Why can't I copy anything?

idudeidude
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I'm stumped. I need to format my computer, but I can't copy any of my files off it. I put it in target disk mode on my imac and it shows up fine. I open it up and all my files are there, but when I try to drag some of the files onto the imac, they dissapear ( I can't copy them). I know they are there but I can't do anything with them. Why is this?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    CHECK YOUR DRIVE FOR ERRORS RIGHT NOW! My bro had that happen and all the files he tried to move became corrupted and he couldn't recover them.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    idudeidude Posts: 352member
    I did that. I ran Norton several times. I ran Tech Tool. I checked it with the disk utility on the OS X cd. I don't know what to do, and neither does anyone at apple.



    Also, if it helps, I can start the computer up ok, but it won't let me login (doesn't accept the password.)
  • Reply 3 of 12
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Can you make a disk image of your drive and back it up to another hard drive?
  • Reply 4 of 12
    idudeidude Posts: 352member
    Is there a way I can do that from my iMac or off a CD and save it to my iMac. A guy at Apple suggested booting off the OS X cd and saving an image onto my iPod, but my iPod only has 1 gb left free and the HD is 9 gb full.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    mattjohndrowmattjohndrow Posts: 1,618member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iDude

    Is there a way I can do that from my iMac or off a CD and save it to my iMac. A guy at Apple suggested booting off the OS X cd and saving an image onto my iPod, but my iPod only has 1 gb left free and the HD is 9 gb full.



    wait, is your music on the HD as well, because if that is the case, why worry about the music on your iPod.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    idudeidude Posts: 352member
    My music is on my ipod, but I'm not going to delete it if I'm not positive I can restore it. Plus, the iPod is still only 5gb without music.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    mattjohndrowmattjohndrow Posts: 1,618member
    BACK UP EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
  • Reply 8 of 12
    idudeidude Posts: 352member
    HOW!!!! That's what I want to do, but I can't copy any files!
  • Reply 9 of 12
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I got fed up with loosing data so I bought a emergency firewire disk. (Just a simple firewire disk that I only use for emergencies.) You may want to buy one so you can save your files there and afterwards use it for backups only.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    I'm gonan echo what iDude said, backup now. But I'm gonna add a bit of advice of my own too...Get rid of Norton and NEVER EVER use it again.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    Silly question. Are you draging them to the hardrive icon on the desktop of your iMac or are you simply draging them to the desktop? The first will work. The second will not.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iDude

    I'm stumped. I need to format my computer, but I can't copy any of my files off it. I put it in target disk mode on my imac and it shows up fine. I open it up and all my files are there, but when I try to drag some of the files onto the imac, they dissapear ( I can't copy them). I know they are there but I can't do anything with them. Why is this?



    What precipitated this problem? I mean, why do you need to format it?



    Can you boot into single user mode (hold cmd+s at startup until text starts scrolling). If you can, try making the computer go back to the beginning of the setup process. To do that (from CCC's site):



    fsck -fy

    [repeat until it no longer says that the Filesystem was modified]

    mount -uw /

    cd /var/db/

    rm .AppleSetupDone

    cd netinfo

    mv local.nidb local.nidb.bak

    exit



    The computer will then automatically launch the setup assistant. Create an account with the same short username and you should be able to log in. It may be that your netinfo database some how got corrupted. Try that and post back here if it works (or doesn't). Good luck.
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