Why can't iMac copy files to external drive?

New iMac will not copy Lightroom4 photos to external drive.

You will need to supply more information.
What kind of a drive is it, how is it formatted, how are you attempting to copy them, etc.?

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IMovie 6 Why? audio extract, copy file to external drive, delete problems

Why are these problems occuring in iMovie '06
+the remaining clip, after an audio extract, no longer has audio, and the extraction does not only extract the selected clip, but the whole movie
+copy and paste an iMovie (.iMovieProject) file 10.66G to a 30G external drive results in "error code 1309" and fails to finish copying
+a 10.66G movie where about 99 percent of the clip was deleted still reads as 10.66G even though the clip is only 26 seconds long.
Premature release of program me thinks.
Powerbook G4 12" 1.5Ghz, 768K RAM Mac OS X (10.4.4) also a powerbook G4 15" 1.25Ghz 256K RAM (with only one good RAM bay)
Powerbook G4 12" 1.5Ghz, 768K RAM Mac OS X (10.4.4) also a powerbook G4 15" 1.25Ghz 256K RAM (with only one good RAM bay)

Welcome to iMovie Discussions ..premature posting of question, methinks. (..without, perhaps, having searched for or read any previous discussion of these or similar topics..)
a - This is the iMovie HD (version 5) Discussion ..there's a separate area for iMovie HD 6 ..but I'll still be happy to answer your questions!
1 - When audio is "extracted", the original clip is simply muted, and a copy of the original audio from it is pasted into a separate audio track below the video. Normally, you'd select an individual clip (or clips) from which to extract (Copy) the audio. If nothing specific is selected, then everything may be extracted.
2 - An external drive must be formatted as 'Mac OS Extended' or HFS+ for iMovie to be able to work with files stored there. It may be formatted in PC (Windows) FAT 32 format, and there may be a file size limit in that format which is incompatible with your Mac operating system. See this page of error codes, where "error -1309 fileBoundsErr: file's EOF offset mark or size is too big" ..that means that the End Of File marker is incompatible with what's being copied. Googling will find other info, such as this discussion, which prompts a handy reminder that your external drive must be connected by FireWire, not by USB, for you to be able to edit and play via the external drive: a USB connection isn't consistently fast enough for playing video.
3 - When you delete part of a clip, in iMovie HD (any version) all the rest of the material is still saved, in case you want to Undelete, or make other alterations which need still having access to the original material. [ This is part of the enhanced "non-destructive editing" which was recently introduced into iMovie. In previous versions, when you deleted something, it was irretrievable! ] That's why the full 10.66GB remains. You could 'Share' (Export) just that 26 sec clip to DV, then re-import it as a new clip, and you could then delete the entire original clip, thus regaining the full 10.66GB of space.
So it's not a premature release: it's a considered, robust, thoughtful release, which now incorporates several solid features which make it more reliable than some previous releases.
Once you get to know how - and why - it works the way it does, you may be glad that it does work as it does.
There are still some bugs in it - many to do with "rendering" ..the rewriting of adjusted video, particularly of adjusted still photos within iMovie - but don't judge it just on a quick first glance!
Hope you find it works for you ..it's a great program, I think.

Why Can't I Copy Files from an External Hard Drive or SD Card?

Major problem here... Why when I try copying files from an external hard drive or an SD card onto my internal iMac hard drive, it doesn't work? The status bar that pops up, shows that it completes the transfer of the files to 100%; however, when it does in fact finish, the files actually do not appear on my hard drive.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is one of many problems I have been finding with OS X Lion and am very much on the verge of going back to Snow Leopard.
Thank you.

Have u tried the usual? Safe boot. Delete finder plist files? etc. And the drives are formatted for mac yes?

Can my iMac boot from an external drive?

Once upon a time, I used Disk Utility, running from the DVD to make a copy of my iMac's internal drive. I also tried using Carbon Copy Cloner to do the same thing. But, I have never been able to get the iMac to recognize the external drive as a boot drive. I just wanted to have a backup that would launch when the internal drive tanks... as it will, one day.

Yes. If you did it right then to boot from the clone:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
      "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the clone's disk icon.
5. Click the arrow button on the far right.
To make the clone:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Can spotlight search for files in external drives?

I was wondering If I can index my hard drives so that when I do a search in spotlight, they show up along with the files in my primary drive.
Is this possible?

Yes, but due to connection reliability of external drives, and the constant background noise that is required to keep the index up to date on them, I turn it off for external drives. I use File Buddy or Easy Find to find files on external drives.

Finder can't find / display files in external drive

Just upgraded to Lion on my MacBook, and Finder can't find / display files from my external thumb drive. I got message that the external drive was removed incorrectly, but I did not remove the thumb drive at all. After several attempts on removing and inserting the thumb drive, the files just didn't show up under Finder, and I have no way of working on files from external drive. I went to a Window based notebook and checked, the files are still in my thumb drive so they have not been corrupted, hopefully. How can I make Finder works with external drive in Lion ?

The problem I have was finally resolved by having a "clean" install for Lion, meaning to back up your hard disc, re-install Snow Leopard, then Lion. It's a lot of work but my MacBook is now working.

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.

Why can't I copy files from my external hard drive - error code -50.

I sm trying to back up an external hard drive to a network drive. Some files copy but not all;. SOmetimes a folder seems to have copied but then I see that most of the files inside have not. And sometimes I just get 'An unexpected error has occurred'. Error code - 50.
I need to have a back up copy of the files on this hard drive. How can I stop this happening and copy files properly and securely?
The external hard drive is a LaCie bought from Apple, share formatted FAT32.
The network drive is a WD MyBookLIve Duo which WD tell me should work equally well with any operating system.
Please advise. I need to archive a security copy of this data urgently
John Wood

Have u tried the usual? Safe boot. Delete finder plist files? etc. And the drives are formatted for mac yes?

Back To My Mac: why can't I copy files between Macs?

I use Back To My Mac to connect between a Mac Book Pro and Mac Pro. These two machines have the same home directory name, but different passwords. My home network is on an Apple Airport Extreme.
A recent, persistent bug is causing havoc when I try to copy files between computers. Here is what happens:
1. I connect to the Mac Pro remotely from the MBP, using my Apple ID credentials.
2. Using a finder window on my Mac Book Pro, I try to copy a file TO the Mac Pro desktop that I'm certain doesn't already exist there. A "Preparing to copy" window appears.
3. After a few moments, a window appears: "Finder wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this." Again, I've already entered my Apple ID to connect to the Mac Pro. This window requires my Mac Book Pro sign-in in order to continue.
4. The next message is 'A newer item named “FileName.pdf” already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the older one you’re moving?'
Here are the results of my options from this dialog:
>>If I choose 'Keep Both Files':
-- A progress window appears (saying something like "copying 0 of 108 kb", but without any progress bar movement). I click the X button to stop the transfer, the progress window changes to "stopping" status, but remains on the screen for several minutes. My Mac Pro is unresponsive/unreachable via BTMM during this time.
-- After several minutes, the file transfer progress window disappears and my Mac Pro becomes available again via BTMM. There are now several THOUSAND numbered copies of the original. Each is 0 kb in size.
>>If I choose 'Replace':
-- A progress window appears, quickly followed by this message: 'The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “” already exists.' The message appears exactly as written, without the filename between the quotes.
-- A file with the same name as the one I tried to copy over is now on the Mac Pro desktop, but it is 0 kb in size.
I'm lost -- not sure if this is a permissions issue, a problem w/ BTMM, or something else. Any input, advice, questions, etc. are very welcome.
Thanks

I'm having the exact same issue, did you find a solution. It's annoying!

Why can't a copy files?

What is error code -36?
Is there something wrong when I can't copy files over in one massive copy? I drag and drop individual files and they copy. Do a whole bunch and something will stop it saying, unable to copy "title" to "hard drive" because you don't have read/write error code -36.
Please help

Try starting up Disk Utilities and running "repair permissions" on the drive you are copying from, David.
( I'm assuming you have administrative privileges on the computer concerned).
What sort of files are they that you are trying to copy?
Cheers
Rod

Error when copying file to external drive

I am trying to copy an ISO file to an external drive. the ISO mounts with TOAST Titanium and the external drive is recognized works fine.
the error says:
Sorry, the operation could not be completed becasue an unexpected error occured. (Error code 0)
is there anything i can do to get around this?
thanks

I think the problem may be in trying to copy an ISO file format. Why don't you convert it to a .dmg in Toast and then try copying?
-mj

Help copying files from external drive to another external drive

I'm trying to backup the files I have on an external drive and this has turned into ****, I feel I'm a Windows user all over again.
First I tried to encrypt an external drive, just as I've encrypted several others. The solution was to pay for a new OS (10.8.2).
Now I'm trying to drag/drop the files from the old external drive to the new one (Seagate 3TB) and I get this message:
"The operation can’t be completed because the selection contains both backup items and non-backup items."
In a discussion somebody said "Use SuperDuper". I downloaded it but it's an app to make exact backups. I don't want this, I just want to copy files just as I've done in years.
If someone can help me, I'd like to know:
1. What does that message mean? The selection was the files in the old drive. Both backup items and non-backup items?????
2. How can I simply drag and drop the files as I've done all my life?
* I DON'T WANT A BACKUP APP, I DON'T WANT TO BUY APPS FOR SOMETHING SO SIMPLE AS COPYING FILES, SOMETHING THAT A MAC SHOULD DO.
Please advice.
Thank you.

Hi,
in PowerShell copy is an alias to the Cmdlet Copy-Item. A parameter "NewOrNewer" does not exit. You have to create your script that meets of your needs.
Have a look on the CmdLet Copy-Item
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849793.aspx
I hope that helps you.

R&R backup on my external drive... can't reach preloaded files on external drive

Hi forum - hope that you can help me here:
I created a R&R on my external drive, which already contains all my files and documents from the last 2-3 years.
It installed the R&R succesfiully, but now when I connect the external HDD, I can only see the R&R cbd-drive files and not see any of all my folders and files that I had on the hard drive.
I didnt see any thing about R&R would delete existing files and the drive... how do I roll back in order to access my old files?..
really hope that you can help me, as the files are of great importance.
thank you in advanced!

so the same thing just happened to me on my brand new lenovo x220. what a complete disaster.
I saved the recovery media and boot onto my existing external hard-drive and it erased everything else, including video too big to have saved anywhere else. I very carefully read every single panel that came up and read all the instructions in the user guide pdf. there was nothing that even hinted at loss of all my other data. boo, lenovo.
it seems this might be a good place for improvement as no other file added to an external hard drive would be expected to erase all existing files. this is an unexpected result and no logical warning is given in either the user guide or during the backup. what's worse, I can't make another copy of the media.
can I even use my external hard drive anymore or is it now as useless?
the program allowing me instant backup, etc is also erased. wow.

Can no longer copy files between internal drives or from burned DVD's

This just started today as far as I can tell. We have 4 dual 2.7GHz G5's running 10.4.4. Two of them seem to work as normal. The other two won't let me drag/copy files from one of the internal drives to the desktop or the other internal.
We have two internal drives, the one with OSX on it that works fine as in I can copy/drag files to the other internal drive (labeled "AV") or to the desktop. The AV drive won't let me copy/drag any files to the desktop or the other internal, I get the circle with a line through it. Also when I burn a DVD I can't copy/drag the files anywhere on any drive. If I put a previously burned disk (burned prior to today) in I can copy it fine to any drive.
I have verified/repaired all disks, repaired permissions, and checked read&write permissions.
Any help?

OK, I figured it out (I'll admit to being a Mac n00b). I was using DVD+R's. So the act of trying to copy files from a DVD+R (even though it was burned in the same G5) changes something in the drives so nothing on them will copy.
Ejecting the DVD+R and restarting without the disk in it got it back to normal. The problem was reproduced when I tried the DVD+R again (just to confirm the issue and solution). Again a restart fixed it.
Moral of the story, don't use DVD+R in Macs even though they can burn to them.
Anyway, if anything hope this post can help other n00bies.
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

New To Mac, How to move/copy files from external drive

Just got my first Mac computer. My music files (about 140 gb) are on an external drive.
When setting up iTunes the process of transfering and organizing the files took over 24 hours--more than twice as long as on my old PC.
I would like to keep the files on the Mac itself. I have plenty of space now, and I think not using an external drive improves performance. Then I could use the hard drive as a back-up, as nature intended.
Problem is, due to my inexperience with Macs I'm stumped as to how to do this.
Any suggestions would be greatly aprecciated!

I believe you would simply copy your iTunes Music folder from your external drive into the main iTunes folder on your Mac, then open Preferences, and in the Advanced section use the 'Change' button next to eh 'iTunes music folder location' window to find your copy of the iTunes Music folder and let your Mac know that's where all your tunes are.
That's pretty much the exact reverse of what I had to do!
Hope that helps (and isn't wrong)!

Why can't iMac copy files to external drive?

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