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Level 1

1 points

operation can't be completed because an item of same name already exist

Hi, my first post. I've search the net for similar problems but nothing exact.

I have a Maxtor OneTouch 4 (1TB)that just returned cos I got it exchanged. While it was being exchanged, I used a Maxtor OneTouch (640GB). I had transferred everything from my 1TB to the 640GB.

Now that the 1TB's back, I want to transfer everything back. But when I try to transfer anything from the 640GB to the 1TB, an error message appears saying "operation can't be completed because an item "(of same name)" already exist."

After I click OK on the error message, only the folder gets copied over to the 1TB but NONE of its contents.

This only happens when I transfer folders. If I were to transfer individual files, e.g a picture, it's successful.

Things that do work:
- transferring files and folders from computer to both HDDs
- transferring files and folders from either HDDs to computer

So the only problem is transfers between both HDDs.

I read some thread that repairing permissions might help but when I enter Disk Utility, "Verify Disk permissions" or "Repair Disk Permissions" are both greyed out.

Does anybody have experience with this problem? Please help, the 640GB is exploding!

Thanks in advance!

Macbook (white), Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 12, 2009 10:13 AM

Best reply

iBerzerker

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Mar 30, 2017 3:51 PM

Hello, I'm Dragon Berzerk.

There is a problem when you copy files from a Mac to a NTFS Disk, after time when you connect any NTFS Drive to a Mac, macOS make an index to entire disk, (When you can write a NTFS disk on macOS) so macOS make the invisible .DS_Store file type.

There is the problem the .DS_Store have a bug or something in NTFS file system…

The solution is on Terminal.

Open up Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal or press command + space and type "Terminal")
On Terminal type: cd
After cdpress space bar, drag and drop your folder you wish to copy into Terminal window. Hit enter/return

Like this example:

User-Mac-Pro:~ User$ cd /Volumes/SpecialDisk/Not\ is\ P0rn

4. Now type: find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete

Would be look like this example:

User-Mac-Pro:Not is P0rn User$ find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete

5. Press Enter… Wait some seconds.

6. Now in Finder close the window with your files and open it again, is just to update folders.

And thats all the .DS_Store files are deleted. Copy your files on Finder as normal.

macOS will create new correct .DS_Store into Mac Disk it's normal.

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134 replies

rob@asg

Level 1

14 points

Feb 19, 2010 4:18 PM in response to fhall1

A WORKAROUND for all issues like this and related, is to use the unix command "rsync" with the recursive "-r" switch.

so if i have 2 TB of data I want to copy from an xsan volume to an external drive, the ONLY way we've been able to do so (even if the external drive is HFS, brand new, freshly formatted OSX not case sensitive (in other words no good reason for the copy to NOT work simply using finder) is this:

rsync -r /Volumes/XSANMedia01/backthiscrapup /Volumes/ExternalDrive

this should at least help most of you.. please reply if you need assistance or use google or the man page for rsync! 🙂

in the meantime KEEP POUNDING APPLE on this ... it's absolutely ridiculous they support their stupid phone yet could care less about their enterprise professional customers who bought into the apple investment before the iphone became apples flagship product.

Feb 20, 2010 7:55 AM in response to rob@asg

rob@asg - This worked very well, and saved my day! Thank you.

Feb 21, 2010 8:55 PM in response to Jane Knox

this is one of the most annoying bug that I have encountered since I came back to the Mac OS environment. I can't believe Apple has NOT done anything to address this issue...

Feb 22, 2010 7:47 PM in response to subcrapper

I have just had this problem start but only with one of my gmail accounts and only after I created a Google Profile. Has anyone else seen the correlation?

sa_admin

Level 1

0 points

Feb 22, 2010 8:56 PM in response to subcrapper

So the 10.6.2 update introduced this unbelievable bad bug on NOVEMBER 9th, 2009. Several MONTHS later, no sign of a hotfix, patch or anything. And we can only hope that they will fix it in 10.6.3 after they took their sweet, sweet time with that (and hope they won't introduce something else with that one!!!)

If I had rolled out 10.6.2 at our institution where people work cross-platform daily, we would have been royally BLEEPED. As it is, I'm the one stuck with the infected machine and once again I have to shuffle files around on different Macs just so I can copy a friggin driver update onto a flashdrive (in FAT, of course) Or pay for a third-party Finder replacement...

It is simply beyond me how Apple could let something like this slip AND NOT FIX IT FOR MONTHS!!!

Message was edited by: sa_admin

Message was edited by: sa_admin; Typo, grammar

saz-jaz

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2010 5:38 AM in response to sa_admin

I'm having the same problem in backing up files from FAT32 formatted disk keys to a FAT32 formatted Seagate external harddrive. I've only noticed this being an issue since Jan 2010 and it's really frustrating! Apple - please fix this!

Errors I'm getting (depending on what I try to copy):
The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “XXX” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)
The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “XXX” already exists.

Jane Knox

Level 3

691 points

Mar 5, 2010 9:31 PM in response to subcrapper

Question for everyone watching this thread:

Are any of your files larger than 4gb?

I've been doing testing at home with a scratch external disk formatted to MS-DOS. I isolated my error to a single file that is larger than 4gb. I suspect that a Package larger than 4gb would also create an error.

Anyone? Feedback? Comments?

DrJD

Level 1

0 points

Mar 6, 2010 8:33 PM in response to V.K.

Fix this Apple!

sa_admin

Level 1

0 points

Mar 9, 2010 3:28 PM in response to Jane Knox

Jane Knox wrote:
Question for everyone watching this thread:

Are any of your files larger than 4gb?

I've been doing testing at home with a scratch external disk formatted to MS-DOS. I isolated my error to a single file that is larger than 4gb. I suspect that a Package larger than 4gb would also create an error.

If it is truly a single file (unlike a package, which outside of OS X is just a folder with a bunch of separate items) then the limitation is due to the filesystem (FAT32 aka MS-DOS on a Mac), not the current bug which is due to a bug in dealing with nested folders.

From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileAllocationTable#FAT32):
"The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte (232−1 bytes). Video applications, large databases, and some other software easily exceed this limit. Larger files require another formatting type such as NTFS."

Jane Knox

Level 3

691 points

Mar 9, 2010 3:38 PM in response to sa_admin

If it is truly a single file ... the limitation is due to the filesystem

Yep. I get that. I am doing some testing on a spare drive to see if I can isolate the bug. I'd like submit feedback to Apple to request better error reporting, but I need a clearer picture of the bug ..

😉

Mar 17, 2010 3:40 AM in response to Jane Knox

Just to add to the confusion, I am getting this error whilst attempting to copy (with Finder) a 300gb folder from a NAS drive (using the AFP protocol) to the "Pictures" folder on my iMac.

I kept getting this error message so decided to instead copy over sub-folders but I was still getting the error message even when I selected tiny sub-folders of around 10mb with only 20 image files (.jpg) inside.

This is REALLY annoying!

sa_admin

Level 1

0 points

Mar 18, 2010 7:09 PM in response to digitalrunner

rafsanchez wrote:
I kept getting this error message so decided to instead copy over sub-folders but I was still getting the error message even when I selected tiny sub-folders of around 10mb with only 20 image files (.jpg) inside.

Exactly. The problem seems to be very clearly related to a bug in dealing with folder structures. You can work around it by painstakingly creating one folder after/into another and then copying the files in there, one (sub)folder level at a time. Or use UNIX commands, or use a Finder alternative, or wait for 10.6.3 (hopefully).

This thread covers more or less the same issue:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2236391&start=15&tstart=0

Jane Knox

Level 3

691 points

Mar 29, 2010 11:55 AM in response to subcrapper

Download and install the 10.6.3 COMBO update. (released today) then reboot, open Disk Utility, run Repair Permissions. And that should solve your problem. Let us know if it works. 😉

Mar 29, 2010 5:10 PM in response to Jane Knox

No, it did not work. The 10.6.3 update did NOT solve the problem, we're still getting the error.

Jane Knox

Level 3

691 points

Mar 29, 2010 5:38 PM in response to Mitchell Smith

Mitchell wrote:

The 10.6.3 update did NOT solve the problem, we're still getting the error.

Thanks for the feedback, Mitchell. I suggest you contact Apple Support directly:
http://www.apple.com/support/expert/
Apple engineering will want to know there is still a problem that may (or may not) be specific to your installation. 😉

operation can't be completed because an item of same name already exist