External HD correctly formatted returns error

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Level 1

8 points

External HD correctly formatted returns error

Hi All,

I have got a WD External hard disk and it has been formatted correctly to Mac OS Extended Journaled.

I then transferred loads of files to it with no problems.

Today, I was doing the second back up session, and I tried to merge two files on the hard disk so I keep whatever on the hard disk PLUS the new stuff I am pasting.

However, I was stopped with an error message:

"The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code 0)."

This message means the external hard disk is formatted as FAT or FAT32 and therefore it shows this message when I am trying to transfer stuff bigger than 4GB.

But the hard disk is already formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled.

Any idea how to solve this issue? or why it is happening?

I am using High Sierra.

Posted on Mar 10, 2018 1:39 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 10, 2018 3:13 PM in response to dyski

Did you open Disk Utility to check the external drive's formatting? If it's formatted properly then the error does not mean it is formatted using FAT. Did you check to see how much data has already been transferred to the drive? Are you aware that you cannot merge "files." Only folders can be merged where new files will replace old ones.

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Answer 2

dyski Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2018 5:59 AM in response to Kappy

Hi Kappy,

Yes, I checked the external disk formatting in the disk utility and it says:

USB External Physical Volume • Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

There is 598.9 GB of data currently on the external hard disk.

This external hard disk includes folders identical to what I have on my MacBook Pro.

Like:

Documents

Music

Movies

Pictures

These folders and their contents were copied from the my laptop a month ago when I bought and formatted the external hard disk for back up purposes.

The other day I wanted to update that back up.

So I right clicked the "Pictures" folder on my laptop and clicked Copy.

Then on the external HD I clicked Paste.

Then a message appeared saying the following:

==============

An older folder named “Pictures” already exists in this location. Do you want to merge or replace it with the newer one you’re copying?

Merge will combine the two folders, preserving all the newer items such as “P1020325.JPG” and 1,087 other items.

==============

I clicked Merge, because I don't want to lose the contents on the external HD, I just want it updated with the new pictures.

But then, that error message appears:

"The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code 0)."

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 13, 2018 11:08 AM in response to dyski

I don't know much about the error other than it is an I/O error. This could mean a damaged file or it could mean a bad spot on the disk. I would check each folder to see if you can identify the file causing the error. Then try copying just that file to the folder. Sometimes the Finder has problems transferring a large number of files, thus, generating an error. If this isn't possible then I suggest copying the files manually in smaller groups to see if that works.

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 14, 2018 2:15 PM in response to dyski

I use dedicated drives for each computer. Each computer will have two dedicated backup drives plus a dedicated Time Machine backup drive. The non-Time Machine backups are done using Carbon Copy Cloner which runs on defined schedules. One dedicated backup is performed daily. The other one is done monthly. The Time Machine backup does a weekly backup.

I do not use Windows. If I did then I would do so via Parallels which provides its own built-in sharing for transferring data. So, no, I have no experience with ExFAT.

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Answer 5

Mar 14, 2018 2:39 PM in response to dyski

Might really be a corrupted file from origin. I had a similar problem recently but differently from you were just a hundred files then I was able to identify the corrupted one and redo copy from the following in list.

Could also be a corrupted sector. How old is the disk? Assuming that the problem is in s file or destination disk but could also be in reading from the origin disk.

Also: kappy has a right method of backupping: based on my experience, one backup is like having no backup. Both my external Raid system and my Synology NAS have scheduled backup but my OS have daily backup and the Home folder has every six hours backup. Then the Home folder has an every 2 days backup on the NAS. The most important, the Home folder, has double backup. Am I paranoic? Maybe but since I've lost hundreds of photos (mainly of my children) deleted by mistake (and hardware fault can happen...) I'm no more sure about nothing. And my company's important datas get written twice on dvds (one on Apple's Superdrive and one on more reliable LG - as CDs and DVD are poorly reliable) every month.

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