whether to replace the file, or create a new 8.3 name and map to it).
Before you use the disk any more, you need to repair the FAT32 filesystem and remove the affected files. I don't know how good Disk Utility is for that, but you can try it. You can also reformat the partition.
This sort of thing can happen if the disk is improperly unmounted (doesn't matter which operating system), or is connected at a time when the system is forced to shutdown without disconnecting the disk (e.g., holding the power button down or power outage). It can rarely happen to a bad sector on the disk.

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The new harddrive is supposed to only be for the Mac so my intention was to format it that way. Because I am not sure if/how I am going to need it to resolve this issue, the box hasn't even been opened...so the first question is long term would it be better to have the new harddrive MAC or FAT32 formatted?
I have been assuming that Mac formatting was the preferred route so I am still brainstorming on ways to get the files straight from the old harddrive to the Mac. Could it just be a matter of the files being hidden on the old harddrive? How do I unhide them?

Safely copying files from Target Disk Mode to External USB. Advice?

Just got a new iMac and transferred my system and important files to it from my old iMac. However, a partition on my old iMac has files I want to move to my new iMac so they can be included in Time Machine backups while others I want to move to another external hard drive since I have physical copies of most of those files elsewhere.
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I’ve read that having other devices connected to your Mac while another Mac is connected via TDM can result in corrupted files. Is this true? Is it unsafe to copy files from a TDM Mac to an external USB drive?
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I've used Migration Assistant already to move all of my immediately necessary data and settings over. This other data was on a separate partition and I'm unable to copy all of the data over to my new drive due to lack of space.
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An important point I should have mentioned is that I can't use my old iMac normally due to a GPU problem that seizes the system up. This is the reason I can't just copy stuff directly from old iMac to external USBs.
I'm interested to know if what I described above is safe and if there are any time savings or benefits for copying through my new iMac or connecting the externals directly to the old iMac in TDM.

Problems saving files Using a FAT formated external usb disk

Can not save my files 360gb on a external usb disk. Message appear" can not save file, the file already exist". If i format he disk as macos there is no problem.
I want to share mi files between mac an pc and I don't want to expend 45 dollars buying MACDRIVE
Thanks

Try installing "MacFUSE", which may provide better support for FAT and NTFS-formatted drives than the built-in filesystem support. Unlike the default support, MacFUSE will enable writing to NTFS drives, which may be a more compatible solution for your Windows PCs.

My rMBP with Mountain Lion 10.8 won't recognise my USB3.0 MS-DOS (FAT32) format external HDD

Hi all, first post.
i'm having a big issue with my new rMBP (2.6ghz, 16GB, 512GB SSD) with Mountain Lion OS10.8 . One of the key features of this new laptop is its USB 3.0 'support'. But it doesn't seem to support it
I have a MS-DOS FAT32 formatted 1.5tb Seagate GoFlex HDD USB3.0. This drive is formatted correctly for mac support and has worked very well with my Macbook Pro 13 inch (mid-2009) for a year or more now. This drive has a lot of data on it I need to be able to access regularly. But it won't!
When I plug the drive in to the rMBP the lights on the drive turn on and the disk starts spinning, but OSX Mountain Lion doesn't even recognise it's there. No device appears in the side bar, disk utilities or similar, and no sound is made even when I 'unsafely' unplug itat on
What on earth is going on? USB 3.0 fail
Cheers
Bisher Photos

I am having a similar issue.
I have an external WD fat32 drive loaded with over a TB of PS3 video data (originally formatted and working well under snow leopard).
I bought a new macbook pro and found the drive inaccessible under Mountain Lion 10.8. (still works fine on my PC and PS3, I no longer have my snow leopard machine).
My research leads me to believe the problem is a bug in the new OS.
The disk utility can see the drive.
The disk utility Validater does report an error and advises I run the Repair tool.
The disk utilty Repair tool reports successful repair but the drive remains inaccessible to ML while still working fine with my PS3 and PC.
I HATE to say this, but I fear my workaround is to go back to using my PC until Apple fixes Mountain Lion.
I suppose I could buy another 2Tb drive, format it with ML and then use my PC to restore the data files. However, that would be an expensive and time consuming experiment with no assurance of success.
Even if it worked, I worry that the next OS update may render the disk unreadable again.
Anyway, best of luck bisherphotos.

Disk Utility Not Formatting External USB Drive

Hello,
I recently upgraded to Leopard.  Around this same time, my company purchased two, 1 Terabyte USB External drives for my coworker and I in the graphics/web development department.  They arrived this morning and we were very excited.
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"*Disk Erase Failed*
Disk Erase failed with the error:
File system formatter failed."
The options I'm choosing for the Erase are:
Volume Format: MAC OS EXTENDED  (i've even tried the 'journaled' version too)
Name: TB
As soon as I hit 'Erase' I get the error message I listed above.  The volume never mounts on my desktop and does not exist.  I can see the drive itself in the System Profiler, so my Mac sees it, it just can't format it!  I've also made sure all my permissions were repaired, so I'm just a little confused as to why this simple task keeps failing?
Is there some additional, esoteric step that I'm missing?
My coworker was able to get his disk to work because he did NOT have Time Machine turned on yet.  When he connected his new TB drive, Time Machine asked him to format/initialize the disk and he of course said "ok."  I had Time Machine set to use my OLD external USB drive and it's been working great. As of this writing, my coworker is a happy camper. I, however, am not.  I'm not blaming Time Machine, just noting the differences between my coworker's experience and my own. Since the volume is not currently mounted on my machine, I can't format my disk the same way as my coworker has done using Time Machine, since Time Machine doesn't see the volume.
My fear is that the manufacturer (whom I've also contacted and am awaiting their response) will throw this back to a software problem....and the folks on the forum here will point their fingers and say 'hardware problem.'  Ah, the eternal struggle.....who to blame?
Any help or additional troubleshooting tips are greatly appreciated.

This is the best, and only, way to format an external hard drive, which is courtesy of Kappy.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

Files copied (backed up) on an external hard drive can NOT be opened

MacBook Pro (2.5GHz, intel Core i5)
OS X Yosemite, 10.10.2
I was running low on storage space on my Mac Pro. I copied all items on Desktop to my external hard drive. After all files were copied from MacBook Pro to the external hard drive, "get info" suggested that the amount of space taken entirely was the same between when all items were on the Desktop and when they were on the external hard drive. The number of items copied over were also identical. I should have been more careful, but I then deleted all items from the Desktop. It was until a few days later (today) that I noticed majority of the files copied over onto the external disk can NOT be opened now. The error message was "The alias “<filename>” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found.".
I really don't want to lose these files, but where are they? They got their file sizes correct but just can not be opened. I tried copying these files back to Desktop on my MacBook Pro, that's not helpful. I tried accessing the files on a PC, still can't open the files. I tried repairing disk of the external hard drive (under Disk Utility), still can't open the files. I tried repairing disk permissions of my MacBook Pro hard drive, still can't open the files.
One last thing I tried in terminal (I am not terminal savvy at all, just googled the "The alias..." error message and copied the instruction): /usr/bin/SetFile -a a /Volumes/MAC This did not solve the problem, either.
Thank you for your help in advance!

Hi, eddie from pataskala ohio.
We love pro-active thinking here at the Apple Discussions and you're off to a great start.
Even though upgrading iTunes shouldn't affect your Library, one of the funny things about computers is that sometime, somehow, somewhere when you least expect it , they can do some not so funny things, like losing data that they're not supposed to. Which is why it's a good idea to have a back up copy of any data (such as your music) that you value in reserve ... just in case.
The most straightforward way, is to go to the iTunes Edit menu > Preferences > Advanced tab > General sub-tab and make sure your iTunes Music folder is assigned to its default location: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\My Music\iTunes .
Next make sure all your music is stored in that folder by using the iTunes Advanced menu > Consolidate Library option.
Now you can copy the entire iTunes folder - the iTunes Music folder and the iTunes library files in particular - to your external drive.
If anything does go wrong with the upgrade, you'll be all set to recreate your Library.

Can't format external USB hard drive

Hi Guys
I recently bought a Mac Pro, having decided to make the switch from PC, but am having trouble formatting an external 0.5 TB USB hard drive I used with the PC for use with the Mac. The drive was supplied formatted to Windows NTFS and when I first connected it to the Mac the blue LED indicator blinked off - presumably beacause OSX couldn't read the drive? Now, whenever I try to format the drive using disk utility I am presented with a message stating, "The underlying task reported failure on exit". If I try to partition the drive, I get a message stating, "Resource busy".
I am new to Macs and OSX, so imagine a lot of this problem is down to inexperience. I really need the external drive as I'm a musician, and store all my samples and projects on the drive.
Cheers, Dan

AFAIK, NTFS isn't a supported format for an ICBM (Intel-chip-based Mac). You need to remove any data files and reformat it MS-DOS or some such thing. Check Disk Utility's help files and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
Since you're a newcomer to the Mac, you should peruse these before you do anything:
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac, and
MacTips Learning Centre.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

Large dmg onto FAT32-formatted external

I have a 7,7 GB dmg-file which i need to get onto my external drive. I have tons of stuff stored on the drive right now so i cannot reformat it to HFS+.
Is there a way to split the file into two or more pieces so that i can copy onto the drive? I´m looking for a way that´s faster, easier and more convenient that using .rar files which takes forever... Someones said that Disk Utility could make splitted dmg´s that i could copy it to, but i can´t find out how.

I have used the command line hdiutil that comes with the operating system. You can go to the Terminal and enter "man hdiutil" to see how to use it. For a situation such as yours, you would want to create 4 segments to stay under 2GB per segment. The Terminal command would look something like:
<pre style="font-family: 'Monaco', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; overflow:auto; color: #000; background: #DDD; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 10px; width:400px"> hdiutil segment -o ~/Desktop/outputfilename -segmentCount 4 <path_to existing_image</pre>
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Matt
Mac Mini; B&W G3/300

File copy failure from G4 to external drive

I would greatly appreciate advice on backing up the hard drive on my old Powerbook G4 (OS X 10.4.11) to a new large capacity, external WD drive (via firewire). Again and again, the backup fails when the "Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "[filename]" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)" I've tried partial backups to no avail. The process always gets hung up on some file (JPG, other). I don't understand why the backup cannot continue and then just list the files that are not copied at the end.

What software are you using to perform the backup? I use SuperDuper! and others like Carbon Copy Cloner. SuperDuper is available from http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html and CCC is available at http://www.bombich.com/ . Both can be used for backing up the hard drive at no charge.

How can I access a PowerPc formatted external USB drive on my Intel based MacBook?

That is about it, back up files on a Iomega 250g, used and formatted from a 2005 IBook CANNOT be recognized by my Intel MacBook with Lion.
Are there drivers or a way around this?

basstone97:
Your MacBook will support a 2.5" SATA drive. The largest drive currently available is 500 GB. Other sizes are 320 GB, 250 GB etc. The Apple tech was likely referring that Apple will not do a free replacement of your drive unless is was defective or failed. However, you can purchase the drive and install it yourself. It is relatively easy on the MacBook, or you can purchase the drive and have Apple or an Authorized Apple Dealer install it for you. The risk of DIY installation is that if you screw up Apple will not be responsible for any damages. If you are interested, please post back for a list of available HDDs and step by step directions and tips for installation.
cornelius

Annoying inconsistent udev/HAL/dbus external USB HDD detection...

Hello! I am a newbie to ARCH. When I first installed it, my USB drive almost always was detected AND auto-mounted upon booting into GNOME. It was beautiful. This shows that I have DBUS/HAL and all that nice stuff installed.
After a while, I decided to update my daemons as below. (i added portmap and fam --- that is all!)
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network portmap fam dbus hal netfs crond alsa openntpd gdm)
Anyway... now the USB external drive is never automatically detected or mounted, period. I have to boot into GNOME, THEN unplug the USB cable... wait a bit... plug it back in. Then it is detected. Then I have to manually do:
mount /dev/sda5 /media/usb
mount /dev/sda6 /media/usb
to mount them. This is very annoying.
Is there anyway to get consistent detection and auto-mounting behavior??? It was working fine the first few times. No idea where I went wrong, friends.
btw... i am in the proper groups for my user too, though that is irrelevant because if i wasn't, it would still show up, just give me a security msg preventing mounting - GROUPS = disk wheel ftp dbus hal network video audio optical storage camera power users pacman
Last edited by darweth (2007-04-07 13:42:39)

Well, I eventually discovered the necessity of gnome-volume-manager and all is fine now. No more help needed. Weird that the behavior was bipolar w/o it though.

NFS export external USB device fails

I am trying to NFS export a FAT32 formatted external USB device, which fails with the error:
/sbin/nfsd: Can't export /Volumes/<external>: Operation not supported (45)
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Despite the fact that the device has been assigned a uuid (it appears to be in place in .fseventsd and running 'repair disk' echos it in syslog), I get this error when running vsdbutil:
vsdbutil: Couldn't update volume information for '/Volumes/<external>/': Invalid argument
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/Volumes/<external>/': Invalid argument
And diskutil returns this:
Permissions are not enabled on the disk (-9973)
I attempted to add the uuid to /var/db/volinfo.database in order to set the permissions there, to no effect.
I don't believe that I am the only person who has attempted this, but I can find no evidence to the contrary. Thank you.

NFS exporting requires specific NFS serving support from the file system.
Unfortunately, the "msdos" file system implementation doesn't currently
support NFS exporting.
If you'd like that support added, I would strongly encourage filing a
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http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/
HTH
--macko

How do I recover files backed up to an external USB drive during a system recovery operation?

After restoring my system, I began rebuilding the file system. I am on a Vista (Home) based Presario laptop (CQ60-211DX) When I attempted to recover the files, I backed up to an external USB drive, I ran into a problem.
I have been unable to find a way to restore the backup using either the BIOs based utilities of the Windows Backup and Restore programs. The backup exists on the drive, I already confirmed it's presence on the drive.
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Hello RalphR_MI,
Take a look at this page, which lists several articles. Please let me know if any of these help you restore your backup.
Also, take a look at this article, as well as this one.
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Please let me know if this helps. Good luck!
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

Using a FAT32-formatted drive as backup disk with Time Machine

For strange and perverse reasons of my own, I'd like to use a FAT32-formatted external hard drive with Time Machine. Is this possible?

No, Time Machine needs a HFS+ formatted drive for its backup folder:
Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended Journaled.
_A solution_ if you still want to use the same drive for TM backup and for some Windows files:
Partition the drive before you start using it.
1) Format it (using Disk Utility) as Mac OS Extended
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File copy inconsistency to FAT32 formatted external USB

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