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Lion External Hard Drive (and flash drive) problem

S

sergey19

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 13, 2010
97
8
I recently installed Mac OS X Lion on my Macbook Pro. I plugged in my external hard drive and my computer recognized the HD and even let me access files on it. However, when I tried to copy a movie onto it, it gave me an error: "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003)." I decided to try a different file, the same thing happened. I tried a USB flash drive and the same thing happened. I checked the permissions for them and it says "you can read and write" so everything is fine there. If it helps the HD is formatted as "MS-DOS (FAT32)" and the USB stick is "MS-DOS (FAT16)".

I don't really know what to do because I have never had this problem on the same computer with Snow Leopard in the past (the only time I did was when the file was too big to copy onto it because of the formatting or something but it definitely isn't the case now).

PLEASE HELP!
 
Drives not recognized

At least your Mac see's the external drives. I have the new AirBook and a MBP both with Lion. The Air had preinstalled Lion on it. I can no longer 'see' the USB external HD's (1-1Tb and 1-500Gig). I plugged the 1Tb into my friends MBP (SL) and it reads the Drive fine. I've been searching for an answer. Looks like there needs to be some serious revisions to LION! Come on APPLE!
 
External Drive FIX

I called Apple Care and they had me reset the ERAM.

Shut down then turn it on. Hold the Cmd/Opt/R/P keys down while it boots. I heard two boot chimes (release after the second chime).

Seemed to work...

CMD/OPT/P/R
 
Perfect

This reboot mode is perfect, it correct the problem with 8003 error copying files from an external HD
 
GGJstudios said:
NVRAM, not PRAM, fyi.
Click to expand...

Wrong. Do your research.
Some information stored in PRAM includes:

* Time zone setting
* Startup volume choice
* Speaker volume
* Recent kernel panic information, if any
* DVD region setting

Note: Mac OS X stores your preselected DVD region choice in PRAM for easy access. Resetting PRAM does not allow you to change the DVD region.


Unlike prior versions of the Mac OS, Mac OS X does not store display or network settings in PRAM. If you experience a video or network issue, resetting PRAM will not help.

If PRAM is reset, you may need to verify your time zone, startup volume, and volume settings using System Preferences. Certain firmware updates may reset PRAM as a normal part of their installation process.

PRAM may also contain these items:

* Status of AppleTalk
* Serial Port Configuration and Port definition
* Alarm clock setting
* Application font
* Serial printer location
* Autokey rate
* Autokey delay
* Speaker volume
* Attention (beep) sound
* Double-click time
* Caret blink time (insertion point rate)
* Mouse scaling (mouse speed)
* Startup disk
* Menu blink count
* Monitor depth
* 32-bit addressing
* Virtual memory
* RAM disk
* Disk cache

Next time you go to correct someone be sure you know what you are saying.
Hitting that combo resets both. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
 
StevenMeyer said:
Wrong. Do your research.
Click to expand...
I have done my research. You might want to do the same:
Your Mac stores certain settings in a special memory area even if it is turned off (unless there is a battery issue as described below). On Intel-based Macs, this is stored in memory known as NVRAM; on PowerPC-based Macs, this is stored in memory known as PRAM.
Click to expand...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1895#
The OP is running an Intel-based Mac, so it's NVRAM.
 
sergey19 said:
I recently installed Mac OS X Lion on my Macbook Pro. I plugged in my external hard drive and my computer recognized the HD and even let me access files on it. However, when I tried to copy a movie onto it, it gave me an error: "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003)." I decided to try a different file, the same thing happened. I tried a USB flash drive and the same thing happened. I checked the permissions for them and it says "you can read and write" so everything is fine there. If it helps the HD is formatted as "MS-DOS (FAT32)" and the USB stick is "MS-DOS (FAT16)".

I don't really know what to do because I have never had this problem on the same computer with Snow Leopard in the past (the only time I did was when the file was too big to copy onto it because of the formatting or something but it definitely isn't the case now).

PLEASE HELP!
Click to expand...

file to large for file format 4gb limit with FAT
 
shreydesai said:
you might have to re-install the entire FAT36 system
Click to expand...
First, it's a year-old thread.
Second, there is no such thing as FAT36.
Third, there's no such thing as a "FAT36 system"
Fourth, you don't have to reinstall any system.
 
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