Recovery Disk "Copy File Fail"

Equipment: HP Notebook G56-WM129
Operating system: Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium edition
Issue:
HDD Crashed, after 1 year and 1 month of use the hard drive up and quit working, the computer doesn't even recognize that it is installed. Ran the test from BIOS and it confirmed that I have a dead drive. Unplugged cleaned and repluged connection cable produced the same results. A dead Drive. Now that we have determined that the drive is dead, inoperable, and unusable we'll move on to the part where my other issue lies.
To replace the HDD I purchased a new 60Gb SSD. (More expensive than a HHD, but is supposed to be awesome on speed) Went with the 60 Gig because it is costly and I didn't know at the time Windows 7 uses 25 Gb's of space (WOW).
I never created any recovery disc, so I purchased a set from this website using my computers information.  I went ahead and decided to upgrade my ram at this time as well from 3 Gb/s to 8Gb/s.   All the stuff came in and I was excited to say the least. New toys and all, just like Christmas.
I put the new SSD and RAM in, boot up the computer the BIOS recognized them both (Great). I put in the 1st recover disk and proceeded to boot from it. The program runs and wants me to reformat drive (enter no ends the program). So, I enter yes. Reformatting goes quickly and moves on to the next phase of copying the files. Then I get the error:
Pop up box appears with "Reducer" as the title and tells me
          COPY FILE FAILS
From D:\PRELOAD\BASE.WIM
TO: C:\RM\IMAGE\BASE.WIM
Press enter to retry.
Pressing enter does absolutely no good (Nothing happens, pressed it a lot). The disc won't eject and the only thing I can do is hold in the power button until the computer shuts down. I power the CPU back up, it says it is starting windows and it starts the process all over to Error on the same thing at the same spot. 0% Progress.
After several hours of looking on the boards, I see various people have the same problem, Only once did I see someone have a solution, but it didn't work for me. It had me follow a link to a destination on HP to download a bootable disk that loaded and showed a picture of 3 circles with no direction on what to do. I finally saw where I am supposed to eject the disc power it down, start it up with the recovery disc. But this just leads me back to the issue of FILE COPY FAILs.
I borrowed a copy of Windows 7 (64 bit Home Premium) from a friend and it loaded flawlessly, had me up and running in no time.
But I only have the code that came with my HP and it would not work to activate this windows. So, I popped the recovery disc back in hoping that all will go well since I have successfully installed Windows. However, I am back to my original issue and really don't want to have to spend another $200 on an OS when I am supposed to have one and have paid for the Recovery disk from HP.
From my understanding, this is not a Microsoft issue, but a HP issue.

Usually replacing the hdd with one that is smaller than the original will cause Recovery to fail.A work-around that many use to replace with an SSD is to use Imaging software to make an Image of the hdd to restore to the SSD. The Imaging software must be one that has capabilty to shrink the image to a smaller hdd/partition. That is the one flaw in my favorite Imaging app,Macrium. I think Paragon Backup has the capabity to shrink, and possibly (not free) Acronis True Image. I have also used Disk Management in Windows 7 to shrink the C: partition before Imaging to allow it to be restored to a smaller hdd or partition. Any of these would require a working SATA hdd to install Win 7 on to do the Imaging.
As for the alternate install of Windows 7, you can usually get it activated using your key and the phone activation method. Tips HERE
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Similar Messages

Moving library to external hard drive and get the error "Copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to"

Hello,
I'm moving my library to an external hard drive.
I've made sure to use the 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' option when pointing to the new library location.
I select 'File'->'Library'->'Organize Library', I select to 'Consolidate Files', click 'OK' and get ther error message "Copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to".
I've read elsewhere that there may be a corrupted file that I need to sequester somehow and perhaps add it back however I'm not certain how I can locate that file because the status window doesn't indicate which file it's attempting to transfer when the error appears.
Any tips?
Thank you,
Greg H
iTunes 10.6.3

OK I figured it out!
It was a dodgy file....I sorted the file folders by date, and as it turned out within the "compilations" folder there was a CD where only about half the tracks seemed to have been copied over. Could not have identified this simply from the time indicated on the finder folder sort, because there were several CDs copied over in the that same minute.
I went back to the original itunes folder, deleted all the files from that CD in itunes, then also deleted all those files from the original disk and the target disk.
Tried the "consolidate library" again, and it completed nicely. 200megs of music and videos.
Very happy to solve this problem after 3 weeks.

HT1449 copying files failed. the disk could not be read from or written to.

Im moving my iTunes to an external hard drive. Its moved about half already and Im now getting this error. I have no idea what file its getting stuck on so I cant remove that file. When I restart it it will say preparing to copy then I get the error right away. I dont want to delete the extrenal and start over if I dont have to.

Ive already changed the location for my itunes media to my extrenal hard drive so when i click to consolidate files Im getting the error
copying files failed. the disk could not be read from or written to

Reducer error occurs - copy file fails from D to C while running recovery cd in windows 8,64 bit.

Sir I bought a new hp envy 15 j049tx on 25 October 2013 and it stopped working on 29 october 2013.Whrn I opened the laptop a blue screen appears written that "Your pc ran into an error and we are restarting for you. The laptop restarts and the same process keeps going on.
I told the Hp customer support, they asked me to run hard drive and memory tests. Both hard drive and memory test came out PASSED(both quick and extensive tests). Then they ordered hp recovery discs. When i received it while running the 1st cd an error came with label REDUCER-copy file failed from D... to C.... They then sent a technician who said that the recovery cd are faulty. Its Been a month and the problem still persists. They have ordered a new set of recovery cd. I hope to receive them by 22.I am very much worried. Its windows 8,64 bits os. Please reply. Is it recovery cd problem? Please tell what to do?

anyone found the fix for this?

Copy file fails hp sent recovery discs Windows 7

I have been trying to solve this for a month now and am at the end of my tether.
I am now on my third set of recovery discs from HP and all have the same problem. I insert disc 1 as instructed to on the support forum. It runs through
Reformatting the windows partition of the hard drive - tick
Copying files required to restore the hard drive - tick
And immediately as that finishes, that window comes up :
Reducer
Copy file fails
From:E:\PRELOAD\BASE.SWM
To:C:\RM\Image\BASE.SWM
Press OK to retry
ALL three sets of discs have the same out come.
What the heck is going on?
I am so sick of this.
Have read some other posts with similar problems but can't seem to work out the solution. I do not have an external hard drive I can use...only the laptop that I am trying to fix. (G6-1305sa)
Any help? It also doesn't help when HP support is only open on the phones until 5.30 Monday to Friday. I am at work so can't call. So frustrating....
Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi Belj,
Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forums and Welcome. I have read your thread on your HP Pavilion g6-1305sa Notebook and not able to restore Windows. If the HDD is faulty this might cause the restore not to go well. You might try to run a hardware test. Please note remove any and all USB devices, and remove memory cards from the card reader slot. Disconnect all non-essential devices. Is this the original HDD? Have you replaced any other parts? Have you tried to do a clean install of Windows 7. Try running sfc /scannow would scan your system for errors at the command prompt. You can get to the command prompt by clicking F11 at startup. You could check this Microsoft document on system recovery options.
Hope this is a help.
Thanks.
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Copy File Fails during Recovery on Pavilion DV6 Windows 7

I need help! I have a Pavilion DV6 with Windows 7, my hard drive died so I bought a new one, it is just like the one that died. I ordered the recovery discs from HP When it gets to 98% on the 2nd disc I get the following message
Copy File Fails
From: D:\PRELOAD\BASE8.SWM
To: C:\RM\Image\BASE8.SWM
Press OK to retry
I have done this several times but it just comes back. I tried turning it off and starting over with disc 1 but it just does the same thing again.
Can anyone help me please?

If you can read the 25 character Microsoft Windows 7 license key attached to bottom of laptop , you can download a Windows 7 ISO file to burn to a DVD for the version that is listed on the Microsoft COA sticker.
Link to the Windows 7 ISO file downloads:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Get ImgBurn to burn the iso image to DVD using slow burn speed.
Or use the Windows 7 USB/DVD installation tool to convert the ISO file to a Windows installation on DVD or USB flash drive.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
Use the 25 character product key on the PC to activate the installation.
Next go to your support and driver page to install the drivers/software you need, using the button at top of this page titled "Support & Drivers".
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Copy file fails

Just recently got a new hard drive because old one friend within 8 months and ordered the 15$ recovery disk and every time I go to restore the files onto the new hard drive it stops on 47% and then pops up with a copy file fails then it says to retry, and every time i put retry it stops again been running thia process for 16 hours now could anyone help me didn't expect it to be this complicated...

HI marcusam_:
Thank you for your post. I will do my utmost to assist you!
I perceive that when attempting to do a recovery from the disks, it gets to 47% and then fails. Here is some documentation that I think may help. You did not provide you operating system or your model of computer so I will include 3 links. Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows 7) ,Performing a System Recovery (Windows XP) and Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows Vista). For your convenience I am also sending System Recovery May Fail or Display Error Message (Windows 7, or Vista). Please let me know if this has helped.
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
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Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Copy File Fails error

I have a Pavilion dm4 and it is telling me that my Hard Drive is going to fail.
The original operating system was Windows 7 (64bit), but I 'upgraded' to Windows 8
I have backed up everything on an external hard drive
I purchased a new hard drive: WD Mainstream 500GB SATA 3
I ordered the system recovery disks from HP
Durning recovery I keep getting a 'Copy FIle Fails' error about half way through disk 2 of 3
I have tried several times and it keeps getting stuck
Someone suggested that it might be a BIOS problem, but I don't know how to navigate this tool. ( I have version F.26 I think)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello BvinR,
I understand you are getting a "'Copy FIle Fails" error on the second disc when you are trying to recover after a failed hard drive. I have checked the HP Pavilion dm4 Entertainment PC Maintenance and Service Guideand on page 2 it lists a 500 GB, 7200 rpm hard drive as compatible with your system. I am more inclined to believe there is something wrong with the recovery disc. If this is the case I would encourage you to contact HP technical support to see about getting the second disc replaced. Be sure to explain to them as you did here. Below is the contact links for HP Technical Support if you need them.
US support link to contact options for HP products purchased in the US.
Outside of US support link to contact options for HP products purchased outside the US.
I would like to thank you for posting on the HP Forums. Have a great day!
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
Dunidar
I work on behalf of HP
Find out a bit more about me by checking out my profile!
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." ~ Donald Porter

I'm getting error "copying files failed. the required file is in use". How do I find the file?

I've found this question is elswhere but no answers. I'm trying to consolidate my library to an external hard drive since I'm pretty sure my current drive is about to fail. The entire process has taken me days due to one error or another. This is my most recent error and so far there is no way around it since it does not show me what file is in use.
Help?

I used "Carbon Copy Cloner" to copy my library from one external disk to another.
The "library" consists of a bunch of files and folders (see links at end). You don't need CCC to copy it, just drag the whole iTunes folder in your Home > Music from one drive to the other.
I pointed my iTunes library to the new location under iTunes preferences.
No, don't do it with preferences. Once you have moved the folder as above, start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the library.itl file on the new drive. This is assuming you have been using iTunes's default settings and haven't been managing your media yourself.
I used iTunes to "Consolidate Library" to verify that all files had been moved.
Okay, in doing that you have moved just your media to the new drive but left all your other library files on the old drive.
iTunes succesfully copied/re-attached a lot of files before giving me the error that the disk could not be read or written to.
Try it with my method.
I began to troubleshoot the hard drive by checking the cables and scanning for errors.
This disk checked out fine.
I identified the failure and subsequent error was due to corrupted files.
I watched the consolidation process and was able to see which file it was trying to copy before it errored out.
I deleted the corrupted file and restarted the process (I repeated this numerous times).
When the process seemed to be just about over, I got the error "Copying files failed. The required file is in use."
I'm sure this is likely another corrupted file, however, it happens so fast that I have no way to identify what file is causing the problem. I tried making sure no other processes were running and no other windows or media players were open. I also tried to look for an error log but was unsuccessful.
Any ideas?
Disk Utility will scan for a corrupt directory but I don't think it works on the file level if it is a single file that was corrupted. I know I have seen Carbon Copy Cloner pick up on single file error when I had one sitting on a bad sector of a drive several years ago. If you can identify the corrupt file this way then you will have to use a backup copy since it is unlikely it can be rescued.
If you have Diskwarrior it has a file check utility.
You have, of course, restarted your computer before doing all this, and keep other computer activity to a minimum (don't play music while copying the files and don't use other applications that coupld potential be trying to get access to your files)?
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847

ITunes v10.6.1.7 "Copying files failed. The File name was invalid or too long."

I'm trying to organize my music files using iTunes 10.6.1.7 and I keep getting the error message "Copying files failed. The File name was invalid or too long."
I've got music folders by artist in both the iTunes Music folder and the iTunes Media/Music folder. When I add certain files by drag/drop they sometimes get lost and I don't want that to happen anymore. I used to just consolidate my music files using the File/Library/Organize Library option and that worked, however now when I do that, I get the error message.
I'm a novice and the only online stuff I see is both confusing and refers to earlier versions of iTunes.
My concern is that I have heard that people lose entire libraries of their music when they trry to fix things like this and I don't want that. If this is of any importance, I have several files called iTunes library and temp library. I have no idea what that all means but I'm scared to death of it.
Also, I can't get to the "re-organize library" link at all. It won't let me.
One thing that be of some interest is that when I pull up the properties of the music and media/music files they are marked "read only" I'm also afraid to touch that!
Please help and please know that I am a dummy. Be kind and be clear. Step by step would be great, with images even better. Thanks.

Perhaps nobody knows the answer? We're fellow users here answering questions in our free time when we think we've something useful to contribute.
You can choose to *Consolidate selected tracks* with a right-click menu. Perhaps if you can identify a specific track that won't consolidate and examine the full path to the file & the path that iTunes would create when it consolidates the problem might become apparent. For example iTunes may not be able to move files if the source or destination path length exceeds 255 characters.
tt2

Itunes wont consolidate becuase "copying files failed...."

itunes wont consolidate because "copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long." why to i get this error message and how do i fix it? I am using itunes 9 on a dell windows xp laptop. i am trying to consolidate the library but it does not work becuase of the error message. please help. Thank

I'm having similar problems, but Katrina S's suggestion didn't work for me. From my desktop, I'd transferred my music files to an external USB hard drive and the library database files to my laptop. iTunes plays perfectly, but I get the same error message when I try to consolidate. I changed permissions on the external drive and on the iTunes library folder, when needed, to make sure either my user logon or an administrator (which includes me) had full permissions. Still can't consolidate, though. CarolynOtt, did you find a solution yet?

Copying files failed. An unknown error occurred (-50)

I currently have a PC (Samsung Q330 running Windows 7) and I am getting a Macbook Pro in a few days! Therefore I am transferring my iTunes (10.6) library to an external hardrive (Hitachi X250). While I was doing this I received an error message that read “Copying files failed. An unknown error occurred (-50)”. Therefore I was wondering, how the heck do I fix this???
What I have done.
I have gone in to “Advance Preferences”.
I have changed the “iTunes Media folder location” to my external hardrive.
I have the following two option selected “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library”.
Then I go to File> Library> Organize Library. Then I select “Consolidate files” then I press the “OK” button.
Then about half way in or so I get a pop up that reads “Copying files failed. An unknown error has occurred (-50).
As you can see iTunes is not working. Could anyone help me???
Thanks in advance, Donald Louch!

Hmm... you may find iTunes is still connected to some files in the original location rather than the new one. You can check with my script Unconsolidated. If that is the case the script ConsolidateByMoving ought to switch the connection to a file already in the correct place however I'm currently working on a new build so the behaviour of the live version might be slightly different.
tt2

When trying to 'Consolidate Files' via iTunes I get the message "Copying files failed. The name was invalid or too long."

I am trying to copy my entire iTunes library and everything in it from my PC Desktop to my PC Laptop using the "External Drive" method as shown on the Apple website. On Part 1 (5) I am told to consolidate files. When attempting to do this I get the message "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long."
How do I resolve this?

I have just been having this problem and it has been driving me mad. The error message doesn't tell you which file is causing the problem so you can't fix it and it leaves your libray in a state of limbo with some files copied into the new location and some in the old location. After many hours I found a surprisingly quick and simple solution.
1) in iTune create a smart play list that includes everything that was added before tomorrows date. This will include everything.
2) Right click this playlist and export it as a text file to produce a tab delimited file.
3) Import this into a spread sheet, or just view it in a text editor with line wrap turned off. What you are interested in is the last column (or end of the line in a text editor). This gives you the path of the file associated with each entry in the library.
The path of the files that have already been copied successfully will start with the new location for your media files you specified. Scroll thru the rows until you get a blank path. If you start getting paths starting with the old Media file location then you went to far and start scrolling back.
The row with the blank path was the file that failed. Move back to the start of the row to find out more about it. In my case it was a podcast with a very long name. I just deleted that podcast from iTunes.
4) Restart the consolidation by choosing File, Library as you did before and the process starts again where it left off.
5) If it fails again on another file just repeat the process

Consolidate Problem. Copying files failed. The File name was invalid.

Hi to everyone,
My system is 10.5.8, iTunes 9.2.1 (4)
I tried to consolidate my iTunes library to an external HD. After about 100GB of copied music, I got the message : Copying files failed. The File name was invalid.
Now everytime I try again to consolidate, I get immediately this message. I am looking everywhere for a solution, and I only find the same problem for Windows iTunes users.
Actually I found very useful this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1708372,
which talks about with which order iTunes consolidates the media, so by digging a little in the folders to find which track has the problem and make the fix. It says that consolidate start copy the files by the date added order. So I can go in my new iTunes media folder and find the latest added track, then go back in iTunes, sort by date added the songs and locate the next song, to make the fix. However in my case, all previous and next songs (by date added), have been copied in the new locations.
I am stuck. I have a remaining 300GB of music to consolidate and dont know how to proceed.
Any help would be much appreciated..

Finaly, I managed to solve it by myself...,
following the help I found from the post of the thread I mentioned on my question...
What was the problem that made things more difficult in my case, is that a big amount of songs have been added at the same time, with just a few seconds time distance. So it was tougher to locate what was the last imported song, and where iTunes consolidation had stopped. Actually I had groups of about 100 songs with the same timestamp of date added and the consolidation was following the rule of the "date added" but not exactly with the order the songs was showing in the iTuned library. So I started checking all the songs very close to the last added in the media folder one by one with the "show in finder" command, and then I managed to found what was the one with the problem.
Regarding the problematic file, that was a midi file that had been imported in my iTunes.
I hope this will help anyone else that might have the same problem as me in the future.

HT1751 I did all of the above and at the "Consolidate files" screen I clicked "ok" then it sayd "copying files failed. the file name was invalid or too long" and I had to click "OK" I cannot consolidate the files to transport to my external harddrive -h

I would like to backup my itunes to my external hard drive
I did all the steps up to "organize Liberary" which at this point I checked the box and the clicked"ok"
it then said "copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long" "OK"
It will not let me consolidate the files so I can transfer to my external hard drive
what am I doing wrong - any suggestions?
thanks,

Are you using consolidate files to bring in stray files to your main iTunes Media folder before backing up, or to copy the media folder to the external drive as part of backing up? If it is the latter then you are taking the wrong approach. See this user tip.
Run my script Unconsolidated on the library. It will show you the remaining unconsolidated files which might give a clue as to which files iTunes is having a problem with. You can consolidate selected files in batches (select, right-click) as opposed to trying to do everything in one go. Alternatively you could try moving the remaining unconsolidated files with ConsolidateByMoving as long as this step is a precursor to a backup..
tt2

Recovery Disk "Copy File Fail"

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