Copying files from ex HD to ex HD...error.

[JackBootThug]

Im using my MBA to copy large files from one external hard drive directly to another external hard drive.

But I get an error message that says something like "this process cannot be completed because the file abcd in being used."

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[chehjin]

Im using my MBA to copy large files from one external hard drive directly to another external hard drive.

But I get an error message that says something like "this process cannot be completed because the file abcd in being used."

Am I doing something wrong?

usually only get this when using move command.
Did you accidentally open this file in some app?

when you get this kind of message, you can check which process is holding on to the file and close the process if necessary

 

[JackBootThug]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm new to Mac. How can I determine what is "holding on"? Btw, I have restarted my mac and it didn't seem to help.

 

[asriznet]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm new to Mac. How can I determine what is "holding on"? Btw, I have restarted my mac and it didn't seem to help.

When you restart, make sure you uncheck this box to be sure the same program will not relaunch after restart.

You can also view Apple's version of task manager by using keyboard Shortcut: Command-Option-Escape

Also when copying/moving files, try to not move/copy everything if you have large amount of files, do it by batches. Even so, the transfer will still happen concurrently.

 

[chehjin]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm new to Mac. How can I determine what is "holding on"? Btw, I have restarted my mac and it didn't seem to help.

Use lsof to find 'file in use' culprits - Mac OS X Hints

try this command in terminal. Are you comfortable on command line. Don't worry, Super is disabled by default on Mac.

Anyway, again, you must have attempted to move the file instead of copy. Please do a copy than delete the old file.

 

[JackBootThug]

Thanks very much for the help. I'm not longer having that problem but I'll keep this in mind.
jbt