SHORT VERSION: Why do I have new input/output errors on files that were fine on my external hard drive until I copied them back on my computer's hard drive? Is it possible I have a physical problem with my drive that can't be fixed by a reformat?
LONG VERSION:
Hello All,
I'm looking to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my operating system due to a couple problems I have.
1. Software Update is broken. It crashes upon attempting to access whatever online database it uses to find the updates. I tried searching on the internet for info on how to replace Software Update but it was hard to do because I just kept finding articles about using Software Update to update *other* programs.
2. But my bigger problem is that I have files which I can't open or use on my Mac. Mostly music and image files but also some mail messages and who knows what else. This problem first presented itself when I was trying to browse through my photos with "preview icons" on and Finder would crash when I had scrolled down to a certain image. I was able to delete the image and so the problem went away. But then later my iTunes would crash whenever it attempted to play certain songs. So I deleted those songs.
But at this point I decide to find out what was causing these problems and the first thing I did was check my drive for errors with Disc Utility. It found the Keys Out of Order problem but this was nearly useless for me to know because there's no way to fix it apart from purchasing $100 software which I'm not going to do, I'd rather reformat. I wasn't sure that this was what was causing certain files to be un-openable but I decided to operate under the assumption that it was until proven otherwise.
So I decided to reformat. That would solve my keys out of order problem and it would help get rid of a botched installation of tk and other crap hiding out on my hard drive and it would fix my Software Update. So I bought an external hard drive. I copied all my important files over there using cp. I discovered some more un-openable files this time when they caused cp to give me an "input/output error". I didn't mind, just deleted them and moved on, cutting my losses. But then I noticed the portable was FAT32 formatted and I didn't like that so I copied some stuff back and reformatted as HFS+ or whatever Mac OSX Extended is.
SO HERE'S THE THING. Some of the files which had been fine on my portable were now giving me the same input/output error and so now I'm worried that this error is caused by something permanent and tangible on the computer hard drive and that it won't be fixed by a reformat. Can anyone help?
LONG VERSION:
Hello All,
I'm looking to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my operating system due to a couple problems I have.
1. Software Update is broken. It crashes upon attempting to access whatever online database it uses to find the updates. I tried searching on the internet for info on how to replace Software Update but it was hard to do because I just kept finding articles about using Software Update to update *other* programs.
2. But my bigger problem is that I have files which I can't open or use on my Mac. Mostly music and image files but also some mail messages and who knows what else. This problem first presented itself when I was trying to browse through my photos with "preview icons" on and Finder would crash when I had scrolled down to a certain image. I was able to delete the image and so the problem went away. But then later my iTunes would crash whenever it attempted to play certain songs. So I deleted those songs.
But at this point I decide to find out what was causing these problems and the first thing I did was check my drive for errors with Disc Utility. It found the Keys Out of Order problem but this was nearly useless for me to know because there's no way to fix it apart from purchasing $100 software which I'm not going to do, I'd rather reformat. I wasn't sure that this was what was causing certain files to be un-openable but I decided to operate under the assumption that it was until proven otherwise.
So I decided to reformat. That would solve my keys out of order problem and it would help get rid of a botched installation of tk and other crap hiding out on my hard drive and it would fix my Software Update. So I bought an external hard drive. I copied all my important files over there using cp. I discovered some more un-openable files this time when they caused cp to give me an "input/output error". I didn't mind, just deleted them and moved on, cutting my losses. But then I noticed the portable was FAT32 formatted and I didn't like that so I copied some stuff back and reformatted as HFS+ or whatever Mac OSX Extended is.
SO HERE'S THE THING. Some of the files which had been fine on my portable were now giving me the same input/output error and so now I'm worried that this error is caused by something permanent and tangible on the computer hard drive and that it won't be fixed by a reformat. Can anyone help?
