Unable to copy–and–paste files from DVD to anywhere

Thanks for your suggestions, BDAqua.

Read & Write permissions for the 2TB RAID and the Desktop were already set to Read & Write for [user]. I have also tried copy–and–pasting (and drag–and–dropping) with permissions for “Everyone” and “Staff” also set to Read & Write. Problem persisted.

I have used Disk Utility to create multiple New Images of the source DVDs with image formats set to ‘compressed’, ‘read/write‘ or ‘read–only‘… and yes, the DMGs mounted successfully, their contents were readable — however problem persists.

You say “strange”, I say #@$%ing machines!

DMGs were created via Disk Utility:

• they mounted successfully
• their contents could be read
• but their contents could not be copy–pasted or drag–dropped anywhere.

I don't know how to look for those directories, so I did a Terminal —

ls -la / | grep tmp

— and got this:

Since this was not the expected reply (per http://support.apple.com/kb/TA21161), I did —

sudo ln -s /private/tmp /tmp

— and entered the administrator password with no problems or error messages experienced.

In the same session, I did another —

ls -la / | grep tmp

— and (still) got this:

For the heck of it, I ran a Disk Utility Repair Permissions, then replicated the above Terminal commands.

No luck unfortunately, BDAqua.

Did the following:

1. Show hidden files

Did the terminal command as above.

Force Relaunched Finder.

All the hidden files appeared.

The root directory had a /tmp shortcut which pointed to /private/tmp.

Created a new folder (“untitled folder”) on the Desktop and —

2. Set up new user account

Created a new user account (“test”) with Administrator privileges.

Switched to the new user account.

Created a new folder (“untitled folder”) on the Desktop and —

3. Check Desktop info

Navigated to user root directory.

Selected Get Info for Desktop folder:

Could copy or move files around HD but could not copy files from DVD to HD.

The DVDs were burned with Toast as Data discs formatted to be readable by both Mac and PC. They're not encrypted.

A Get Info on a sampling of the DVDs show that both the discs’ and their contents’ privileges are set to Read & Write for the ‘[user] (Me)’, and Read Only for ‘Staff’ and ‘Everyone’.

Case Sensitive <—> Case Insensitive: I have no idea, sorry. For what it’s worth, the Powerbook's HD is formatted “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.

I successfully copied all files from one DVD via Terminal as follows:

1. opened Terminal window
2. typed “cp ”
3. drag–dropped a file on the DVD to the Terminal window (a green ‘+‘ symbol appeared!) whereupon the long path– and file–name appeared in the Terminal window
4. drag–dropped a folder (“untitled folder”) from the Desktop to the Terminal window whereupon its corresponding path– and file–name appeared in the Terminal window
5. pressed ‘Return’ button
6. when the “[USER]: ~ [user]:” prompt appeared, repeated steps 2.–5. above for all remaining files on the DVD.

After the above Terminal session, I tried drag–dropping and copy–pasting from the same DVD to a new Desktop folder (“untitled folder 2”) but with no success.

Emboldened, I inserted another DVD and copied its contents via Terminal as follows:

1. opened Terminal window
2. typed “cp ”
3. highlighted all files on DVD and drag–dropped this selection in the Terminal window
4. drag–dropped a folder (“untitled folder 2”) to the Terminal window
5. pressed ‘Return’ button

— and HOT **** it worked.

Because the Powerbook HD is a measly 80GB, I have also successfully cp–ed files from the DVD straight to the relevant 2TB RAID directory.

I can work with this for now — thank you, BDAqua.

Not to be ungrateful but… Any idea why the command line works but the upper–level–thingie doesn't? And how I could fix it? (Doing stuff in Terminal makes me nervous.)

Again: thanks heaps for all your help 🙂