I'm gonna scream!!!!!

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Right, this is driving me totally crazy.

I'm trying to move some files from my HD to an external drive.
Everytime I do, i get a message saying "cannot move... item is busy".

I have closed all apps, restarted, shutdown and rebooted, repaired permissions but nothing is letting me move these items!!

Anyone know the answer before I explode!!!???
 
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It depends entirely on what these items are. What exactly are you trying to move?
 
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Some zip archives, a few movies, a couple of pics and some image files.
 
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please post pics once you explode...lol

my suggestion is to get a group get info on all your files and make sure you have full read/write priveliges on these files.

also make sure that your external HD is not full, it can be written to by osx etc.
-chris
 
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I take it you have successfully transfered files on your Mac to ext HD before?
 
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Pulse-8 said:
I take it you have successfully transfered files on your Mac to ext HD before?
Good point ;)

Have you tried moving individual files? Generally, it can occur due to 3 reasons.

1. You don't have proper access rights (You have to change read/write permisions)

2. Item is used by a currently running process. (Close the corresponding process in Activity Monitor)

3. Trying to move it to a unsupported location. (Check the format)
 
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I've checked all permissions and I have read/write on everything.
Stopped all relevant processes in Activity monitor.
I've moved files like this before (backing up my Documents folder) onto this drive and everything went well.
I'm gonna try moving them individually next time I plug in the drive. Didn't want to have to do this as there are about 1000 files, but needs must.

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll let you know.
 
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Right, seriously annoyed now.

Tried moving objects one by one and still getting the same message. I just don't know what to do. I need to get these files off my HD as they are taking up valuable space.

Can anyone suggest anything at all? Please....
 
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Can you copy other files to the External drive (except the once you mentioned)?
 
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novicew said:
Can you copy other files to the External drive (except the once you mentioned)?

You beat me to it novicew...!

Can you transfer from the Ext drive without problems?
 
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Yes, I can transfer from the drive to my HD, and then move the same file back, but cannot move any others onto the ext.

I am 2 clicks away from having to buy a new MBP after throwing this one down the stairs!!!!!
 
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Can you copy, rather than move, the files? The problem sounds like it could be when it tries to remove the original, rather than when it tries to create the new one.

If you can't even copy the files, then it sounds like a problem with the external drive. What filesystem does the external drive use?
 
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Nope. Won't even copy the files. Things seem to be getting worse. Whole computer seems to be slowing down, and now I can't even load DIsk Utility. Bounces in the dock then disappears.

Looks like I'm heading for a complete reinstall? I backed up the whole drive last night in anticipation. (And yes, I backed up to the external drive, so I know I can send files to it!)
 
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It does sound like your system is frazzled in some strange, inexplicable way. I have no idea what would cause that particular issue.
 
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ripfrankwhite said:
Whenever this happens to me, I just restart and the items are no longer "busy".

Well here we are 19 restarts later and they're still 'busy'.
:eek:neye:
 
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this is why my macbook is on ebay why cant i just save them as a folder with jpegs , instead of iphoto library , is there any solution to this
 
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this is why my macbook is on ebay why cant i just save them as a folder with jpegs , instead of iphoto library , is there any solution to this

uncheck "add to iphoto library" in iphoto prefs
20080114-et8uf9j54grw47sgf141u4whgq.jpg
 
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And you did "repair permissions" ??
 

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