Files won't copy to hard drive

This is part two of a problem I have been having with the MAC OS - I used Handbrake to backup a DVD - the output file is an M4V file. When I make the file it is fine.
When I copy the file to the external drive it is fine - until I eject the disk. When I plug the disk back in the files are a lighter color then the rest, and when I attempt to open the file I get an error message that says the file is in use by MAC OS-X and cannot be opened.
I attempted to copy the file back to my local hard drive, and it appeared to work fine, the window showed progress as the file was copied, then when it hit 100% - the file just vanished.
Any ideas?
I am finding that as long as there is no problem MAC OS is fine, but when something isn't working right, it is very hard to get help. I tried to ask a question, I have a 3 month old computer and was told I would have to pay money to ask a question to a real apple tech - and I have tried to search and see if it has something to do with hidden files or something similar, and the MAC help system is useless.

What happens when you try? Do you get a message? If so what is it exactly?
How is the external hard drive formatted? Control (right) - click on the drive's icon and select Get Info from the contextual menu. In the Info window will be the formatting information.

Similar Messages

DVD Files not completely copied to hard drive

I recently bought a new Macbook and seem to be having problems with the DVD drive. I am trying to pull home movies off of DVD's and put into a format for Apple TV. I seem to have all the right software and the conversion process works well.
I tried using MPEG Stream Clip, directly from the DVD and then from the Hard Drive (.vob files I copied). However, when trying to "read" the DVD, I keep getting error messages. Also, when I try to copy the .vob files from the DVD, it stops copying at random points for the same DVD, for random files. Some work and some don't. I have to Force the Quit, reboot and start over, and it stops again, at a different point in the copying process. If I take the same DVD to my PC, it copies fine, so I do not suspect the physical DVD.
Could the Macbook DVD drive be reading the DVD too fast? Is there a way to slow it down if this is the case?
I also get the same type of problem when using MPEG Stream Clip. The DVD just seems to stop. I put the same DVD into the PC and run MPEG Stream Clip, and it goes through the whole process without a hitch.
Please help, as I really want to use this new Macbook and experience all it has to offer.

In answer to your questions:
"how do i find out which 140 could not be converted"
Do a search on your pc (in the folder you told iTunes to look at) for all files containing the extension .wma. Now if you wish you can cut and paste them into another folder somewhere else on your hard drive.
You may find Wikipedia's page useful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindowsMediaAudio) as this lists the media players that can play wma audio files.
Another thing you may want to consider is converting your wma files to mp3 so they can be played in iTunes. There are lots of programs that can do this and many are free. Just do a search in Google.
If you have iTunes set up to add album and track information to music as it is imported to the library, this can sometimes result in giving you a misleading figure for how many tracks/albums you've got. The cause of this is described in the following technical document - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304389.
As an example I imported 'Classic Euphoria' (a dance album compilation). Each track on the cd is by a different artist. When I imported the cd into iTunes I expected it to create a one folder called ‘Classic Euphoria’ with all of the tracks contained within that folder. Instead, iTunes created a separate folder for each track as each track was by a different artist. If iTunes does this, then this is how you can end up with iTunes telling you, you have more albums than you were expecting! This may be what you’re experiencing. If you have any compilation CDs, follow the steps in the Technical Document above where it says ‘Albums with various artists’ and this will tidy up how your music is organised.
I hope all of this makes sense. Let me know how you get on.
P4 2.4Ghz, 768MB RAM Windows XP Airport Express

Linking files won't search out hard drive.

Info:
Mac Pro
CS5.5
I have a project with R3D Files, my HD was getting full so I bought a larger one, made a duplicate of the R3D media. Now when I try to link up the media to the new drive, Premiere wont serach the hard drive and autolink ANYTHING. (Have like 2000 files, so I can't individually do this)
It's almost as if the clips in the project have a hard drive letter or something set to it, and even when I point it to the right HD it keeps trying to find the other HD.
How do I fix this?
Please help. Thanks.

I may have just answered my own question, and atxspencer, maybe it will help you too, even though you're on a Mac.
I first made a copy of my project, just to make sure I could go back if this didn't work. I have most of my clips sorted into bins, so what I did was go into the first bin and select all the clips there. Then I right-clicked and selected "Make Offline". A window pops up and I made sure I selected "media files remain on disk." I'm not sure what would happen if I told it they were deleted, but it seemed to work this way.
Now the clips are labeled as Offline, so you'd get the big red screen if you viewed the clip in a timeline. With them still selected, right-click again and select "Link Media". Then that window pops up asking you to find where the file is that you want to link. I kept the file folder structure the same between both drives, so all I had to do was change the drive letter to that of the new drive. You could also just navigate there normally. Once you find the first file on the new drive that the Link Media window is asking for, it automatically finds the other files that you have selected. You can right click on the clip and select "Reveal in Explorer (or Finder)" and it will show you where that clip is, and it should be on the new drive.
I did find one problem though. If you select 2 or more clips that are in different folders on your drive, even if they are in the same bin in your project, when you Link Media, it will automatically link them like before, but for the clips that aren't in the same folder as the first one that it looks for, it will re-link the clip to the original hard drive. So depending on how you organized your files on your drive, it could take longer, or if you just threw them all into one folder, it should go pretty quickly.
Hope this helps.

How Do I Copy File Names & Folders From A Hard Drive To A Word Document?

Hi Gang:
This may sound silly but I am having a herd time with the following - seemingly simple task.
I have data DVD-Rs with audio files organized into folders. Each folder contains audio files related to the folder name.
I would like to copy the file names and folders from a DVD-R and paste them into a MS Word file. I am just looking to get a listing of files as they appear on the DVD-Rs in their folders.
The problem is that when I copy and paste, the order changes (seemingly randomly) and the file names are no longer under the folder names. In fact, the whole thing looks to be really random.
Anybody know how to copy file/folder names from a hard drive or DVD-R to a word document and retain the file/folder structure?
Thanks!
LAHD

There is an even easier method with no Terminal magic required. In the Finder, select all the files you want the names of, press Command-C, switch to Word and press Command-V. Poof, your done.
If you view the DVD in List VIew, you can expand the folders you want the files for, then select all the files (and their folders if you want them too) and then do the Copy/Paste thing.
Message was edited by: petrock

I can not delete or copy new files to my Iomega external hard drive

Hi,
I can not delete or copy new files to my Iomega external hard drive. Opening hard drive folder I can see that I can not overwrite it. I have heard that I need to install some program for the external hard drive to operate properly in Mac.
Please help what to install or there is some other option.
Thnx

I'm not the expert on this since I have never done it. It sounds like you may need a data rescue program like Data Rescue III. I believe you can download a demo and see if you can see the files. If you can, then you can buy the program and retrieve the files. I don't know if Disk Utility can restore them--I think they have to be visible but this is not something I have ever had to do.
In the meantime, don't do anything with the drive--you don't want to overwrite any files. Hopefully all or most of the files are still there and you will be able to retrieve them. The less the drive is used, the better your chances are of retrieving the data.
Forgive me for not realizing that there were files on the drive that you wanted to save. Upon re-reading your question, I now see that there were. I should have known to warn you, and my bad that I didn't.
Good luck!

So I am trying to copy my hard drive "Macintosh HD" to an external hard drive, i want to use Terminal and have tried many ways. For example cp -r /Volumes/"Macintosh HD" /Volumes/"NO NAME". When i do it says No such file or directory. Ideas?

So I am trying to copy my hard drive "Macintosh HD" to an external hard drive, i want to use Terminal and have tried many ways. For example cp -r /Volumes/"Macintosh HD" /Volumes/"NO NAME". When i do it says No such file or directory. Ideas?

The reason that threadjacking is frowned on (as mentioned in the terms use which you can read by clicking the link to the right on this page) is for the most part a practical one:
By starting your own thread your problem can get individual attention, focussed on your particular set of circumstances.
By joining somebody else's thread it becomes tricky to answer more than one question at the same time, and can lead to confusion for both parties.
So if you don't mind the minor inconvenience, please start your own thread (in the correct forum) so we can get to grips with your particular problem!

I want to transfer files from a functioning hard drive in a nonfunctioning MacBook Pro to an external drive. I have an IDE/SATA drive adapter. The files won't fit on the drive for a working computer I have. Can I use it to transfer files to the external?

I want to transfer files from a functioning hard drive in a nonfunctioning MacBook Pro to an external drive. I have an IDE/SATA drive adapter. The files won't fit on the drive for a working computer I have. Can I use it to transfer files to the external drive?

Good luck and you are welcome.
Like I said, I bought one of their inexpensive enclosures and now can use the hard drive just as a source for the files that are on it...my external drives are much larger and faster so I just plug that drive in when I need something from it.
This one is on sale for $16 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ES2.5BPU2S/

Hi, since i put some mp4 video or DVD files on my external hard drives final cut prox won't recognize my hard drives, i move all the video files and the problem still exist. somebody have the solution

Hi, since i put some mp4 video or DVD files on my external hard drives final cut prox won't recognize my hard drives, i move all the video files and the problem still exist. somebody have the solution

Did the back and forth between PC and Mac file systems screw up my files somehow?
Yes. Unfortunately the move has almost certainly caused the loss of the resource data that would have been (invisibly) attached to those files.
By adding a specific .mov extension after the fact you will have helped the Mac correctly identify the file type / asscoiations but also significantly you will have physically changed the filename eg from "clip" to "clip.mov". This means that when you come to reconnect the media in FCP , then FCP will be looking for files that no longer exist at the given path eg when specifically looking for our example clip called "clip" of course it won't find it.
Try this as a test... first remove the ".mov" extension from one or more of the clips, select those clips and press Cmd-Opt-I to open an Info window for the selection. You'll see an "Open with:" popup and in that popup you should choose QuickTime Player (if its a Unix Executable then it will initially list Terminal as the appropriate app, you have to choose Other... then in the open dialog choose Enable > All Applications and then navigate to and select the Quicktime Player app as the appropriate app). After you've done that restart FCP and see if you can now reconnect to those clips.

I have an eMac and am trying to copy/move movie files from eMac to external hard drive for backup. The eMac will not allow me to do this. Keeps reading error -61. Any suggestions are greatly appreciate. Thanks!

Trying to backup movie files from eMac to external hard drive. Keep getting error -61. Any suggestions? Thanks

Good advice from Keith.
wrPermErr
= -61, /*write permissions error*/

Is there a way to access my iTunes Library, which is stored on a (PC) External Hard Drive, on a MacBook Air (through an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter), without transferring the music files off of the external hard drive?

Is there a way to access my iTunes Library, which is stored on a (PC) External Hard Drive, on a MacBook Air (through an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter), without transferring the music files off of the external hard drive?
In other words, because the MacBook Air only has 120 gbs of hard drive space & my old hard drive, from a Lenovo, has 500 gbs of hard drive space (and I have over 120 gbs of music), I’m looking to manage my iTunes music from the external hard drive permanently. Upon attempting to access the iTunes library held on the external hard drive the following message comes up: “The iTunes Library.itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file”. Is there a way to get around this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

You will have to engage a split library which means you will have to start answering questions on this forum because you will need to learn a lot about how iTunes works in order not that have a big mess at the end of it all. It also won't be easy when the time comes to relocate it all to different drives.
You can go to advanced preferences and turn off organize media and copy to items to media folder when adding items to library. Next read about how to selectively consolidate items to the external drive.
Sept. 2010, Consolidate selected content - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2589812 and April 2014, https://discussions.apple.com/message/25414357
"...selected the new tracks directly in iTunes, Control-clicked on the selection, and saw that now you can consolidate selected items." - http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090919000326840
Remember that when you start iTunes without the external drive turned on iTunes will present you with a bunch of broken links. If you have automatic downloads enabled with iCloud you may have to turn that off to prevent iTunes from repopulating your drive trying to deal with those "missing" tracks.
If you add tracks in bunches to iTunes and want them to go to different media folders you will need to either add them by holding down the option key while dragging if the desired media folder is not the one set in preferences, or by changing the media folder in preferences. Changing media folder preferences only applies to new files added, not old ones.
Okay, I am going to stop typing because you might just reply to me, "Oh, okay, forget it," and I don't need the exercise.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp? So far when I try to disconnect the external HD from the mbp, I get the following pop up window: The disk "external hard drive A" couldn't be ejected because "Lightroom" is using it. Quit that application and try to eject this disk again. When I do that and restart Lightroom 5, the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog screen pops up but doesn't list my external hard drive A as a choice.
I've reviewed Adobe's Lightroom Help | Smart Previews Lightroom 5 web page and still haven't been able to figure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Your internal HDD. by default, is named 'Macintosh HD'. From what information you supplied, it looks like there is already a Lightroom catalog installed on you local (internal) HDD using the standard naming convention Adobe uses as well as a Lightroom catalog on your external drive which you created. To be sure of which catalog Lightroom is loading when it starts up, To do this, start Lightroom as you normally would. After it starts, select the Lightroom menu item, then select the Catalog Preferences item and finally, navigate to the General tab. The Location information will tell you exactly what catalog Lightroom is opening by default. This will likely be the Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog on your external HDD. Once that is confirmed, you are ready to proceed. As an additional test/verification, you can shut down Lightroom and, this time, start Lightroom while holding down the ALT/OPTION key. This will cause Lightroom to pause and display a screen which will allow you to chose a different catalog to open. Navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder and select the Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat file. When Lightroom comes up, there should be no previews or folders as this catalog should be empty. Now you can be certain which catalog is being used and which catalog has all your data and you are ready to migrate your current catalog. Shut down Lightroom.
To migrate your current catalog, use Finder to locate your Photography Mac Book Pro Versions folder on your external drive. Select the folder and select COPY from the context menu. Next, use Finder to navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder on you internal HDD. You can start at the Macintosh HD level and work your way down by opening each level (Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures). Select the /Pictures folder and then select PASTE... from the context menu. When the COPY/PASTE is complete, you should see the following files on the Macintosh HD:
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom/ and
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions
The Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder will contain the empty default catalog the Adobe created when Lightroom was installed and Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions will contain a copy of the catalog you created on your external HDD.
You are almost done now. Make sure your external drive is still attached for this step. Restart Lightroom using the ALT/OPTION key again. When the Select Catalog screen appears, select the Choose a Different Catalog button (lower left side). When you do, a Finder window will open to allow you to navigate to a catalog of your choosing. Navigate to Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions and select the file Photography Mac Book Pro Version.lrcat. This is the copy you just created. Select the Open button and Lightroom should start. You should see all of your previews and settings just as before. Also, in the left hand panel, all of your folder should show up and none of them should be dimmed and none of your previews should display a small exclamation point badge. Either a dimmed folder name or an exclamation point badge indicates that Lightroom can't find the associated image file. If everything looks good, go to the Lightroom menu, select Preferences and then select the General tab. Under Default Catalog, select an option to either load the LAST catalog opened or select the Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog from the drop down. Shut down Lightroom and then restart it normally. This time, when Lightroom starts, you should be viewing the new copy of your catalog. You can confirm this by looking at the General tab on the Catalog Preferences screen (Lightroom/Catalog Preferences menu items). Shut down Lightroom once again and this time, eject your external drive before restarting. This time, your folders in the left hand panel will be dimmed but you should be able to work with your smart previews. If Lightroom should display a Select Catalog screen with the external drive detached, double check your settings as it indicates Lightroom is still looking at the copy of the catalog on the external drive rather than the new copy you made.
Finally, if you are seeing dimmed folders and/or exclamation point badges with the external drive attached, this indicates a problem. You can select any folder and select Update Folder Location from the context menu. This will allow you to navigate to the copy on the external drive and select it. Lightroom will then update the catalog (select to synchronize the content). This will not only clear the dimmed folder problem but also remove the exclamation point badges for all photos in that missing folder. However, it may indicate that not all went well with the copy of the catalog so make sure to verify all went well. You can use the Get Info option on the two folders. You should see the same number of files/folders for both the copy on the internal drive as well as on the external drive but you can't rely on the byte count because of the possibility of differences between the geometry of the two drives. Hope this all helps!

I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac

I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac. How do I do this? Where do I put these files on my Time Capsule? Will it affect the functioning of my Time Capsule?

Mixing files with data is not always great idea.
See info here.
Q3 http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Why not just connect the PC directly to the TC by ethernet and copy the files over?
It is hugely faster and much less mucking around.
In windows load the airport utility for windows.. if you have not already as this will help you access the drive.
There is more info here.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

How do I access my encrypted User Account files from my Back Up hard drive? Time Machine was used to create the back up disk; File Vault was used to encrypt the files.

How do I access my encrypted User Account files from my Back Up hard drive? Time Machine was used to create the back up disk; File Vault was used to encrypt the files.

Thanks. I will try going through TM. Since my Simpletech is on the way out, I'll be plugging in a new external hard drive (other than the back-up drive) and trying to restore the library to the new drive. Any advice or warning if this is NOT the right thing to do?
Meanwhile, that is a great tip to do an alternate back-up using a different means. It's been tough to figure out how to "preserve access" to digital images and files for posterity, knowing the hardware will always fail/obsolesce sooner or later, and that "clouds" are only as good as their consistent and reliable accessibility. Upping the odds with redundancy will help dull the edge of my "access anxiety", though logically, it can never relieve it. Will look into
Carbon Copy Cloner.

Time Machine can't copy my hard drive

Time Machine can't copy my hard drive, it says that it can't complete the safety copy because an error occured when files were copied to the safety copy. Does anyone recognise this problem? All I could find in System notifications about Time Machine is this: "localhost kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)"

John Galt wrote:
... Are you unable to select the external HD as a backup device?
pres92 wrote:
that's the problem -- my hard drive ("startup disk) is not listed, so I can't select it.
The reason is that the startup volume is not a valid selection for its own Time Machine backup.
The only drive listed is the Time Machine external drive. Obviously, I don't want to back up the time machine drive.
By default, a Time Machine backup volume is excluded from being backed up.
The appearance you describe is correct, otherwise I'm completely misunderstanding your problem.

How to add files from iPod to new hard drive after krasch?

My hard drive recently crasched. I use my iPod as back up. But now, I cannot find out how to copy the files back to the new hard drive on the computor. The iTune program only advices me to delite all information on the iPod to substitute it with the much lesser library on the computer. Obviously it must be possible to copy in both directions. But how do I do it?
Dell Latitude Windows XP Pro

bebelyn wrote:
Thank you for your advise. That's one thing I learned. Not to assume that people know about backing up. I would have recommended it a long time ago. That's one thing that Apple or other computer stores should offer, external backup package or combo to make people aware of it's importance. Just a thought!
Anyway, I do have a little background in troubleshooting. I thought it's a Mac security issue. I would want to try other options before deciding in opening the computer and taking out thehard drive as it is not as convenient as opening a PC.
Apple does make external hard drives available at the Apple Store, however it is an end users responsibility to backup their system. Apple does offer classes to new users and their 1:1 service too, whether the subject of backing up is mentioned in these I do not know. The subject of backing up as a class "subject" may be something you may want to mention to Apple a www.apple.com/feedback.
Many users go through the same pain as your friend, myself included! However once you go through the pain, it is a lesson seldom forgotten.
Many experiences users on these forums have redundant methods of backing up. When it comes to backing up redundancy is wise, why because a backup can (and often do) fail too. For example, in addition to using Time Machine, I also have another EHD that I use to create a bootable clone of my computer. That way if both my internal drive and TM back fails the worst that will happen is I have a system I can boot from that is a day or so old and continue running until I get all my systems fixed.

Files won't copy to hard drive

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