Problems with copying .mkv and pictures from Time Machine to Iomega eGo

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I'm fairly knowledgeable with Macs, but this latest problem has got me buggered!

The other day my external drive, named "Archive", didn't appear on the desktop, and wouldn't mount under Disk Utility. Trying to repair the disk gave an error i can't remember (i think it was something like '13'). Searching the internet told me that it was due to something like improper shutdown, and that the best method was to repair using DiskWarrior.

I did this, however it didn't work as DW came up with it's own error. Although i could have recovered the files using DW's 'Preview' i couldn't be bothered waiting another day for it to get to that stage again.

It was then that i realised that Time Machine backed up this external drive for me (even though it hadn't shown up in the Star Wars screen), and was in any of TM's backup folders.

However it's here that i don't know what i'm doing wrong. 'Archive' is important as it contains my iPhoto library as well as my 'Movie' folder, and I can copy the files fine. But when copied from the TM external (USB 2.0) to 'Archive' external (FW800) problems occur with certain files. For example, my .mkv files for some reason become really pixelated and have a slightly reduced quality (i use VLC). Some normal .avi's stop working properly in VLC (some files needed repairing apparently, and this makes them lose parts of the video or sound). Also, a lot of the pictures in iPhoto are distorted and/or sort of missing (thumbnail is fine but just blank when double clicking to enlarge).

So you can see my problem. Every time i've tried to clone or make an image of the TM drive it never works, even using CCC or Disk Utility. I was wondering whether anyone knew why this weird quality problem exists, as i've never experienced a problem before moving files from one drive to another.

Hope someone can help, as i really don't want to lose this important data. Any help would be massively appreciated.

Thanks, Dan.

P.S. When moving an .mkv file from TM to the Desktop the file is exactly the same (i.e. no pixelation or quality loss), but when moving from the Desktop to 'Archive' the quality problem occurs.
 
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Just checked again now - my iPhoto library and .mkv files copy fine to my iMac's HD (just dragged from a TM backup folder onto the desktop), but if that file is then copied onto the Iomega the problem occurs (pixelated video, strange corruption of bits of the photo library, etc.).

I'm starting to think it must be a problem with the Iomega. Haven't got a clue how or why this would affect videos or photos in this way, but i can't think of any other reason.

Until the problem with the drive not showing up in Finder (but showing up in DU) with the error possibly due to incorrect shutdown (sometimes my Mac seems to close everything on shutdown - Dock, Finder, etc. - just leaving the desktop image but never does anything else, hence the forced shutdown), i've never had a problem with it.

I never even thought that a file copy could affect the file until now! Anyway, i'll probably exchange the drive (it's not that old), but just in case this isn't the drive's fault does anyone have any idea about what's going on? Dan.
 

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