Data Transfer Stalls when transferring large amounts...can't figure this out. Help?

[MacAztec]

Here's the story: I purchased the 2011 MacBook Pro, and when I first fired it up, I hooked it up with my old MacBook pro (via. Firewire) to copy everything over. I've never done this before, and I figured Apple had perfected the process (I usually reinstall EVERYTHING).

After thinking about it for a few days, I decided I'd rather start with a clean slate, reinstall the OS, the apps, and transfer my personal files over. So, I plugged in my Western Digital 500GB FW800 Drive, and attempted to copy over my Home folder.

Every. Single. Time I try to copy over the files, the procedure stalls. It happens anywhere from .5GB to 5GB in, out of about 150GB.

I've repaired permissions on the current MacBook Pro (which surprisingly, repaired a LOT of things, when it never, ever did on my older MBP). I've reformatted the external drive. I've even had Western Digital send me a new drive because I thought the old one was the problem.

I still can't figure this out.

Can anyone help me?

 

[r0k]

Here's the story: I purchased the 2011 MacBook Pro, and when I first fired it up, I hooked it up with my old MacBook pro (via. Firewire) to copy everything over. I've never done this before, and I figured Apple had perfected the process (I usually reinstall EVERYTHING).

After thinking about it for a few days, I decided I'd rather start with a clean slate, reinstall the OS, the apps, and transfer my personal files over. So, I plugged in my Western Digital 500GB FW800 Drive, and attempted to copy over my Home folder.

Every. Single. Time I try to copy over the files, the procedure stalls. It happens anywhere from .5GB to 5GB in, out of about 150GB.

I've repaired permissions on the current MacBook Pro (which surprisingly, repaired a LOT of things, when it never, ever did on my older MBP). I've reformatted the external drive. I've even had Western Digital send me a new drive because I thought the old one was the problem.

I still can't figure this out.

Can anyone help me?

What do you mean "procedure stalls?" Do you get a message about permissions? What version of OS X are you running? I have seen this but I remember it happening a lot more frequently on older versions of OS X. What happens is it creates a file on the target disk and before the copy begins, the file gets marked locked so the copy stops and you get a dialog telling you about the file you cannot write to. Another issue that crops up is permissions in the files you are copying from. Repairing permissions does not solve this.

Be very very careful doing what I am about to suggest.

1. Go to Macintosh HD, browse to your home folder.
2. Right click/control click and pick "get info".
3. Browse to the bottom and expand "sharing and permissions".
4. Make sure everything is readable and writable by you and even if it is, uncheck writable then check it again.
5. Click the gear and pick "apply to enclosed items" and voila, the next time you try to copy, unless a file gets locked on the disk you are copying to, you should be all set.

The disk you are copying to is OS X format (HFS), not fat 32 right? Sometimes that is a factor when it comes to problems copying large blocks of files.

 

[dhoerl]

Workarounds

Well, it could be a whole bunch of stuff. Did that drive pass a "Disk Utility" verify drive?

Workarounds:

1) use Disk Utility's "block copy" feature (google around) - essentially you use "Restore Volume" with erase checked and copy the whole volume to another volume (which must be the same or larger size). Then delete what you don't need.

2) Re-install the OS on the new machine, put your old machine in "Target Mode", then use Migration Assistant to get your old files. Not clear if this is what you did or not. My personal experience with this is fantastic - always works, gets everything, and I have working complex apps that I've moved about a half dozen times.

There are a bunch of reasons for Finder failures - files that have a corrupted block, missing links, permission issues, etc. Sometimes you get alerts other times no.

Good luck