Problem "stopping" copying to a flash drive

[Barbara Davis]

Friday I was copying some files to a flash drive. Copying froze. I hit the X (stop copying) button but it would not stop. It is still going this morning. Does anyone know how to stop it?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Try this,

1) Choose Apple menu > Log Out, and then log in again. Try to eject the USB stick again.


2) If you still can’t eject the disk, choose Apple menu > Shut Down. Disconnect the USB stick from your Mac, and then start up again.

 

[Barbara Davis]

I actually ejected the flash drive Friday. We have our own server and everything is backed up every night. When I came in this morning, the (3) "copy" files are still on my desktop. It says "Stopping..." under each but will not stop. When I left Friday, they were still there as well...I left thinking it would stop after awhile, but obviously did not. Any other ideas? Is it a problem to relaunch Finder? Would that help and if so, would I lose any data? I doubt what I was trying to load will save at this point. I am having trouble opening other files in my data file that backs up...Apple sent me a link and it says Finder has issues that Apple has never corrected.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Friday I was copying some files to a flash drive. Copying froze

I should have asked how big were the files you were transferring to the flash drive, as over a certain size can cause this, I am sure that a FAT32 FD would have a maximum 4.3GB transfer size.

When I left Friday, they were still there as well...I left thinking it would stop after awhile, but obviously did not. Any other ideas?

Did you leave the FD connected?

 

[Barbara Davis]

The files were not that big. The FD is a 4G FD. I left it in about 30-45 minutes, realizing it was "stuck". Thanks for replying!

 

[Barbara Davis]

I think the flash drive had close to 2 Gs left on it...my files at the most would have been a G. If I am wrong, shouldn't it just say there isn't enough room on the drive and just stop on its own?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Sometimes external drives can get stuck / freeze if you like on ejection because a program that you use to access there files still has the file from them in memory.

What program had you used for accessing the file on the FD?

think the flash drive had close to 2 Gs left on it...my files at the most would have been a G. If I am wrong, shouldn't it just say there isn't enough room on the drive and just stop on its own?

USB can be funny sometimes so you may not have had a warning.

 

[Barbara Davis]

I had some Photoshop, Word files, jpgs (photos) and a MOV file in folders...just dragged them onto the FD.

 

[oldscribe]

Only software I could see doing this is Quicktime if thats what you viewed the MOV in.

Edit:

Or Preview as my screen shot, they all hold items in there recent memory.

 

[Barbara Davis]

What can I do about it? Any ideas?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Open any relevant software go to File - Recent and click clear menu.

I'm not saying this is definitive but may be the answer, remember that it could also be an issue with the FD itself.

 

[Barbara Davis]

Thank you oldscribe. If I clear menu, will it wipe those files out? Or, is there a way to recover them? I know they did not back up to our server. Thank you!

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

If I clear menu, will it wipe those files out?

No this only removes a specific file from the softwares memory, if you have say a MOV file on your desktop and use quicktime to watch it, then delete recents menu in quicktime the MOV file still remains on the desktop. But quicktime has now forgotten the file. This applies to other software any other file in any location or folder.

Hope this helps.

 

[Barbara Davis]

Yes. It does. Thank you so much! Have a great day!

 

[Kaveman]

Sometimes the Copy App, it's not done by Finder, crashes and does this.

You just do a full restart as its a low level process that has crashed. Don't try and copy more files without the restart!