FileBuddy 10 Type -36 error?

[johnmac131313]

I have been using FileBuddy 10 to clean up a bunch of stuff from older drives, like going through iTunes libraries from the past to find duplicates and to merge them so that I don't throw anything away. It has MOSTLY been working well. Sometimes I have hit this error, "A search for duplicate files could not be completed because an error of Type -36 has occurred."

So, I tried drilling down a few levels and only comparing the "Music" directories and that has worked until today. I have hit one that will just not finish building the list. It quits part-way into building the digests with the above mentioned Type -36 error. These two libraries are sitting in the same folder, which has been how I have done the same process comparing and cleaning three others so far. But now I'm apparently stymied.

Has anyone else run into this? and were you able to get it working? I don't want to compare files manually. They're libraries of about 15,000 songs each. Suggestions anyone?

This is on a 2006 MP 1,1 with 32GB RAM, OS 10.11.6 El Capitan. The libraries are on an external USB drive, as have the other ones I've already cleaned.

 

[joevt]

-36 is an ioErr. Your disk is bad.
You'll want to back it up to a different disk, then through that one away.

 

[johnmac131313]

Thanks for your reply!! So, it definitely is an indicator that the disk is bad and not that some of the files themselves are bad? I'm hurriedly clearing it off now before disaster strikes.

 

[johnmac131313]

Hey, guess what? I was copying to another drive the two itunes libraries I was previously attempting to clean of duplicates and it failed mid-way with a -36 error pointing to a specific file. I got rid of it and now it seems to be copying again. Maybe a bad block on the drive I am copying from? Anyway, I will report back when I get through this. Thanks again, Joevt, for your help!!!

 

[HDFan]

If you have a failing drive you are lucky that it still works intermittently . I would replace it ASAP.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Is the drive formatted HFS+?

 

[johnmac131313]

It's formatted OSX Extended. I was able to copy all of the files off of it with a few -36 errors here and there which, out of 600GB was only maybe a dozen files lost. I reformatted the thing and did an erase, just the lower level one that overwrites everything twice. It seems normal now. It's a 9 or 10 year old Seagate USB 2 removable 1TB drive. How can I see if there are any bad blocks anything like that. Disk Utility doesn't seem to have that functionality. Should I just assume that it's on its last legs and replace it? or is there a way to tell if it's in good health or how bad of health?

 

[joevt]

It's formatted OSX Extended. I was able to copy all of the files off of it with a few -36 errors here and there which, out of 600GB was only maybe a dozen files lost. I reformatted the thing and did an erase, just the lower level one that overwrites everything twice. It seems normal now. It's a 9 or 10 year old Seagate USB 2 removable 1TB drive. How can I see if there are any bad blocks anything like that. Disk Utility doesn't seem to have that functionality. Should I just assume that it's on its last legs and replace it? or is there a way to tell if it's in good health or how bad of health?

I wouldn't trust it. Hard drives are cheap.

There's a utility called ddrescue that you can use on Linux to attempt reading a bad disk. It also works on macOS except I think Linux handles errors better/faster.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Should I just assume that it's on its last legs and replace it? or is there a way to tell if it's in good health or how bad of health?

You can check the SMART status in Disk Utility, which was designed for this purpose, but in practice that can be unreliable.

I'm torn—part of me agrees with @joevt that you shouldn't trust the drive, but on the other hand, it's relatively normal for HFS+ to get filesystem errors after many years of use without a reformat (because HFS+ sucks). And it would be a shame to throw away a perfectly good drive.

The fact of the matter is that all hard drives eventually die, and so you should never keep your data in only one spot. So, where I'd come down is, yes, you should not trust this drive to be the only copy of your data, but then, you should never keep your data on only a single drive!

I say, keep the old drive around as a backup and order a new one as well. That way, if the old drive fails, your data will be safe... and if the new drive fails, your data will also be safe!

 

[johnmac131313]

Thanks for all the info! I think I'll just fill it up with movies and plug it into our tv downstairs for as long as it lasts. 😀