External disk gets stuck Help!!!!!

[cpujol]

Hi,
Dont know if this is the correct forum .I search before posting this and non of the solutions helped me.
I have a macbook pro and a Lacie 250GB external hard drive with Apple _HFS partition type.
I have been using this external drive as my scratch disk for Final Cut, and suddenly some files that contain movie clips can not be accessed/copied/view or anything.
Im able to navigate, but when I try to do anything with those files I get : "The -application- cannot complete the opration because some date in -file name- could not be read or written (Error code -36)"

I run Disk Utility and says there is no error.
I run Disk warrior and it also does not find the error.
The disk sounds like it gets stuck and cannot go on reading.
I have all my imported clips there, have to restart proyect otherwise
Please any advice on what to do??
Thanks in advance.

 

[parapup]

Please any advice on what to do??

I have had a very similar issue - what I did was to get a new compatible firewire disk (Seagate), and use CCC to "Clone" the old disk to the new one. Worked for me.

But the bad part is the disk which gave problems in Mac OS X works absolutely great in Windows Vista. So I filed a bug with Apple - I would suggest you also do that so Apple is aware of the issue - the URL for reporting bugs is http://bugreport.apple.com and you just need a free Apple account.

 

[cpujol]

I will try to clone although dont have any available disk right now.
The thing is that I do have another Lacie exactly the same model and size and have not given me any trouble.

 

[parapup]

Another thing worth trying is to use FireWire cable instead of USB (or USB instead of FireWire if you are having problems with FireWire). May be also post the output of sudo dmesg in terminal when the error happens. That'll tell us what exactly is going on.

 

[cpujol]

Thanks for your time.
I tried using USB instead of firewire, no change. What is that sudo...?
Sorry Im new to forums but tried reading everthing before posting.

 

[parapup]

Hmm looks like the disk really has some problems then. In that case we will hopefully get some useful info as to what problem it has from the system logs. The "sudo dmesg" command prints out the system log messages. (I am assuming that you have already run Repair Permissions from the disk utility - if not try that first.)

Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and type "sudo dmesg" without the quotes. It will ask for your password - enter it and press enter. Select the printed lines and copy. Paste them here.

 

[cpujol]

Here it is:
sudo dmesg
hi mem tramps at 0xffe00000
PAE enabled
64 bit mode enabled
standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
vm_page_bootstrap: 512828 free pages
mig_table_max_displ = 71
Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes
95 prelinked modules
ACPI CA 20060421
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: ready
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorApicId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorApicId=1 LocalApicId=1 Enabled
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

using 10485 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes
Started CPU 01
IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87
ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
Security auditing service present
BSM auditing present
disabled
rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: E6F05D16-8E9C-471D-B374-397C447C6BDB
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
AppleYukon: 00000000,e00002bc PwrSavingsEED - failed to get EDGP
USB caused wake event (EHCI)
FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8025 built-in now active, GUID 0019e3fffe180322; max speed s800.
CSRHIDTransitionDriver:robe:
CSRHIDTransitionDriver::start before command
Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleAHCI/PRT2@2/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/Hitachi HTS721010G9SA00 Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme/Customer@2
BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
CSRHIDTransitionDriver::stop
IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
Jettisoning kernel linker.
Resetting IOCatalogue.
display: family specific matching fails
Matching service count = 0
Matching service count = 1
Matching service count = 1
Matching service count = 1
Matching service count = 1
Matching service count = 1
display: family specific matching fails
ath_attach: devid 0x24
Previous Shutdown Cause: 5
mac 12.10 phy 8.1 radio 12.0
yukonosx: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:c8:e5:2c
AirPort_Athr5424: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:ed:31:87
Registering For 802.11 Events
[HCIController][setupHardware] AFH Is Supported
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.
disk2s6: I/O error.

 

[gothamm]

Ok. This is freaky. I have the exact same problem and logged on to macrumors just to make a thread about it. And what do you know...


anyhow, I am getting the same error with a seagate external HD (error code -36)

I reformatted the drive 3 times.

1st time:

created 2 partitions (mac os extended [journaled] and FAT)

got same error -36 on both

2nd time

Reformatted to mac os extended (journaled) only....same erroe -36


3rd time:

Reformatted to FAT 32. Seems to work fine now. I just copied a vista image file onto the external, and it worked. The file size was 3.2 gb.

But this leaves the dilemma of how you can not copy files over 4 gb when formatted to FAT 32.


This is very frustrating and i couldnt find a solution.

 

[parapup]

disk2s6: I/O error.

Yep - the disk is really having problems. How old is the disk, is it still under warranty?

I would suggest to try and copy everything you can as soon as possible and get a replacement disk. I can suggest a few more things but I am afraid that all is going to be more of finding what is wrong than fixing it.

Since this is a USB disk I am not sure SpinRite will work on it to recover your data. May be ask the customer support people at GRC - if they say yes you can take a chance with $89 and let SpinRite try to recover your data. (It takes long time though).

 

[cpujol]

I copied already everything I could. What I miss from my project is the movie files. I can still open the defective files, so I can import from miniDVD all the video and simulate those files (more than 2 hours of video is going to be a pain) , and them try to reconnect the media again, which I have to do anyway since I moved everything.
I can only think of that solution, before starting all over.
I do think the drive is defective too, since I do have an identical harddrive that did not cause any problems and I worked with it for months.
This problematic drive has been varely used, but it has around a year.

i bought this drive because it has firewire 800, which is very useful for video editing. Are there better ones than Lacie???
Thanks again for support

 

[gothamm]

Yep - the disk is really having problems. How old is the disk, is it still under warranty?

I would suggest to try and copy everything you can as soon as possible and get a replacement disk. I can suggest a few more things but I am afraid that all is going to be more of finding what is wrong than fixing it.

Since this is a USB disk I am not sure SpinRite will work on it to recover your data. May be ask the customer support people at GRC - if they say yes you can take a chance with $89 and let SpinRite try to recover your data. (It takes long time though).

i dont think its the disk. My external HD is working perfectly on a windows computer, and has been for that past year. With deductive reasoning, I have concluded that its an OS X error.

 

[parapup]

i bought this drive because it has firewire 800, which is very useful for video editing. Are there better ones than Lacie???

I have lots of disks and Seagate has worked the best for me followed by Western Digital). You might want to try Carbon Copy Cloner after you get a new disk though - may be you'll get lucky and have all your data back.

 

[parapup]

i dont think its the disk. My external HD is working perfectly on a windows computer, and has been for that past year. With deductive reasoning, I have concluded that its an OS X error.

Did you have disk I/O errors in system log like the OP is having? I had exactly the same experience as you had - disk not working in OSX but working well in Windows but I did not had any disk errors.

 

[cpujol]

I will try the CCC since I was thinkig of buying another HD. I will check seagate for firewire 800 disks.
Do you want me to post the result of my CCC?? It wont happen until tomorrow or Tuesday.

 

[parapup]

Sure if you can let us know how the CCC clone went. Seagate or WD as far as I know doesn't have FireWire 800 (they have FireWire 400) - so you might have to go back to Lacie if that's the case. (I have heard that Lacie quality is not consistent as you are finding out - may be you'll get lucky this time around)

 

[cobbe1]

Don't waste your time

Get a Seagate external drive and CCC everything over. Save the data while you still can before the whole disk went south.

LaCie used to be my favorite (design) but I found out they used IBM (now Hitachit) DeathStar drive (at work, 2 500GB went bad in less then 6 months)! And that's a big NO NO.

Looking at the symptoms it's most likely the hard disk is going bad. Copy all your data off to another drive.

You can also check your receipt to see if you are still under warranty with LaCie, you might be able to get a replacement. But even so, I'll open it up and make sure it's not another Desk Star drive. if so, don't trust your critical data with it. Or if you are out of warranty then just buy a Seagate hard drive and put it in the LaCie enclosure.