How Do I Identify A Corrupt File?

imickimick
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I've tried a couple of different hard drives, to copy my iTunes and a couple of other folders to as a backup, but it seems to almost always stop copying.

Now I'm trying SuperDuper! as a complete hard drive backup but that also stopped somewhere in the middle.



I suspect a corrupt file somewhere. How can I isolate that file to fix or delete it?



Maybe this isn't the problem.



I've tried a couple of different hard drives in an external usb enclosure, and also a LaCie Brick all with the same results.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility



    Try to verify the drive, repair if possible (ie, non-boot volume).
  • Reply 2 of 4
    imickimick Posts: 351member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post


    /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility



    Try to verify the drive, repair if possible (ie, non-boot volume).



    I did that just now and got this response:

    Verifying volume ?iMac HD?

    Checking HFS Plus volume.

    Checking Extents Overflow file.

    Checking Catalog file.

    Checking multi-linked files.

    Checking Catalog hierarchy.

    Checking Extended Attributes file.

    Checking volume bitmap.

    Checking volume information.

    The volume iMac HD appears to be OK.

    Mounting Disk



    1 HFS volume checked

    \tVolume passed verification



    That looks ok, right? Now I'm not sure what to do. I'd sure like to be able to depend on an external drive for backing up my data.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Hmmm. If it's only three folders you are backing up, use the binary search method. Copy them one or two at a time and find the one with the bad file. Then take that folder and divide its contents in half, etc.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    imickimick Posts: 351member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lundy View Post


    Hmmm. If it's only three folders you are backing up, use the binary search method. Copy them one or two at a time and find the one with the bad file. Then take that folder and divide its contents in half, etc.



    After all this time, I finally found my problem. I am trying to back up to a cheap CompUSA usb external drive enclosure. Always, after 10-15 minutes, things just stop. Today I got smart and tried it on my MacBook. I have basically nothing on my MacBook, so if there was a corrupted file, it wouldn't be on both. The CompUSA enclosure locked up again.

    I ended up borrowing a friend Adaptec usb/Firewire enclosure. I didn't get the USB part to work, or to even show the drive, but the firewire cable worked just fine.

    I used SuperDuper to back up my MacBook, and then my iMac with no problems!

    Yeah!

    Anyone want a cheap CompUSA enclosure?
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