[Apple_John]

Hi all,

I thought it will never happen, well, my Mac is driving me crazy.

I need to move all the image files from a FW HD to a new int. G4 450 HD, well it sounds simple enough, but OS X.2.8 keep crashing.

The FWHD has 3 partitions, over years, I backup ~12,000 image files (10KB - 30MB+ each) onto it. 10%-20% of the files has duplicated copies on difference folder/partition with same file name.


This is what I try:

Finder -> File -> Find -> extension is, for example, "jpg" -> Specific place (FWHD) -> 5 mintues of searching -> drag ~5,000 results to new folder -> VOLLEYBALL
Restart...
SAME -> drag ~500 results to new folder -> VOLLEYBALL
SAME -> drag ~100 results to new folder -> VOLLEYBALL
SAME -> drag ONLY ~50 results to new folder -> VOLLEYBALL !!!

I transfered GB of data, 1,000s of files with ONE drag every week via FW with ZERO problem. Why the hell FINDER keep crashing??!!?

John

[Jan Van Boghout]

Try right clicking, choosing Copy and then Paste in your destination. The Finder is probably trying to draw all the images into a dragging image, though beachballing at 50 items is pretty bad, even for the Finder

[Apple_John]

Yeah, tried it also. Once I right-click, Context menu showed up, the lovely volleyball is here.

What I don't understand is, copy the whole partition at once (~30Gb, tons of files) is fine, but not under the search result.

[Big Mac]

it sounds like the Finder is getting confused by some file irregularity it runs into. Perhaps you should go the command line route.

[EnVoy]

Sounds like it's because you are copying them from a search result window (correct?). Maybe try listing the partition window by file type and copying that way.

[mindwaves]

Turn off the file preview feature first. If not, use the command line.

[Apple_John]

Thanks for the reply.

I will try that once I got home.

Since I am *nix-challenged, what should I type in the console window?

Thanks,

John

[cambro]

On a related note...

Often when copying, by drag and drop, large directories (i.e., ~13 Gig iTunes Music folder) from an eMac to an external firewire drive, the transfer will stop, and the finder will lock up (10.3.4-10.3.6).

I can sometimes recover the Finder, but it is always ugly and usually a hard reboot is necessary. The strange part is that the transfer often goes fine for a while and transfering small chunks at a time is fine.

Suggestions?

[Randman]

Sounds like more reasons not to have partitions.

One the search, you're specifying where to search? If it's everywhere, you might get problems from that.

[Apple_John]

Thanks for all the help, but the problem is worse than I thought... I need serious help.


I don't mind to copy-n-paste 50 items at a time, it will 'only' take me ~250 times moving the mouse, but it cannot solve this problems.

Here is some background what I have done over the years...

The old FWHD has 3 partitions, 60GB in total, more than 1 OS in each partition.
ie. We used the "iBackUp" partition to drag the whole iBook HD (under target mode) every months with a new folder named, ie "iBook Dec01". We usually delete 3 months old folder, however, over the years, there are 8 "iBookXXX0X" folders, because of running run of space in the tiny iBook HD on the road, or saving setting before major OS upgrade. (OS9, 9.1, 10.0, 10.1)

To complicate the problem, I replaced ~5 HD inside the G4 Cube over the years, guess how I backup the old drives, yes, stupid me just copy the whole old drive via FW and paste it in the new "Backup" partition under different folders names, ie. "CubeB4 OSX".

So, I have Nested all the data! And the biggest problem is:

- Many Same Files under the Same Name in different folder/partition.
(ie. iPhoto)
- Many Different Files also under the Same Name, but different Size in different folder/partition.
(ie. the counter on digicam roll back)
- Many Different Files under the Same Name, but also Same Size in different folder/partition.
(ie. the webcam capture)

Now, I hope to backup ALL the files, even same file, into just ONE folder, with file name like "0001.jpg", "0001 copy1.jpg", "0001 copy2.jpg"...

So, where should I start...?

John

[Apple_John]

is it possible to do this?

do

scan all files

if file_name = *.jpg (.tiff .bmp etc)
then save as "photo_i"
i++

until finish

I did some C at school, but never wrote in Mac. Any site is helpful for simple coding?

Thanks,

John

[bmedina]

You can do that pretty easily with a shell script. Try googling for "shell script tutorial", or post over in the Unix forum for help.

[Boondoggle]

I think you just made a good case for using a good or even only decent backup program to handle these things for you. Personally I use iPhoto to manage my photo library (about 9,000) and when I want to back it up I just use Backup. Since I always give my images keywords when I import them, It rarely takes more than a few seconds to find any photo that I want, and I never actually look in my iPhoto Library. My set-up may not work for you, but I'm sure there is some more selective way of backing up your images that would also make retrieval easier.

This of course does not solve your problem. In my experience, the Finder has never been very good at handling large numbers of files in one window, although it seems to be getting better. Definately better than OS9.

Also, this is a new internal drive you're writing to, have you verified that it is working properly? Is it your boot volume? Do you have other files on it already with no problem?

It is also possible that there are one or 2 files on your backup drive that are corrupted in some way. That can hang a copy pretty easily. I've had that happen before. Try variying your search criteria in such a way that there will be plenty of files but not the same set you've been trying to copy. It is a long shot but if you have more luck with that then you may have a corrupted file.

Also, is there at least 14% free space on the FW drive? Is it your boot volume? do you have free space on your boot volume?

You've got all those OS's on the FW drive... do you need that stuff?

This could be a wierd permission issue also with all those OS's on there. Try a get info on the FW drive and set ignore permissions on this volume, unless it is your boot volume.

And you don't have a 10.3.6 volume to boot from?

This is not meant as a critique, but based on what seems a rather shotgun approach to backing up, it sounds like this may not be the best maintained system extant... Have you done any disk maintentance stuff routinely or lately?

Good luck.

bd

[Apple_John]

^ yeah, I f*** up big time. All the "Drag it and forget it" way of backup using FW over years come back at me now.

I have love/hate relationship with iPhoto, it is very nice but it is too slooooooow, and can't handle RAW format.

All my post-iPhoto files (25,000+) are well organized, but I have picture files back before I am using Mac or OSX. Also, I let others to use my iBook to unload their flash cards on the road. The old film scan from my families...iPhoto is so slow, I hate to import if I don't have to.

[Boondoggle]

Originally posted by Apple_John:
^ yeah, I f*** up big time. All the "Drag it and forget it" way of backup using FW over years come back at me now.

I have love/hate relationship with iPhoto, it is very nice but it is too slooooooow, and can't handle RAW format.

All my post-iPhoto files (25,000+) are well organized, but I have picture files back before I am using Mac or OSX. Also, I let others to use my iBook to unload their flash cards on the road. The old film scan from my families...iPhoto is so slow, I hate to import if I don't have to.

iPhoto especially older versions will choke on large libraries. And on a G3 iBook, forget it. But the latest version,4.0.3, on faster G4s and especially G5s is really quite speedy. If you need RAW though you may still be out of luck. I don't know if it supports that in newer versions. There are other programs available for managing large image collections I think that might suit you better.

Are the backups on the FW drive originally from the iBook, and now your're trying to copy to a second computer, or is the 450GB drive another external attached to the iBook?

[Apple_John]

beside the iBook 500, I also have a G4 Cube 450, and ext FW HD. I usually drag the whole iBook HD into the Cube. The FWHD (FAT) is shared between Mac and PC for large files and second data backup.

But now, I popped the old G4 HD into the FW case and put a fresh/quiet HD in the Cube.
(usually, I will just drag the data from the old g4 HD into the New g4 HD "Data" partition and forget about it.)

I have iPhoto 4.0.3 on my G4 Cube 450, it is just very slow. I know it is time to upgrade for G5, (still waiting for G5 PB) but G4 is fast enough for everything else, even editing DV is OK for me. It is quite sad to upgrade just for viewing photo.

[JMII]

Once you get things sorted out I'd look into some professional levels apps to handle that work load. I've used Cumulus to manage large image collections (media assets web-sites/servers) and Retrospect to handle hard drive/network backups.

http://www.canto.com/pro/

http://www.dantz.com/

[CatOne]

Originally posted by JMII:
Once you get things sorted out I'd look into some professional levels apps to handle that work load. I've used Cumulus to manage large image collections (media assets web-sites/servers) and Retrospect to handle hard drive/network backups.

http://www.canto.com/pro/

http://www.dantz.com/

iView Media Pro works great for this.

[Boondoggle]

Originally posted by Apple_John:

But now, I popped the old G4 HD into the FW case and put a fresh/quiet HD in the Cube.
(usually, I will just drag the data from the old g4 HD into the New g4 HD "Data" partition and forget about it.)

if you haven't already I would try ignoring permissions on all the volumes in the FW drive and see if that helps

bd

[Hi I'm Ben]

Why not just copy all the pictures from each seperate partition to one place each in a different folder name then do the search from the single partition and simplify. OR

Create 1 folder on 1 partition and just start putting all the pictures (1 partition at a time of course) in that folder letting the duplicates overwite themselves.

[Apple_John]

The problem is not on Drive Partitions or FW, it is the Find function under Finder.

Find can search partitions, folders, ext/int HD, with no problems with 1000s of result and I can open every one of them. But once I selected ~100+ results, Finder will not response for sure, Volleyball time. Even search only under one folder. At first, I was guessing the files with same name confused Finder, but even I only select different name files, I still need to relaunch_Finder. I can move/copy all 10,000+ around between HD/folder/partition but not from the Search result window.


_

[jasong]

Well, you are right that the Finder sucks for manipulating large numbers of files, I just had to move 5500 images the other day and I did it from the command line because the Finder was choking like the Yankees.

If you can find someone to help you out with the Unix for moving all image files from multiple directories into one folder, that would be the fastest way. Another option would be Path Finder. You will still get beach balls, but it will be faster than the Finder.

Hopefully this will get fixed one day . . .

-- Jason

[suthercd]

When you install Developer Tools, you can use a command 'ditto' in the Terminal. Ditto preserves the resources (icons, etc) when making copies.

ditto -rsrc /Volumes/OneOfYourDrives/PathTofilesTopFolder/ /Volumes/DestinationDrive/folderWhereYouWantTheTopFolderCopy/

Ditto will descend down the folder structure, creating folders with the same name at the destination. It can also create archives, compressed or not.

All lot of freeware and shareware backup apps are just GUI wrappers around ditto.

Dev Tools is free. Register with Apple dev site and you gain access to them, or they are on the third and fourth CDs of Panther (also Jaguar, but cannot remember if there were 3 or 4 CDs).

HTH
Craig

[Apple_John]

Thanks for all the replies. This experience finally give me the incentive to learn the Unix, even Mac OS isn't always easy to use. ;-)

John