Cannot copy files to eSata drive

Mac-Forums Members,

I'm unable to copy files to an eSata drive's HFS+ partition (The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)).

According to Mac OS System Error Codes: 0 to -261, error code -50 refers to "Error in user parameter list".

According to Mac OS X: "Error in user parameter list (-50)" With MS DOS-Formatted Volume, this relates to copying files to an MS-DOS partition and filename convention conflicts (not what's being done).

I have a first generation Mac Pro using 10.6.4 and connected to an ICY Dock external enclosure that has USB and eSata. Installed in the Pro is the ICY Dock eSata card. I'm able to copy files to the external drive via USB without errors. System profiler shows external drive is writeable for Journaled HFS+ when connected via eSata.

Any help with this issue or a point in a helpful direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you :-D

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Gotta tell you, using the same model Mac Pro and OS as you, have not found eSATA to be that good. Much better I found to install a SATA drive in a Firewire 800 external case. One question you did format the drive Mac OS Extended (Journalled) and partitioned, even with one partition, and option selected using GUID?

harryb2448,

According to System Profiler:

Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Type)

Thanks for the welcome!!

Additionally, I'm unable to verify or repair disk permissions in Disk Utility...

When I run the equivalent in Terminal :

diskutil repairPermissions /Volumes/Untitled 1

...where Untitled 1 is the HFS+ partition, I get the following error mesg:

Error starting permissions repair for disk3s2 test: Unable to determine the Mac OS X version on the targeted disk (-9943)

Hope this stirs some thought.

See if anything here helps and note author also has trouble with HFS+ partition but okay with FAT32:-

Create HFS+ and FAT32 partitions on one external drive. - Mac OS X Hints