error code -36

Welcome to Apple Discussions starwarsgirl!
Macs don't have problems from defragmentation like PCs do. For more on this info*:

http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html#DEFRAG

If yours should happen to work after a defrag, it suggests you are either using some very large files, or there is something wrong with the integrity of the data on your hard drive. I'd backup your data as my FAQ* explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

And try to discover what is going on if you have further problems. Please start a new topic thread here if you still have problems:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=751&start=0
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Message was edited by: a brody

Raymond,
Please read the entire thread for possible solutions. If you don't find a solution that applies to your problem, please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=751&start=0

You'll get a wider audience who can solve your problem, and won't confuse the original poster with solutions that don't apply to them.

Hello, I am convinced I am experiencing exactly the same problem. I also have a 500GB Western Digital hard drive (model WD5000AAKB) connected via an external FireWire enclosure (OtherWorldComputing Mercury Elite enclosure with Oxford911 chipset).

I have run Disk Utility on all my disks BEFORE the problem just to make sure the disks are OK. They all check out fine. When I try to do a large copy (~140GB) from my old 250GB FireWire (Maxtor) drive to the new drive, the copy always fails at a random location with Error -36. When this failure happens this Finder tends to lock up with a spinning beach ball. After rebooting, disk utility shows that the volume header on the new 500GB drive is corrupted. I can repair/repartition but the same thing will happen the next time I try a large file copy.

At first I thought this was a bad drive, but I have TWO brand new WD5000AAKB drives and they both do exactly the same thing. I don't think the drives are "bad", but it may be an incompatibility between the Western Digital drives and Mac OS X. I noticed that the people at

( http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-75119.html)

are having the same problem with Western Digital drives. Can we get Apple to take a look at this and see if it is in fact an incompatibility?

-Joe

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

The problem may be the Finder is only accessing your 32 bit chip on your CoreDuo and unable to go beyond 32 bit for file copying. Other software I mentioned earlier in the thread that runs as backup software handles such large file copies better. If you can't find a solution in this thread, please start a new topic thread here so someone can help you:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=751&start=0

You'll get a wider audience, and will be able to get more focussed attention that doesn't confuse the original poster of this thread.

I'm having a similar problem, minus the PC. I recently bought a 1TB WD drive that's a RAID of two 500 gig drives. I first attached the drive to my PowerBook G4 via FireWire 800. I have another WD 250 gig drive that I wanted to copy everything on to the 1TB drive. The 250 gig was via FireWire 400. When I first connected the bigger drive, Time Machine asked if I wanted to use it for my backup drive. I said yes, but later changed my mind, thinking I'd use the smaller drive for Time Machine and the bigger drive for backing up old photos and such.

Now, no matter how I connect the 1TB drive, it won't let me copy files to it. I've tried connecting it via FW800, FW400, FW400 bridged to the 250 gig drive, and FW800 to a PowerMac G5. I've reformatted the TB drive a few times, and even tried to write 0s to it. Sometimes it would say that the disk couldn't be dismounted, whatever that means, but most of the time it tells me "The Finder cannot compete the operation because some data in "......" could not be read or written. (Error code - 36)."

Sound like a similar problem?