Weird and urgent problem

[Blue Velvet]

I've bought some important work home tonight on a USB key, copied the project folder off onto the Mac, starting working on the Quark document.

Had to do some Illustrator work on some of the images and the files wouldn't open. Then after that, every time I tried to open the project folder, it causes Finder to freak out. And now I can't even open the USB key.

When I double-click on it, the window briefly flashes open and closes again, and nothing happens. No other folders or files on the Mac do this.

Are the files on the key corrupted somehow? Any way I can get these files off to start again?

Edit: Have managed to retrieve them by viewing the project folder in Column View. It won't open in List or Icon View. Rrrriiiight....

[Telp]

I believe if the files were corrupt the computer would notify you saying the content that you are trying to retrieve may be corrupt in some way, would you still like ______ to try and open the document, or something like that. Good job figuring that out. Best of luck.

[robbieduncan]

Sounds like something is a bit off in the files the Finder uses to track the view state. Close all the Finder windows. Open the Terminal (sorry).

Type:

cd /Volumes/

ls

You should now have a list of the mounted volumes. Work out which one is the stick (should be pretty obvious).

Type:

cd <volume name>

rm -f .DS_Store

Now try the Finder again.

[Blue Velvet]

cd <volume name>

rm -f .DS_Store


No such file or directory :(

[robbieduncan]

No such file or directory :(

Wow really? The the Finder did not write to the folder? Weird. If the file names are not something you worry about can you post the results of "ls -al" from the volume on the stick?

[Blue Velvet]

Wow really?

Really...

I've managed to get the files I need through Column View from the first lot I copied off and need to work on them straight away. I've moved them into a new folder I created on the desktop and they seem to be OK. I have to press on... Thanks Robbie. :)

[robbieduncan]

Really...

I've managed to get the files I need through Column View from the first lot I copied off and need to work on them straight away. I've moved them into a new folder I created on the desktop and they seem to be OK. I have to press on... Thanks Robbie. :)

OK. If I were you I'd try ejecting the key, rebooting and re-inserting before saving the files back to the key!

[Blue Velvet]

OK. If I were you I'd try ejecting the key, rebooting and re-inserting before saving the files back to the key!


Tried that already. Have rebooted about half a dozen times. Might just erase the key.

[robbieduncan]

Tried that already. Have rebooted about half a dozen times. Might just erase the key.

Sounds like it could be a good idea!

[PlaceofDis]

know that this might be a long shot...

but you could try to repair the disk in Disk Utility. its worked for me when my externald and thumb drives have acted up.