Syncing says the disk cannot be read or written to

Hi everybody, I am trying to sync my Ipod touch and it starts to update purchases and apps and appears to do this alright and then when it gets to the songs it says "the ipod cannot be synced. The disk could not be read from or written to"
I cancel out of this and then you can see all the songs on the ipod but they are in faint text and you cant copy or do anything with them.
Does anybody have any idea what i am doing wrong?

seen this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1207 ?

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I hooked an external hard drive into the '09 macbook, but when it's in the usb, it has a pop up that says the disk cannot be read, then brings me to disk utility. I have no idea why it wont read the external drive, as it has worked properly before.

I have an external drive with old music files (about 127GB worth) and I was hoping to put them onto my laptop. I hook it into the USB port, and it pops up an error message saying the Disk cannot be read. This is strange, because the drive was hooked up before and worked perfectly fine. It sends me to Disk Utility and says that It must be repaired, but when I click repair, it wants me to back up anything I can (which I cannot at all, none of the files are on right now) and erase it and repair. I have no idead why it's doing this, any help?

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

The ipod cannot be synced. The disk cannot be read from or written to

What does this mean?

I am getting the same message: I don't know how to reboot, or restore. Can someone help me? This is what I've put up with so far:
I have an iPod shuffle, 1st gen. I couldn't download any music, so I took it to my Granddaughter. She put some songs on for me, and showed me how to do it. (or so I thought). When I connected it to Itunes, I got a message saying since I was connected to another library, I couldn't be connected to that one. I had to erase what she put on, to be connected to the library on my computer. Then I dowloaded new version 1.5. When I connected my iPod to the Itunes, I got a box with a green square that said :updating My iPod. The box with the green squares chugged for an hour. Then I tried to download my music from my library to my iPod. I keep getting a message saying They iPod "My iPod" cannot by synced. The disk could not be read from or written to. Can anyone tell me how I can get music on my iPod?

"The disk cannot be read from or written to" or

I recently updated my itouch software to the 3.1.2 software and when i restored it like I was supposed to my songs synced onto my itouch but you couldn't see them. On my computer it said my music was on my itouch but when I went to my library on my itouch, it said that my library was empty. When i plug my itouch into a different computer and turn it off and back on the music pops up. when i try to sync A message will come up and say the disk cannot be read from or written too and another pops up and says the required disk cannot be found. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this problem because i'm going on a trip in a couple weeks, and i want my ipod to be working?

bday10 wrote:
when i try to sync A message will come up and say the disk cannot be read from or written to
have you seen click this KB ?

Spinwheel when syncing, unable to sync photos, error message "the disk cannot be read from or written to" ... please help!

spinwheel when syncing, unable to sync photos, error message "the disk cannot be read from or written to" ... please help!

Everytime I try to sync my photos to iPad or my iPhone. The sync freezes for a whilie then comes back with "the disk cannot be read from or written to". I have already exported photo library from iPhoto and readded the photos.

ITunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From . . .

I use a MacBook Pro with a healthy battery. My iTunes songs are on a USB drive. The Database and XML files are on my MacBook. Power went out in my house and the USB drive shut off. The MacBook stayed up and running. Power came back, powered on the USB drive, open iTunes, and bang: This sorry error: iTunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From or Written to.
The disks are healthy, did an fsck and ran disk verify/repair. No problems. Restart iTunes, same error. Obviously a corrupted Databse file. This wouldn't be a big deal if only the XML info would be useful and actually restore critical info such as play count and dates which is essential for the Not-So-Smart Playlist dependencies to work.
This is the third time I've been burned with corrupted iTunes "Database" files. I use "Database" in quotes because a true Database wouldn't crap out like this. It would be recoverable. It would understand a simple SQL "Where" statement. It would have a maintenance script and some means for recoverable backup beyond the lame process of copying the XML file. Or it would at least read in the info the XML file.
I am becoming disillusioned with iTunes and I'm beginning to yearn for my old Linux box running GTKPod which never failed me....

OK, here's an update - After doing the restore as mentioned having everything seemingly work, I erroniously downloaded the iTunes 7.4 & 7.4.1 updates. Now, about 80% of library is non-responsive, ie: shows up in iTunes, but clicking to play does nothing at all. the other 20% of my library plays, but it's not the song it is supposed to be playing. For example, clicking on a song from say, ABBA prodes a wonderful Gorillaz track :-/ (The same Gorillaz track which will not play if I select it...)
I reiterate: WE NEED A MEANS TO BACKUP OUR LIBRARIES RELIABLY!!!!!!!!!!

ITunes will not load suddenly "the disk cannot be read from or written to"

Something happened in the last couple of weeks that has crippled our devices and rendered itunes useless as well as drastically compromising the processor in our laptop. Prior to that I had been running iTunes 10 (version unknown) strictly with my iphone 4 with no issues at all.
At one point my husband plugged in his ipod touch to charge (not sync). He got an error message that the device was not recognized and he closed out itunes and continued to charge the ipod. Upon my next attempt to sync my iphone, iTunes did not open upon plugging in my phone. I then disconnected the phone and tried to open it by double clicking the icon and received this error message:
(paraphrased: itunes cannot open)
"the disk cannot be read from or written to".
The disk apparently in reference is the hard drive of our laptop as the iphone was not plugged in at that point. I have tried many complete uninstalls of itunes and reinstalls of version 10.2.1 64 bit to no avail, each time I attempt to open iTunes I get the same error message. Also beginning at this time our laptop started hanging up on startup, it now takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 1/2 hour to startup. When iTunes is installed I did remove it from starting with the startup programs and this has not had any effect. I have run full virus and malware scans and no problems were found. It was ridiculously hard to uninstall the program(s) and I noted the incons did not appear as "installed" programs- they always had int "in the box" icon. Please help, this is driving me nuts, we cannot use itunes or sync either of our devices at this point and now our laptop as a whole performs like crap (everything but itunes works but it gets hung up and runs sluggishly now).
I have no idea if this is one of those notorious version 10.0 problems, we have a second nearly identical laptop (Acer Aspire 5336 running Win 7 64 bit and itunes 10.2.1.1) with both devices and no problems. (issue is my library is on the Gateway so my phone wants me to restore and resync with the Acer which I don't want to do... plus now the Gateway is just not acting right, and it all started with the itunes problem.
please help...thanks so much!!
Jen

I wonder if the disk being referred to is actually your iPod which is not plugged in. Maybe something has stuck thinking the iPod should be there.
Try completely removing all the iTunes related programs according to this method.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923
Restart you PC and see if startup improves.
If it doesn't improve you need to consider the possibility that there is something else going on.
If The problem goes away, hopefully a fresh install will be OK.

HT4818 When I try to partition my hard drive for Windows 7, I get an error saying The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. I have a 2006 Macbook Pro I believe and I really need assistance as soon as possible.

I have Windows 7 Premium Home and I have downloaded the Drivers and when I click Boot Camp Assistance to partition my hard drive, it says, "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." I can't do any backup really because I don't have an external hard drive to work with. I tried repairing disk permissions but that did not do anything. I really need a lot of help with this with some easy, step-by-step tutorials or something. I believe I have a 2006 version of Macbook Pro(4,1).

Once you have obtained an external drive and connected it you will 'clone' your internal drive to it.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner (it is not free but there is a fully functional trial version which is). Use it to clone your internal drive to your external drive. When that is done you will reboot from the clone and use Disk Utility to erase the internal drive (choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) as the format (this is normally preset, but check). Make sure to give the external drive a 'distinctive' name, don't want to get drives mixed up in this process.
Once that is done you will use Carbon Copy Cloner (from the clone) to restore the external to the internal.

I updated my itunes to 11 and found out my phone and ipod were not compatible. I uninstalled it and reinstalled 10.7 but now I get an error message when I try to open itunes saying "the file cannot be read because it was created by a newer verison"

I updated my itunes to 11 and found out my phone and ipod were not compatible. I uninstalled it and reinstalled 10.7 but now I get an error message when I try to open itunes saying "the file cannot be read because it was created by a newer verison" What do I do?

Thank you for clarify I'm supposed to read the ENTIRE article. I thought I was just supposed to read the title and magically everything will fix itself. I appreciate you taking the time to help me however I do not appreciate the caps and the way you have addressed the situation. If you are not going to kindly help people/make suggestions just don't try! And for the record my conclusions are not illogical, the iOS7 thing is on the website in small font (which I got by reading the ENTIRE thing) and you should really find a new hobby because your socialization skills need some help! That goes for you too Chris. Not everyone is a tech nerd

IPod partially syncs & I get "Disk cannot be read from or written to"mssg.

Here's my initial problem:I think I Blew It. Tried to move iTunes from OS (C:) to DATA (D:). First I now realize that I should have come here first. But I didn't. I basically copied all of my iTune files into DATA (D:) and deleted them from OS (C:). Now when I open iTunes nothing is there. I left a couple of folders that wouldn't transfer from (C:) to (D:). One is a temp file 2, another is iTunes Music Library XML. doc. My iTunes music folder is empty and my iTunes library folder is pretty much empty too. The folders in DATA (D:) still have my 30 GB of music. So I wonder if I can undo this fiasco?
Here's where I am at today:Well I somehow got my library back. But I think I now have a couple copies of it on different drives. I configured the iTunes settings to feed off D drive but my problem now is I can't sync my ipod completely. I get the infamous "Disk cannot be read from or written to" when syncing iPod" message. I've tried restoring the ipod, creating a sync folder,checking and getting windows updates, and enabling the disc. I'm totally lost here.Please help all wise ones....

Let me add the advice Polydorus gave me to get back library: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1327455&tstart=0 You haven't give enough information to tell exactly what the problem is.
Did you copy the iTunes folder to the d: drive, this folder contains the library databases and the iTunes Music folder.
If you did that, you can try starting iTunes with the shift key held down, when asked to choose a library, navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
This only works if you copied the iTunes folder and you had a default arrangement with all your music files in the iTunes Muisc folder in the iTunes folder.
If you didn't do that and you don't mind losing your counts, ratings and playlists you can do the following:
I am going to assume that you still have your iTunes folder on the c:drive. Close iTunes and drag iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music library.xml out of the iTunes folder to the desktop.
Then open iTunes and an empty library is created, first go to Editit>>Preferences>>Advance>>Gneral and check that the location of the iTunes Music folder is correctly set, then add the iTunes Music folder to iTunes with File>>Add folder to library. If you have music in other folders, you add those too.
Note that these two possibilities do not cover all eventualities, you will need to explain exactly what you did for further advice. POST NOTE: I basically drug the libray to the desktop and opened iTunes with the shift key held down, when asked to choose a library, I did and it came back.

30gb ipod, disk cannot be read or written to.

I have a 30 GB Ipod and everytime i try to sync my music a message comes up that says "the iPod " " cannot be synced. The disk could not be written to or read from." I've tried everything suggested in these forums and it still will not work. any suggestions on where the problem lies?

anytime i try to restore it i get the message "the ipod could not be restored. error 1418"
Just doublechecking. In the course of your troubleshooting to date, have you worked through the following document?
Error 1415, 1417, 1418, or 1428 when restoring or updating an iPod in iTunes 7 or later

Boot Camp Assistant says "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved." What can I do?

I am trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate on my MacBook Pro that runs OS X Lion. I have read through a lot of the other threads and I think I understand that the I need a clean, defragged part of the hard drive to do this on. Boot Camp Assistant tells me to "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." That's all good and everything, but I don't have any idea how to do that. I don't want to risk losing any of my data and I don't want to download any "freeware" to try and help me accomplish this task. I would like a step by step guide on how to make this work. Also, is there anyway that I could have prevented this error? I don't understand why Boot Camp Assistant is even on my MacBook Pro if everyone that uses it will get the same error. I have done nothing but taken it out of the box and started using the Apple software that came installed on it. If there is not a simple way to do this in the Disc Utility, then I don't want to do it at all. I really don't like the idea of putting all my data on an external hard drive just to have this done.

Just installing OS updates and programs will
Write the installer
Uncompress the file at say 7x and write the actual installer in a free area that often may be anywhere but at the far end of the partition is common.
Write new version or copy of the files being changed/updated (myfile.new and myfile.old)
Delete the entry in the directory for the temp files and versions.
A program that can show your hard drive and where files are and where free space is, and show fragments.
OS X tries to eliminate small files with fragments when they are rewritten and when it can find contiguous free space to write the new file.
That can actually work against you, as it might fragment the free space also.
When a drive gets down to 20% free space there is a performance hit, you are using slower areas of the drive (inner tracks are usually 50% slower) and having more trouble finding filles and where to write files.
Clone Mac OS is one of the easiest and safest methods.
Click on source (Mac Harddrive), click on or drop the backup partition / drive into target icon.
Click "Run"
you end up with bootable (test it to be certain) exact copy.
Unplujg and keep it on a shelf
Update it before you inistall a new version etc of OS X or make changes.
Have two: one safe on the shelf from Week #1 and new Week #2
Disk Utility can do that.
With huge hard drives free space should not be an issue. The lack of a feature to defrag as part of Boot Camp or Disk Utility is why there are iDefrag and others, but they are slow and best run from.... a 2nd hard drive running OS X rather than from CD. and never great idea to do w/o backups or on live system.

The disk cannot be read from or written to.

This is the infuriating message that I get when I try to autofill my shuffle via itunes.
I have found a way around it :- restore the ipod software and when I plug it in again it automatically fills with tunes. But this is very long winded and I shouldn't have to restore the ipod software every time I want to fill it, should I?
Help...................
E.T.
Dell Inspiron 9100 Windows XP

this shows us that apple is just big crap with a useless hotline and helpdesk, i called them a few times now because i have the same problem ..... i am not able to put/remove songs on my shuffle manually if i try the error: "on this ipod cannot be written and reading is also impossible" .... so i searched the web and and found some where that its only possible to fill the ipod automatically after i do a firmware reset..... *** ...
so i remember that since i upgraded the ipod to 1.12 the shuffle function is not working very well and a few days and itunes v6 later the trouble started
i have the ipod about 6 months now so i got gurantee but the ** called apple wants money for that. i am thinking about to inform the Customersafety here in Germany cause that cannot be inline with the rules!!
as final i just have to say i am so dissapointed i will never by apple products again in my life
cya

I am trying to download windows 7 on my macbook pro but it keeps saying the disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.

Its all in the title. I am trying to use bootcamp to download windows 7 on my macbook pro mountain lion, but I keep getting this error. I tried going to Disk Utility, and my active volume already is formatted under Mac OS Extended (Journaled), so I don't know how to fix it. I already backed up the volume on an external harddrive. Also, everything under the volume I wanted to edit is greyed out, and when I try to restore the backup that I created via time machine, it pops up with another error that says "Could not unmount volume "/" (Resource Busy).
Please be gentle, I'm used to using windows and don't know like anything about computers. If someone could give me a detailed explanation for these errors and a solution of how I could correctly download windows on my mac I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Try a restart.
If that doesn't fix the problem, shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application unistaller. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode - About
General information.
Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Troubleshooting Permission Issues
Step by Step to Fix Your Mac

Ipod cannot be updated because the disk cannot be read from or written to.

This error message comes up everytime I try to upload photos onto my ipod. I selected the folder to sync the photos from and I do not know why it will not upload. Does anyone know what to do?

Alexander,
I did what you suggested. In fact, this is what I did:
In iTunes I changed the root folder the photos sync from by going iTunes > Preferences > Photos > Synchronize photos from : and chose the Pictures folder instead of the iPhoto option.
After iTunes "optimized" the photos and copied them to the iPod I got an error message saying that some images would not be copied because they could not be displayed by my iPod. I glanced quickly through the photos on the iPod and found that most of my library copied over. Of course, I lost all the album information. I suppose I could make an iPod album in iPhoto and use it as the root folder for sync-ing. That's a better fix, at least, than not being able to move photos at all. Thanks for the tip.
Chad

Syncing says the disk cannot be read or written to

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