[Reukeboom]

I cleaned off an external hard drive as to back up some files. When I try to copy the files over, I get at some point during the copying process: "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists."

- I found out what this file does, and I tried some command lines in the Terminal (I have never used it before) which didn't work.

The command line was: "defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true"

- I did this and hit "Enter" and nothing seemed to change. Tried it again, and then restarted, still getting .DS_Store files.

- I used Lion Tweaks to show invisible files, and I keep deleting DS_Store but even if I delete it and then do NOTHING, not even touching my mouse or anything, it comes back.

- I downloaded DS_Store cleaner, which does clean folders of their DS_Store files, but they just come back when I try to copy.

- I tried making a new folder, not opening it, and dragging the files I needed to copy to it... nope. Still getting the "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists." message.

- I reformatted the hard drive that I want to copy to. That didn't work.

SO... my questions... am I using the terminal correctly? I copied the line of code in perfectly, nothing. I typed it perfectly (without the " of course) and hit enter and nothing. That's how it is supposed to work, right?

Is there any way to get rid of the DS_Store file that is in my way? Any way around this? Kind of dumb that I can't just drag files over to copy them. I was really good at fixing OS9 problems but with the Terminal, I don't even know the basics. I did some DOS and DOS-like things back in school (1980's-1990) but that is all I know about that kind of thing. I am good at HTML though. Never used the Terminal before, or UNIX or any of this OSX stuff. Maybe if I took hours and hours I could figure this out, but I need to get my files copied soon.

I'm using a 2008-09 24" iMac Duo with Mountain Lion.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Reukeboom

[smax013]

Reukeboom, on 27 December 2012 - 08:40 PM, said:

I cleaned off an external hard drive as to back up some files. When I try to copy the files over, I get at some point during the copying process: "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists."

- I found out what this file does, and I tried some command lines in the Terminal (I have never used it before) which didn't work.

The command line was: "defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true"

- I did this and hit "Enter" and nothing seemed to change. Tried it again, and then restarted, still getting .DS_Store files.

- I used Lion Tweaks to show invisible files, and I keep deleting DS_Store but even if I delete it and then do NOTHING, not even touching my mouse or anything, it comes back.

- I downloaded DS_Store cleaner, which does clean folders of their DS_Store files, but they just come back when I try to copy.

- I tried making a new folder, not opening it, and dragging the files I needed to copy to it... nope. Still getting the "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists." message.

- I reformatted the hard drive that I want to copy to. That didn't work.

SO... my questions... am I using the terminal correctly? I copied the line of code in perfectly, nothing. I typed it perfectly (without the " of course) and hit enter and nothing. That's how it is supposed to work, right?

Is there any way to get rid of the DS_Store file that is in my way? Any way around this? Kind of dumb that I can't just drag files over to copy them. I was really good at fixing OS9 problems but with the Terminal, I don't even know the basics. I did some DOS and DOS-like things back in school (1980's-1990) but that is all I know about that kind of thing. I am good at HTML though. Never used the Terminal before, or UNIX or any of this OSX stuff. Maybe if I took hours and hours I could figure this out, but I need to get my files copied soon.

I'm using a 2008-09 24" iMac Duo with Mountain Lion.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Reukeboom

So, you did try reformatting the external drive...and that did not work? Strange.

How is the drive formatted? Is it a FAT32 drive?

If so, you might see if this helps:

https://discussions....tart=0&tstart=0

The other option is to try formatting the drive in HFS+ (i.e. "Mac" formatted) if it is formatted in FAT32. This, of course, only works if you will only use this drive with a Mac (unless you use a program like MacDrive on your Windows computers).

[bastion]

Reukeboom, on 27 December 2012 - 08:40 PM, said:

I cleaned off an external hard drive as to back up some files. When I try to copy the files over, I get at some point during the copying process: "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists."

- I found out what this file does, and I tried some command lines in the Terminal (I have never used it before) which didn't work.

The command line was: "defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true"

- I did this and hit "Enter" and nothing seemed to change. Tried it again, and then restarted, still getting .DS_Store files.

- I used Lion Tweaks to show invisible files, and I keep deleting DS_Store but even if I delete it and then do NOTHING, not even touching my mouse or anything, it comes back.

- I downloaded DS_Store cleaner, which does clean folders of their DS_Store files, but they just come back when I try to copy.

- I tried making a new folder, not opening it, and dragging the files I needed to copy to it... nope. Still getting the "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists." message.

- I reformatted the hard drive that I want to copy to. That didn't work.

SO... my questions... am I using the terminal correctly? I copied the line of code in perfectly, nothing. I typed it perfectly (without the " of course) and hit enter and nothing. That's how it is supposed to work, right?

Is there any way to get rid of the DS_Store file that is in my way? Any way around this? Kind of dumb that I can't just drag files over to copy them. I was really good at fixing OS9 problems but with the Terminal, I don't even know the basics. I did some DOS and DOS-like things back in school (1980's-1990) but that is all I know about that kind of thing. I am good at HTML though. Never used the Terminal before, or UNIX or any of this OSX stuff. Maybe if I took hours and hours I could figure this out, but I need to get my files copied soon.

I'm using a 2008-09 24" iMac Duo with Mountain Lion.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Reukeboom

The command you typed is for network-attached drives, not for things connected directly to your machine. It also doesn't cause the OS to immediately seek out and delete any existing .DS_Store files if on drives for which its relevant. So that's why you didn't see anything change as a result of running it.

Finder creates .DS_Store files almost as a matter of course in folders that you open. In general you should not go out of your way to delete them. In general you should not need to, either.

Definitely check the format of the drive as smax013 suggested. This sounds like a corrupted permissions issue, so you may want to check permissions on the drive and/or the folder into which you're failing to copy files.

[Reukeboom]

bastion, on 31 December 2012 - 06:44 AM, said:

Reukeboom, on 27 December 2012 - 08:40 PM, said:

I cleaned off an external hard drive as to back up some files. When I try to copy the files over, I get at some point during the copying process: "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists."

- I found out what this file does, and I tried some command lines in the Terminal (I have never used it before) which didn't work.

The command line was: "defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true"

- I did this and hit "Enter" and nothing seemed to change. Tried it again, and then restarted, still getting .DS_Store files.

- I used Lion Tweaks to show invisible files, and I keep deleting DS_Store but even if I delete it and then do NOTHING, not even touching my mouse or anything, it comes back.

- I downloaded DS_Store cleaner, which does clean folders of their DS_Store files, but they just come back when I try to copy.

- I tried making a new folder, not opening it, and dragging the files I needed to copy to it... nope. Still getting the "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists." message.

- I reformatted the hard drive that I want to copy to. That didn't work.

SO... my questions... am I using the terminal correctly? I copied the line of code in perfectly, nothing. I typed it perfectly (without the " of course) and hit enter and nothing. That's how it is supposed to work, right?

Is there any way to get rid of the DS_Store file that is in my way? Any way around this? Kind of dumb that I can't just drag files over to copy them. I was really good at fixing OS9 problems but with the Terminal, I don't even know the basics. I did some DOS and DOS-like things back in school (1980's-1990) but that is all I know about that kind of thing. I am good at HTML though. Never used the Terminal before, or UNIX or any of this OSX stuff. Maybe if I took hours and hours I could figure this out, but I need to get my files copied soon.

I'm using a 2008-09 24" iMac Duo with Mountain Lion.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Reukeboom

The command you typed is for network-attached drives, not for things connected directly to your machine. It also doesn't cause the OS to immediately seek out and delete any existing .DS_Store files if on drives for which its relevant. So that's why you didn't see anything change as a result of running it.

Finder creates .DS_Store files almost as a matter of course in folders that you open. In general you should not go out of your way to delete them. In general you should not need to, either.

Definitely check the format of the drive as smax013 suggested. This sounds like a corrupted permissions issue, so you may want to check permissions on the drive and/or the folder into which you're failing to copy files.

Wow, thanks for the info guys! Learning things here (that nobody should have to, but hey). I had formatted for Mac, Journaled, and I'll just reformat again and see how that goes. After formatting as Journaled, and having that fail, I tried FAT and was able to copy, but the last ten folders or so were greyed out. I've had that problem before too and eventually it just went away, but that is a different issue obviously. My permissions are read/write for everybody, is there something else these permissions should be? I think I can reset them with Lion Tweaks...

[smax013]

Reukeboom, on 31 December 2012 - 07:58 AM, said:

Wow, thanks for the info guys! Learning things here (that nobody should have to, but hey). I had formatted for Mac, Journaled, and I'll just reformat again and see how that goes. After formatting as Journaled, and having that fail, I tried FAT and was able to copy, but the last ten folders or so were greyed out. I've had that problem before too and eventually it just went away, but that is a different issue obviously. My permissions are read/write for everybody, is there something else these permissions should be? I think I can reset them with Lion Tweaks...

My guess is that bastion was referring to use Disk Utility to "Verify Disk Permissions" and maybe "Repair Disk Permissions", but I could be wrong.

[bastion]

smax013, on 31 December 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

Reukeboom, on 31 December 2012 - 07:58 AM, said:

Wow, thanks for the info guys! Learning things here (that nobody should have to, but hey). I had formatted for Mac, Journaled, and I'll just reformat again and see how that goes. After formatting as Journaled, and having that fail, I tried FAT and was able to copy, but the last ten folders or so were greyed out. I've had that problem before too and eventually it just went away, but that is a different issue obviously. My permissions are read/write for everybody, is there something else these permissions should be? I think I can reset them with Lion Tweaks...

My guess is that bastion was referring to use Disk Utility to "Verify Disk Permissions" and maybe "Repair Disk Permissions", but I could be wrong.

No, I was talking about the bottom segment of the Get Info window.