Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

An unexpected error occurred (error code -50) when saving to ext HD.

I have an external USB Raid configured 2x3T config for a total of 3T of storage. It was working fine and now when I try to save to the hard drive I get: The operation can’t be completed. An unexpected error occurred (error code -50). Any suggestions? I have reset the PRAM, ran disk utility, restarted the computer, restarted the hard drive etc with no luck. Any suggestions would be appreciated because I cannot find any help on the internet.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Oct 8, 2012 7:35 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 8, 2012 9:53 PM

Hello,


enum {

paramErr = -50, /*error in user parameter list*/


Not too helpful by itself, but can mean an unacceptable character in a filename like...


? / \\ < > " | > *


when copying to a FAT32 formatted drive or using SMB for file transfer. Can also be a Permissions problem, usually on the receiving end, & in the old days could happen if a file had forks...


http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20831


If using Time Machine...


Error -50...


http://pondini.org/TM/C10.html


Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?


http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html



I can't imagine anything TMwise not covered.

29 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 8, 2012 9:53 PM in response to bomber136

Hello,


enum {

paramErr = -50, /*error in user parameter list*/


Not too helpful by itself, but can mean an unacceptable character in a filename like...


? / \\ < > " | > *


when copying to a FAT32 formatted drive or using SMB for file transfer. Can also be a Permissions problem, usually on the receiving end, & in the old days could happen if a file had forks...


http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20831


If using Time Machine...


Error -50...


http://pondini.org/TM/C10.html


Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?


http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html



I can't imagine anything TMwise not covered.

Oct 10, 2012 4:22 PM in response to bomber136

The hard drives are in a USB externa enclosure, set up as RAID 1 and are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I do not save any TM back ups to them and they work after a restart and then sometime later start to provide the error message anytime I try to save to them. A restart usually fixes the issue for a finite period of time. Disk Utility runs and tells me the disks are fine. I never have trouble accessing data from them.

Oct 24, 2012 2:39 PM in response to bomber136

I'm having the same issues saving a project or exporting from Final Cut Pro to an external drive. This drive is a G-Tech 2TB drive connected by FW800 (this drive also has the new USB3.0 port).


It also won't let me click-and-drag files to the drive anymore, but it will still let me read files and run projects from it. That made me think it was a permissions issue, and I tried applying Read and Write permissions to all items via cmd-i, which were already active. That didn't work, and neither did Disk Utility. This drive also has the curious habit of spinning down after 1-2 minutes of idling despite the Energy Saver panel selection "Put the hard disks to sleep when not in use" being unchecked. Not sure if the issues are related.


Anyone have some insight on the error "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)"?

Oct 26, 2012 9:49 PM in response to bomber136

I had this problem as well, and the only solution I've discovered is simple, but annoying. In System Preferences - Energy Saver, I had to enable OS X to put Hard Drives to sleep when possible (Checked the box).


The problem stemmed from my external drive spinning itself down after 5 minutes idle. Without allowing OS X to put my internal drive to sleep when possible, OS X was not playing well with my asleep external drive (as it doesn't expect drives to be asleep, I guess). Once asleep, my external drive became Read Only, as I could open files etc., but not copy, move, or delete files (No Writes). I couldn't even unmount the volume without "unplugging" the USB cable, triggering an error message.


With the Hard Drive asleep option enabled, OS X now plays well with my external drive. I wish I could disable that drive from sleeping, but obviously cannot (without "manually" preventing sleep through continued use, I guess).


As I run 10.8.2 on a 2.7Ghz/16Gb/768Gb Retina MBP, the performance hit due to enabling the HD sleep option is likely minimal (though I haven't actually investigated the issue), but still....


I guess if it becomes noticeable, I'll go back to pulling the cord on my external drive, but I don't want to damage it.


Hope this works for those with a similar problem.

Nov 28, 2012 3:26 AM in response to bomber136

I was having the same problem. I could not save anything ta any of my external HD´s. I could on save to online based strorage such as Dropbox. I tried different solutions suggested in different discussions. This seemed to be a widespread problem. One person was talking about changing SATA cables he used. I decided to try changing my fire wire cable, and voilà, everything was working as normal again!

Nov 28, 2012 8:30 PM in response to bomber136

Thanks, pip13. I just bought a new iomega 2TB drive and hooked it up, experienced this same error -50 right out of the box. Seemed like the drive was read only. I saw your post, and decided to try connecting the new drive to my iMac using the firewire cable that came with it from the factory, rather than the cable I initially used for connecting it, which was a cable from an older drive. That solved the problem!

Feb 20, 2013 7:13 AM in response to bomber136

This issue is maddening. I have two RAID enclosures, one from Rosewill and another from Vantech that both have this issue. I'm going to try running them both as JBOD and letting OSX do the RAID in software to see if that fixes anything.


Apple really needs to address this. Given the work around they offer below it seems they have no idea how to fix this.


http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20831

Feb 27, 2013 7:30 AM in response to adriandbr

Well that partially worked. In my Vantech enclosure this worked like a charm. I have 2x 2tb drives in there and I'm using Disk Utility to RAID them at RAID 1. On my Rosewill R2-JBOD I had initially tried to use their hardware RAID 0 solution with 2x 3tb drives which resulted in the -50 error. I then switched the enclosure to just mount the drives separately and used Disk Utility to RAID 0 them. This worked for a while and then I got the dreaded -50 error again. After a little research I found that this enclosure only takes drives up to 2tb so that may be the issue. I've got a couple 2tb drives laying around so I'll try those in there tonight and see what I get.


If you're using the R2-JBOD this may be the cause and depending on where this limitation sits it may be the issues for other devices that use the same RAID controller or chipset as well.

Jun 29, 2014 2:58 PM in response to bomber136

I had a similar problem, error -50 when trying to create new files within a 3TB G-drive on firewire connection. It was being treated like read only and would not eject.


I changed my energy saver mode to computer sleep 15 minutes (from never), and checked the box to have the hard drives turn off when possible. I also replaced the firewire cable. I don't know which solved the problem, but it's fixed now.

Nov 5, 2014 12:39 PM in response to inyoureyesphotog

OK, so I know I'm late to the party, but I too had this issue with a bunch of 2TB G Drives. Just when I was ready to give up, my IT guy says, hey…just reformat the drive and try again. So I opened up Disk Utility and went to change the partition….only I noticed a bizarre greyed out and unnamed partition on the partition map in addition to the 1 partition that was supposed to be there. I thought to myself, "No way…G Drive has some software on here that's messing with spin downs, etc." Well I went to change partition and it wouldn't let me. Wouldn't unmount the disk. So I force ejected it. It complained once with an error message and then I just chose Force Eject again. Once that happened I was able to repartition to a single partition, and the "mystery partition" is now gone and the drive works great. I did this with all the other G Drives we have (and they too had this mystery partition). Now they are all operating perfectly. I even was able to run an app called Keep Drive Spinning to tell the Mac to ping the drive every 60 sec to prevent spin down. Not sure if this is necessary now, but since I wasn't able to run that app when the mystery partition was on the drive and now I can…I figure that's a bonus. Good luck folks…hope this works for you too!


Ed

An unexpected error occurred (error code -50) when saving to ext HD.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.