Posted by Steve Foss on February 11, 2007 at 10:37 AM
Hey all:
I have a Macintosh G4 and a 280 Gb Maxtor external hard drive connected through a Firewire port. When transerring folders of camera RAW and camera jpeg images from my desktop to the Maxtor, some of the files corrupt in such a way that when I go to open them later in photoshop, some won't open, and I have to dip into the CD/DVD backup. Well, that's what backups are for, but it is pretty irritating, when you consider how simple the data transfer process appears.
This happens even when I have no other applications or tasks running and am not surfing the Web. My G4 is pretty old and slow, with a 500 MHz processor and 768 Mg of RAM, but has enough punch to run OS 10.3.9 and CS2. Sometimes when I try to pull up one of these images, it appears as an intact thumbnail when viewed by photoshop before opening, but then opens as a completely black field, and other times opens with bizarre colors. Maybe five to 10 percent of the transferred images are corrupted.
Anyone have an idea if I'm doing something wrong? On the Maxtor, I have folders with each year on them, and I drag folders of images from my desktop into those folders on the Maxtor. So I may be dragging a folder of images named "2-10-07" Bohemian waxwings from my desktop into a folder named "2007 images" on my Maxtor.
Files that I've converted to photoshop tif or photoshop raw files never corrupt after transferring them to the Maxtor.
Posted by Guy Tal on February 11, 2007 at 10:48 AM
One possibility is that the FireWire cable is not properly shielded and prone to electric interference. If it runs very close to other components, I suggest you try to move it so it has more space or better yet - if you have a spare cable - try replacing it and see if it helps.
Guy
Posted by Steve Foss on February 11, 2007 at 10:57 AM
Thanks Guy, I'll try that. The external rests on top of the G4, so the only components near the firewire cable are the CPU and monitor. Is there a way for me to shield the cable more thoroughly than it is already? Something I can wrap it in?
The monitor could be the culprit or the power supply in the computer. You could try wrapping the cable with alumium foil. If that doesn't work, then the cable is likely bad and will need to be replaced. You might also try moving things around, as Guy suggested.
Do you have any speakers nearby? The magnets in the speakers could also affect the signal.
Discussion
3 repliesI have a Macintosh G4 and a 280 Gb Maxtor external hard drive connected through a Firewire port. When transerring folders of camera RAW and camera jpeg images from my desktop to the Maxtor, some of the files corrupt in such a way that when I go to open them later in photoshop, some won't open, and I have to dip into the CD/DVD backup. Well, that's what backups are for, but it is pretty irritating, when you consider how simple the data transfer process appears.
This happens even when I have no other applications or tasks running and am not surfing the Web. My G4 is pretty old and slow, with a 500 MHz processor and 768 Mg of RAM, but has enough punch to run OS 10.3.9 and CS2. Sometimes when I try to pull up one of these images, it appears as an intact thumbnail when viewed by photoshop before opening, but then opens as a completely black field, and other times opens with bizarre colors. Maybe five to 10 percent of the transferred images are corrupted.
Anyone have an idea if I'm doing something wrong? On the Maxtor, I have folders with each year on them, and I drag folders of images from my desktop into those folders on the Maxtor. So I may be dragging a folder of images named "2-10-07" Bohemian waxwings from my desktop into a folder named "2007 images" on my Maxtor.
Files that I've converted to photoshop tif or photoshop raw files never corrupt after transferring them to the Maxtor.
Guy
The monitor could be the culprit or the power supply in the computer. You could try wrapping the cable with alumium foil. If that doesn't work, then the cable is likely bad and will need to be replaced. You might also try moving things around, as Guy suggested.
Do you have any speakers nearby? The magnets in the speakers could also affect the signal.
-PB.