OS X: Incomplete and partial files

5 thoughts on “OS X: Incomplete and partial files”

1. There is probably a easy way to find “busy” files… for example…
   In a terminal type each of these commands and hit the return key :
   man mdls
   man mdfind
   man mdutil

   But better yet, use Carbon Copy Cloner which probably will not have problems copying and if it does, logs them in detail and the author, who is a god, actually fixes them.

   Reply

2. We are having the same problem in my office with a windows server 2003 cluster hosting our file shares. Changing the create date fixes the folders for us but we still don’t know how to prevent it in the first place. We use the setfile command to change the create date(SetFile -d mm/dd/yyyy folderpath ). Set file is part of the xcode tools so you will need to install that to use it. I used the install for 10.6 as I could not find one for 10.7. We also use a python script to find and change bad create dates. It also need xcode tools. I will paste the script below. Good luck.

   #!/usr/bin/python

   “””
   Only runs on OSX. This utility depends on /usr/bin/GetFileInfo and
   /usr/bin/SetFile, both included with XCode. This utility scans a directory for
   files, checks the create date on the files, and if that date is earlier than
   1970, resets the date to 04/21/1977

   This is intended to fix issues with OSX and Windows SMB file shares caused
   by invalid “create” dates on certain files.

   Usage: fix_create_day.py
   “””

   import sys, getopt
   import datetime
   import os
   import subprocess

   # TODO: Check that date is valid before passing to SetFIle
   # TODO: Check that GetFileInfo and SetFile exist
   # TODO: Error handling for Popen calls

   def check_date(path):
   p = subprocess.Popen([‘/usr/bin/GetFileInfo’, ‘-d’, path.strip()],
   stderr=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
   output, errors = p.communicate()
   if errors:
   print “Unable to call GetFileInfo for ” + path
   print errors
   return output, errors

   def fix_date(path, tsf, set_date):
   print ‘”{0}”,{1}’.format(path, tsf)
   p = subprocess.Popen([‘/usr/bin/SetFile’, ‘-d’,
   str(set_date), str(path)], stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
   stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
   output, errors = p.communicate()
   if errors:
   print errors
   raise “It broke” #TODO

   def main():
   earliest_allowed = datetime.datetime.strptime(“01/01/1971”, “%m/%d/%Y”)
   set_date = “04/21/1977” # Must be formatted as %m/%d/%Y
   tocheck = [‘.’]
   try:
   opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], “d:” )
   except getopt.GetoptError, err:
   print str(err) # will print something like “option -a not recognized”
   usage()
   sys.exit(2)
   for o, a in opts:
   if o == “-d”:
   set_date = a
   else:
   assert False, “unhandled option”
   if args:
   tocheck = args

   for file in tocheck:
   for root, dirs, files in os.walk(file):
   files = files + dirs
   for file in files:
   path = os.path.join(root,file)
   output, errors = check_date(path)
   if errors:
   continue
   if not output:
   continue
   try:
   tsf = datetime.datetime.strptime(output.strip(),
   “%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S”)
   except:
   print “Unable to parse date time for file {0}: {1}”.format(
   path, output.strip())
   continue
   if tsf < earliest_allowed:
   fix_date(path, tsf, set_date)

   if __name__ == "__main__":
   main()

   Reply

3. the following fixed it for me:

   SetFile -d “$(GetFileInfo -m greyDir)” greyDir

   source:
   http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/49154/how-to-change-the-creation-date-time-of-a-file-in-lion

   Reply

4. Hi,

   I had a folder “tutorials” which didn’t copy complete and was hidden like yours. What I did:
   1. open terminal and browse to the folder containing tutorials
   2. create a new directory – mkdir tutorials2
   3. move everything from the ‘broken’ tutorials folder to the other: mv tutorials/* tutorials2/
   4. delete tutorials (doesn’t always work) – but at least you get to see your data in tutorials2 – rm tutorials
   5. (if 4. worked out) rename tutorials2 to to tutorials – mv tutorials2 tutorials

   Reply

   1. This is exactly what I did today and it worked fine. It suggests the metadata about the partial copy was stored in the directory itself (and not in the DS_Store or anywhere else).

      Reply

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