Error code -36

HI,

This is a Permissions related error.

Highlight the Drive/disk on the Desktop and then do a Get Info (CMD + i keys together)

This pic of a Firewire drive (partition actually) shows the tick box at the botton about ignoring Ownership

You may need to unlock the Padlock and change this to being ticked so that you can Write to it

It is most likely showing it is Owned by the original Admin account (in this pic "ralph (Me)" )

9:32 pm Monday; February 24, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

I'm having the same problem, trying to copy files to a friend's external HDD. It's formatted "Mac OS Extended", connected via FW 800. I've copied stuff from my MacBook to this drive before, but the last time was several months ago. Now, attempting to copy anything results in the annoying error mentioned above.

I've run Disk Utility on the drive; it checks out with no errors. I have read & write privileges on the drive, and the "ignore ownership on this volume" box is ticked. Any ideas?

(Mavericks 10.9.2)

Message was edited by: JRob_MN (added OS information)

Hi,

I take it this is a drive that you are moving between the two of you ?

If you are trying to Write to a particular folder on that Drive then check you have Write Permissions to that folder.

8:04 pm Wednesday; May 7, 2014

Yes; I have write permissions on the drive. I created the folder, and have write permissions there, too.

Humm,

That looks the same as mine.

Any chance the files you are moving are more than the 31+Gb that is left on that Drive ?

8:18 pm Wednesday; May 7, 2014

In my experience, -36 errror is a hardware error.

An I/O error almost always means disk damage (hard drive, optical drive, CD). You probably have a bad disk. Try running Disk Utility > Repair Disk. Disk Utility can be found in Applications/Utilities.

If you can boot into the Recovery Drive, you can run Repair Drive using Disk Utility.

Another option is to try running this Utility on the drive.

http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php

That's the first thing I thought of -- so I tried dragging a 50MB file over; same result.

I saw a lot of posts from many years about about the .ds_store (and other dot-prefixed) files causing troubles. I tried the fix recommended online, also with no success.

The OSX Disk Utility says that the disk is fine. Ran "repair disk" anyhow, and it confirmed its initial assessment. That SMART utility doesn't appear to see the external HDD. When I run it, all it'll tell me is that my internal HDD is fine.

Hi,

The . prefix only makes the file invisible (on a Mac).

However sometimes the .Trash linked to a volume such as an external drive can be quite large.

Basically you can drag a file from an External drive and place it in the Trash.

Most of the time this is fine but in reality it is actually in a hidden folder called Trash on the drive itself.

We can then get very stuck about who and when things may have been moved to the Trash and whether you can Empty the current one.

As you can see from your Get Info pic You appear to be the current Owner (despite the Ignore being set).

This may mean you can't empty the Trash set up by another Computer and the the User there.

8:50 pm Wednesday; May 7, 2014

You only need to worry about the drive that contains the file you are trying to copy.

Is it possible to open the file and do a "save as" then see if the copy can be dragged over?

I've seen this with files before. They will open but you cannot save as or duplicate the file. The corruption is in the file or the blocks where the file is written.

Hi,

Another option might be to Save As to the Drive you want it to be on.

9:37 pm Wednesday; May 7, 2014