'The operation can't be completed because an item...

The Black Oil · 13-10-2011 01:39PM #1

with the name _______ already exists'

I'm getting this error when I try to copy my college folder to a USB memory stick. The same stick I've been using for college for the past year. It has some other stuff on it as well. The college folder is about 380MB, mostly articles and documents. I don't know what went wrong. I sometimes use this stick on a Windows PC (including today, for printing) and maybe that has caused a problem, but it worked fine many times in the past.

I tried the repair disk option in Disk Utility and also erased and started over. I put back the other files onto the stick without a hitch, but the college folder's not playing ball. Any ideas?

Running 10.6.8

muggyog · 13-10-2011 06:56PM

When you say ' college folder', would this folder be on a share i.e. not resident on the Mac? If so copy locally before trying to copy to USB. Also check your trash folder.

Bit confused that you used the USB on a PC then used the Disk Utility. If the PC can see it its DOS formatted.

The Black Oil · 13-10-2011 07:06PM

Nah, I don't have a virtual college drive as I'm a distance learning student and don't have a network login (have email and library access, not storage space).

The college folder is on my iMac and Macbook, can be a bit of a pain to keep them in sync at times. Dropbox has also been displaying 'white space conflict' messages on some folders. Don't want things to start going wrong with my college files.

muggyog · 13-10-2011 07:32PM

Did you check the trash?

Sounds like you have a naming problem in Dropbox ( especially going from PC-Mac-PC ). Check the review here.

The Black Oil · 13-10-2011 07:47PM

What should I see in the Trash? I emptied it earlier today (on the Mac). I don't have Dropbox set up on the Windows PC, only use that computer to print (can do from my Mac, but sometimes the printer/PC can be non-responsive). However, the link you provided points to why I might be getting some of these messages.

Can there be some conflict between, using the memory stick on a Windows PC and deleting files from it, though they really aren't deleted and end up in a trash compartment within the stick that won't really delete unless it's put back on the Windows machine? Or am I imagining things?

Also use Sugarsync - this is my primary online backup, really. I don't have internet access when I'm in the library, so I'm relying on hardware/physical media to stay safe on the commute home.

OK, have been successful in copying the college folder (from the Mac's HD) onto the memory stick. Not sure why it worked this time.

DubTony · 16-10-2011 12:24PM

The Black Oil wrote: »

What should I see in the Trash? I emptied it earlier today (on the Mac).

I don't know if OS X works the same as previous OSs, but there was a time, back in the day when, if you moved a file from a floppy disk to the trash, it remained in a "Trash" portion of the floppy until you emptied the Trash. If the disk wasn't inserted in the computer at the time of emptying the Trash it remained there. It was never actually in the Trash on the computer, it just looked like it was if the disk or USB key was in the computer. When the key was ejected, the stuff in the Trash disappeared, leading me to think that my disk was empty.
It took me ages to figure that one out.

'The operation can't be completed because an item...

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