HT5096: Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive

Learn about Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
James H. Zisch, III

Q: How to overcome a error -50 when performing copy to new drive?

When moving a time machine backup database from an old drive to a new drive apparently some components of the old backup database is causing an error -50.  This has been encountered in the past and has been thought to be associated with possibly items marked as write protected, however, since the actually item that triggers this failure is not easily identifiable it is difficult to determine precisely what the cause is.  Any suggestions?

Posted on Mar 30, 2013 6:56 AM

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Q: How to overcome a error -50 when performing copy to new drive?

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  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 30, 2013 7:28 AM in response to James H. Zisch, III
    Level 8 (49,737 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2013 7:28 AM in response to James H. Zisch, III

    That error can occur if there is an i/o error, either reading from or writing to the disk. Run disk utility and make sure both are ok.

     

    Another option might be copying with the command line as indicated in this article:

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

     

    Besides cp there is also ditto. Both have options to control what and how they copy, so you may want to find a tutorial on how to use them effectively.

     

    Also, see here for possibility of illegal characters in file names:

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4412045?tstart=0

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Mar 30, 2013 8:17 AM in response to James H. Zisch, III
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Mar 30, 2013 8:17 AM in response to James H. Zisch, III

    Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.

    Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions.

  • by Steve Oakley,

    Steve Oakley Steve Oakley Oct 18, 2014 6:08 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 18, 2014 6:08 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I had -50 errors and not being able to write to 2TB SATA drive installed in optical drive bay adapter in MBP.

     

    drive worked ok the first 2 days it was in. I tried all of the above as far as software fixes including power downs with no luck in getting it to go away. playing a hunch about the other post on a bad cable, I changed out the optical bay adapter for a new one, problem fixed.   so redoing connections, swapping cables out could be the fix when all else fails...

  • by Lazaro207,

    Lazaro207 Lazaro207 May 16, 2016 3:35 PM in response to Steve Oakley
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 16, 2016 3:35 PM in response to Steve Oakley

    I can not thank you enough for your post Steve as it helped me pinpoint the issue with my setup.

     

    I was having the same exact problem with a new 2TB SATA in an optical drive bay adapter for my Macbook Pro 2011 using El Capitan. If I tried to erase, copy or move files, etc. I would get an error -50. I replaced the 2TB with my old 512GB SATA drive in the optical drive bay adapter and everything worked again. This gave me the idea to install the 2TB in place of my SSD drive and I moved the SSD drive to the optical bay drive adapter and now everything is working perfectly.

     

    I wonder if the problem is due to a less than ideal chipset in the optical drive bay adapter. Did you use a different brand of optical drive bay adapter than what you originally had, Steve? I wonder if something like the MCE Technology Optibay Extreme adapter (http://tinyurl.com/hhkh5ov) would work.