Frozen finder when attempting to transfer files to external USB 2.0 drive.

Here's my problem. I have an external Firewire 400/800/USB 2.0 drive that I've been using on my IBook G4 since my Powerbook G4 died. On the PB, I used it as FW 800 and I never had any problems at all transferring files to the drive.
Now that I'm on the IBook, almost every other file transfer that I attempt gets hung up. And I cannot stop the transfer and restarting the finder does nothing for me. Literally, the transfer begins and just freezes and then it's straight beach ball from there. I've tried getting answers to what could be causing this problem on various other forums, but the issue still exists. Hence, I am at the source now.
Funny thing about the whole issue is that it doesn't matter what size the file is. It could be 500mb or 10mb. When it feels like freezing, it just does. I have tried re-installing the USB drivers that were included in the 10.4.10 updated but that did nothing.
Does anyone have any idea of how to fix this? I'm at my rope's end right now. Thank you.

I also wanted to add that one of the suggested solutions I was given was to uninstall all application enhancers from my system, which did help an ancillary issue that I was having with my dock not appearing, but as far as the frozen finder situation, no dice.

Similar Messages

Finder locks up when attempting to access files on external drive

HI all,
I am experiencing a sinking feeling at the moment - I have been editing large amounts of video in a particular project and on recent captures I found I only had about 5gb left on my external Maxtor 300gb hard drive, which aborted the last capture, reporting "dropped frames" in final cut pro.
History has shown this happens when the hard drive gets close to running out of space.
I went to finder to delete some unneccessary files but when I try to, finder locks up and does not allow me to access any of the files. I believe this is also to do with the fact that the space is getting low, but how do I get into the files to delete them when finder won't let me do so?
At the same time I am hoping this is not a hard drive failure in the making...
Thanks
David

Ok - for a while there, the hard drive would not come up on the desktop - but now on a re-boot of the compter, or if I disconnect the hard drive and re-connect it, a message comes up with three buttons which say:
Initialize
Ignore
Eject
Sound like the hard drive has died?

Is anyone else receiving "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)" when attempting to transfer files from laptop to LaCie external HD?

This issue has only developed since upgrading the OS to Mavericks. I've been unable to save files to my LaCie external hard drive. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. I've tried looking here for the code -.50, but nothing comes up.

I have the same problem. I am not able to write to my external drives when I wake my computer (I can read from them though). I get the same message as you do. My only solution is to force eject my drive and reconnect it. I am not sure if this is related to Mavericks but this did not happen before. Anybody else experiencing this or have a better solution?

Error when trying to copy files to external drive

When attempting to copy files to external hard drive I get a message " unable to copy some data, error code -36".
How do I find out what that error code is tring to tell me?

Sadly, I have had this issue as well. Last eyar Iit got to the point I couldn't copy at all. From what I recall, Apple told me it could be one of many things. A bad internal drive, bad permissions, a bad external drive, a bad firewire port, a bad cable, bad memory, and on and on. I never did figure it out, but I do know my hard drive did crash a month later. However, having said that, I own a new computer, and last week, it started again. Still have not figured out what is going on. Good luck.

Error code -51 when I attempt to transfer files from Mac to PC over network

I just upgraded to Mavericks - I saw some threads that people are having the same problem. When I attempt to transfer files from my Windows 7 PC to my Mac laptop, it freezes, then I get an error code -51. No, it's not firewall, and no it's not sharing permissions in the PC. Help!!

Same here as well. MacBook Pro 13" laptop with OSX 10.9. Can transfer small files (e.g. Mp3s, MS Word Docs, PDFs etc) on the network to a server running Windows 2008 R2 server eg MP3 files....but transfering larger files eg TV shows or films produces a failure after about 1.5MB and I get the following error message:
"...The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -51)...."
I previously had a MacBook Air laptop with OSX 10.8 and did not have this problem at all. Also currently have a Mac Mini with OX 10.6 and that machice continues to play just fine with the same server.
So the issue must most likely be a problem specific to OSX 10.9...

I'm new to apple after years of MS OS! How do I transfer files from my USB memory stick to another USB memory stick? cheers

hi all, i've just switched to apple after many years using MS OS! I'm now using iMac desktop 21.5" with 2.9GHz processor and latest Yosemite software.
How do I transfer files from one USB memory stick to another USB memory stick on the iMac? cheers, linley94

Plug in the memory stick and it should open then create a New Folder and drag and drop the contents from the memory stick to the new folder you created. Remove the original memory stick all the information should be in the new folder you created. Now plug in the new memory stick with nothing on it when it opens drag the folder with the contents from the original memory stick folder and all into the new memory stick that opened and there you have it.
CHEERS
DON

I have a Power Mac G4 (2004) and want to transfer all my files to a new MacBook Pro 15.4". Can this be done thru firewire cable or do I have to transfer to an external Firewire 800 hard drive first?

I have a Power Mac G4 (2004) and want to transfer all my files to a new MacBook Pro 15.4". Can this be done thru firewire cable or do I have to transfer to an external Firewire 800 hard drive first?

Do it with a Firewire cable (buy a 800/400 adapter if you need it) - the USB transfer takes a much longer time.
Start up your old PowerMac G4 holding down the "T" key, for target disk mode.
On your new MacBook Pro open "Migration Assistant" in your utilities folder.
Connect the 2 computers by firewire cable and follow the prompts in Migration Assistant.

HT4889 Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive, it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive. Why is it looking for other computers?

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive. I told it to look for a drive, yet it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive ... it just endlessly looks for other computers. Why is it looking for other computers at all, when I told it not to?

Wow, the wording in Migration Assistant is misleading. I've never used it before, so I thought I would try to copy my files from the external drive ... my old iMac died, but I managed to get everything I need off it, using the 'cp' command in single-user mode. So I guess I'll just have to manually copy the files from the external drive to the new machine. I was hoping that Migration Assistant might help somehow, but obviously not.
Thanks for the quick reply!

In my Apple Macbook Air, most of the USB Flash/Thumb Drives are not shown in the Finder Window. Only a few Brands of USB /Flash Thumb Drives are shown or compatible or shown in the Finder. How do I use any Flash/Thumb Drive with my Apple MacAir?

In my Apple Macbook Air, most of the USB Flash/Thumb Drives are not shown in the Finder Window. Only a few Brands of USB /Flash Thumb Drives are shown or compatible or shown in the Finder. How do I use any Flash/Thumb Drive with my Apple MacAir?

Yes, junker thumb drives pour like rain in the market.
Which makes are working on your Air, and which arent?
Stick to Sandisk and a couple of other reliable mfg. of memory sticks

Can I use my iPad with airport extreme to retrieve files from a USB connected hard drive?

Can I use my iPad with airport extreme to retrieve files from a USB connected hard drive?

Yes, I believe so. Please check out the NetPortal app. I don't have an iPad, but I use it on my iPod Touch to access files on my Time Capsule. It is available from the iTunes App Store.

When I try to format an external usb drive the progress bar only goes half way then freezes up can anybody help please

When I try to format an external usb drive the progress bar gets to half way then freezes , or stops and what ever time I allow it never gets any futher on , I have to go to the task bar and click quit to get on and the usb drive is not formatted is there a fault with my disk utility program I have updated the system
to lion 10.7.2
Can anybody advise please

Are these new external drives? How are the currently formatted? Have you tried doing this:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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 Security 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 can take up to several hours 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.

I'm attempting to transfer files, address book, etc from an external hard drive to my new Mac-mini using migration assistant. The external drive is showing up on my desktop but Migration Assistant is not seeing the drive when searching for devices

I'm attempting to migrate files, address book, maile, etc to my new Mac Mini using an external hard drive and Migration assistant. I followed the instructions on using Migration Assistant to do this but Migration Assistant is not seeing the external drive, which is displayed on my desktop

I've been chasing this problem all afternoon. I had to reformat my internal drive on my MBP and reinstall Mountain Lion Start up assistant wouldn't see my extrnal drive with the Time Machine files on it. After many tries, I skipped the restore there and let the system boot. I could see my external drive from Finder and the files looked OK. I was told to use Migration Assistant and it had the same problem.
I saw a hint on one of these posts that the icon that you see and is label Macintosh HD is actually your backup disk and it is telling you that it has a copy of your internal Macintosh HD. I went ahead and told it to continue and it started to restore my apps, settings, and documents. It's been going for a couple of hours, and is close to being done. I expect to see my old system restored when it is finished.
Wish that Apple would put some type of note that it is seeing the backup. That is most confusing and seems to be a problem for lots of users.
It's been a month or so since your post Did your get it to work?

Finder throwing error -1401 when attempting to open files on mounted volume

Alright, this is driving me nuts. At random, Finder will refuse to open files on a mounted volume on my server. It throws the error "The application can't be opened. -1401" and then "The operation can’t be completed. An unexpected error occurred (error code -1401)." back to back. It doesn't matter what the file type is, as far as I can tell (.jpg, .xlsx and .pdf are on there).
From that point on, I can navigate those volumes to the point that I have navigated them since the volume was mounted at start up, but can't go any deeper into the directories or open anything. Finder also won't eject the volume. I can't open files from within applications, either.
I have to reboot for it to work again.
However, if I jump into Parallels I can open anything on the server. Even Acrobat files, which open in the Mac environment and not within the virtual machine.
Does anyone have any insight to what might be causing this? I searched and can't find anything.
Thanks,
Brian

Restart your computer with the Shift key held down,
and then open the Startup Items folder inside the
System Folder. Throw away all of the aliases you find
in this folder and then empty the trash.
To quit AppleWorks or another application when it
won't respond, hold down the Option, Command, and Esc
keys, and then click the Force Quit button. You
should also use the Disk First Aid application in the
Applications (Mac OS 9):Utilities folder to verify
your hard disk, as something may have been damaged
when you shut the machine down using that method.
(11882)

Finder freezes when trying to move files to external hard drive

Whenever I try to move files from internal hard drive to my external finder freezes it. I have over 5 TBs of free space on my external, so I know it's not a space issue. This happens no matter the size of the file. It starts the copy and then will freeze before it finishes. If I try to force quit and select relaunch it acts like it is relaunching but my icons never re-appear and the command bar at the top never returns. So I end up having to hard boot.
I just reinstalled the 10.5.8 combo update and verified both hard disks, if any repairs came up I repaired and then did the same with disk permissions....it's still freezing on me. I am frustrated because there are some files I'd really like to move to my external raid hard drive but I'm not able to.
The freezing happens if I'm trying to transfer files from a disc or an additional external HD. My internal HD is only so big and the external Raid drive is for my capture scratch on Final Cut Pro and I'm even having issues capturing to that drive. Everything wants to be on my internal HD and that doesn't work for me.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sean Dale1 wrote:
Do you get any error messages and if so what are they? Do you have any problems copying files off the problem drive back to your Mac or do the freezes only occur when copying to the external?
No I don't get any error messages, the finder just freezes and when I try to relaunch finder it doesn't relaunch properly..all icons are missing and I'm not able to access the the task bar to properly shut down so I have to hard boot.
It happens only when trying to save files to the external, whether through drag and drop or within programs. I am able to access files on the external and copy files from there to my internal without problems.
Have you tried attaching this drive to another Mac and if so do you get the same issues?
I don't have another Mac to attach the drive to.
How is this RAID attached, SCSI, FireWire, SATA or what? How was the RAID created, Disk Utility or third party software and have you verified the integrity of the RAID?
The RAID is attached via SCSI. In an attempt to solve this finder issue I re-installed the drivers to the most current drivers available and in doing so updated any firmware....and there was no change. I was not the one who set up the RAID so I don't know how it was created. It's an Enhance UltraStore R16 and I've been using it without issues since January 2007 and this freezing thing has been intermittent for a few months now but now it's constant and annoying. I've verified the disk through disk utility but I don't have any software to check the integrity otherwise. Do you have any recommendations as to what software I could use to do this?
Message was edited by: Emily80

Finder crashes anytime I try to transfer files onto external HDD

I recently had to have the HDD cable inside my MBP replaced because it was not working properly. After it was installed I was able to do a clean install of OS X 10.6 and after fully updating to 10.6.8 I installed ML 10.8.2 everything was working perfectly then all of a sudden I am no longer able to transfer files from my desktop onto any external HDD. I thought there might be something wrong with the external HDD but I can copy items off of it onto the desktop with no problem and was even able to place things on it before finder started randomly freezing. The freeze starts off with the spinning beach ball, and everything else seems to be working until i switch to a different application then they all start freezing.
Is there any way to solve this without having to completley do a clean install all over again?

The next time you have the problem, note the exact times when it starts and ends: hour, minute, second.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Select any messages timestamped during that interval. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Frozen finder when attempting to transfer files to external USB 2.0 drive.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for