PowerBook G4 ?

[xtempo]

I can't copy or move things in Leopard. The error I get is "there is not enough free space"

Does anyone know or think the PB is failing or would it be Leopard having the problem? I have run permissions and disk repair but it did not eliminate the problem.

On a side note it is kinda getting harder to turn on but I don't know if that has anything to do with not moving or copying files.

thanks for the help.

 

[DeltaMac]

I should ask the question:
Do you have enough free space on the hard drive?

 

[eyoungren]

I should ask the question:
Do you have enough free space on the hard drive?

^^^This!

@xtempo General rule of thumb is to leave about 15-20% of the total capacity of the hard drive available. Say you have a 100GB HD. That's 15-20GB of free space you need to leave open. If you have less than a GB or so then you leave no room for the operating system to function properly.

 

[xtempo]

I'm sorry I forgot to mention Yes I have enough space and also the files on the computer can't be moved to the desktop or other folder. Also I can't copy or move them onto a USB drive that has space.

 

[AphoticD]

I would try running Onyx first, let it check the SMART status and then run through the maintenance and clean up scripts.

It could be hard drive failure if you are also having trouble booting. Are you getting any I/O errors in your system log? (Check with the Console app in Utilities).

The next step would be to backup, erase and reinstall. If you still have trouble, then go all the way and replace the aging HDD with an SSD. Go for a 64GB mSATA SSD for the best performance boost. It will bring a fresh breath of life back into your PowerBook.

I had the original hard drives in both my PB 12" and PB 17" fail last year, so I replaced them with SSDs. It could be just a typical usage end of life for these devices.

 

[TC_GoldRush]

My IBM was doing the same thing a few months before the HDD failed completely. I'd check the status of the HDD and make sure there are 0 bad sectors!

 

[xtempo]

I couldn't find any I/O errors though I don't know what they look like to be certain. I got QL errors and name errors. Also Onyx didn't find any problems. I should add I can't burn anything to disc since the file can't be read. I do think I should probably update this with a new drive but I'll have to do that down the road as its not as important now.
[doublepost=1518018773][/doublepost]

My IBM was doing the same thing a few months before the HDD failed completely. I'd check the status of the HDD and make sure there are 0 bad sectors!

how would I check the status of the HDD?

 

[TC_GoldRush]

lol not sure, that's why I wasn't able to detect anything wrong with my IBM until it died.

 

[zappaesque]

I can't copy or move things in Leopard. The error I get is "there is not enough free space"

Does anyone know or think the PB is failing or would it be Leopard having the problem? I have run permissions and disk repair but it did not eliminate the problem.

On a side note it is kinda getting harder to turn on but I don't know if that has anything to do with not moving or copying files.

thanks for the help.

Would this be an aluminum Powerbook G4? I ask because I had the same issue, and it turned out that my lower ram slot was failing, causing this problem. I removed the lower slot ram and it went away, but unfortunately, no more lower slot ram.

 

[xtempo]

Yes the aluminum one. Only one slot is usable as far as RAM goes since the lower one failed a long time ago.
I was able to use Target disk mode luckily I had a firewire cable at hand.

The whole thing might be failing as its old and was possibly heavily used before I got some years ago.

 

[pl1984]

I couldn't find any I/O errors though I don't know what they look like to be certain. I got QL errors and name errors. Also Onyx didn't find any problems. I should add I can't burn anything to disc since the file can't be read. I do think I should probably update this with a new drive but I'll have to do that down the road as its not as important now.
[doublepost=1518018773][/doublepost]
how would I check the status of the HDD?

You might try the Apple Service Diagnostics CD:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/i-guess-it-just-wasnt-meant-to-be.2103077/page-2#post-25778742

I've run it on three of my PowerBooks and it found no errors so I don't know how reliable it is (I know one of the systems has a bad hard disk but it reported that drive passed the diagnostics).

 

[zappaesque]

Ok I was mistaken. I did a little research on this problem, as it bugged me that I couldn't remember exactly what caused it, and found an old blog post that described a solution. It all came back to me- it's due to a bad disk mount. I followed the instructions in the following post and it fixed the problem.

Here is the post:

"I figured it out!

The problem is caused by a bad mount. When a mount process fails, the system automaticly create a mount and saves the data under /Volumes/NAME_OF_THE _MOUNT.

So, what I did was only to delete this directory (with ´sudo rm -rf /Volumes/NAME_OF_THE _MOUNT´), and boom, my free space was back again!"

NAME_OF_THE_MOUNT is the name of your hard drive, or the name of an external drive that was badly mounted.

 

[xtempo]

that worked. thanks!

 

[AphoticD]

Ok I was mistaken. I did a little research on this problem, as it bugged me that I couldn't remember exactly what caused it, and found an old blog post that described a solution. It all came back to me- it's due to a bad disk mount. I followed the instructions in the following post and it fixed the problem.

Here is the post:

"I figured it out!

The problem is caused by a bad mount. When a mount process fails, the system automaticly create a mount and saves the data under /Volumes/NAME_OF_THE _MOUNT.

So, what I did was only to delete this directory (with ´sudo rm -rf /Volumes/NAME_OF_THE _MOUNT´), and boom, my free space was back again!"

NAME_OF_THE_MOUNT is the name of your hard drive, or the name of an external drive that was badly mounted.

Awesome fix @zappaesque ! A good technique to know. Also, on the mention of faulty RAM, I have seen this kind of thing on one of my G5s, it would occasionally bug out on file copies and booting every now and then and it turned out to be failing RAM slots. ASD was able to confirm a fault and every time I tried a different RAM module it would repeatedly fail until I eventually just decided to leave two (out of 8) slots empty and it passed with flying colours.

@xtempo it might be worth backing up, reformatting and doing a clean install now that it's working again.

 

[xtempo]

I suppose I will do a clean install luckily Leopard isn't packed away.

 

[DeltaMac]

I also think that this might be a good situation where reinstalling the 10.5.8 combined updater might help, as it will assure that correct files are in the right locations, as part of that updater install. It's something that you should try. If it does help, then it would mean that you don't need to go as far as a clean install of the whole system.
AND, if that combo updater doesn't help, then reinstalling Leopard, choosing the archive & install option, is also a likely fix for your issues. That's the first reinstall that would mean that you have to reinstall about a dozen updates, including the combo updater. It's NOT a clean install, but it does an internal backup and restore to save all your documents and settings - meaning that you can get it done without needing to backup everything first.
I expect that one of those installs will get you all working again. Either one would take less than an hour or little longer to complete. A clean install, including backup and full restore, would usually take a good bit longer, I think, and may not be necessary for your situation.

 

[xtempo]

Since I do not have much on it. I decided to a clean install. It won't take too long to get everything back to the way it was. updating might take the longest after reinstallation.

 

[xtempo]

Did seem to lose some things like gauges like tempter and other proccesses in the menu bar but all seems to be good. its updating now.