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Archive 2015 · NEF files corrupted when copying!

  
 
cambyses
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · NEF files corrupted when copying!


Last night I encountered a strange problem for the first time. I opened LR (CC) on my MacBook Pro and for some reason, LR complained that the NEF raw files in one of my directories on a Seagate external hard drive are corrupt and cannot be edited. It would still show the previews though. Then I tried PS and it couldn't open those files either. Then I tried the native Preview on Mac and it also failed to open any of those files.

So I went to the backup copy of that directory that I had on a second external ioSafe hard drive. Thankfully, the files there seemed OK. So I copied that directory onto my local MacBook drive as well as onto the Seagate external drive. Interestingly, while the one on my local drive seemed fine, the one copied on Seagate was again corrupted!

I tried copying another set of NEF files from my local drive to either Seagate or ioSafe drives, and to my surprise again, in both cases, the files would not copy properly and I would end up with corrupt NEF files in either external drive. And the problem did persist after multiple re-starting of both my Macbook Pro and my external drives. I had never had a problem like this before.

Looking at the corrupted file info's, I suspect it is the metadata (and not the image data itself) that is getting corrupted when copying. And given that it seems to happen with both of my external drives, I doubt it is the external hard drive issue alone.

Finally, after some search on the internet, I downloaded and installed the trial version of Turbo Copy Pro (http://www.turbocopypro.com/), and to my surprise, it worked! i.e., when, instead of the mac native Cmd+V for pasting, I used Turbo Copy Pro (simply by clicking Ctrl+Cmd+V when pasting) to copy the NEF files from my local drive to either of my external drives, the copied files were no longer corrupted and seemed to be opened properly by LR/PS and Preview.

Now, while this seems to have solved my problem, I have lost some trust in using our external hard drives in our workflow, and I like to understand what is going on here?! Why, all of a sudden, the native mac copy/paste of the NEF files from my local drive to any of my external hard drives seem to corrupt the NEF files (most likely the metadata only)?!

Anyone has had any similar experience? Would greatly appreciate any input anyone may have on what may be the root cause here.

Thanks...




Jun 26, 2015 at 11:47 AM
howardm4
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · NEF files corrupted when copying!


very very weird.

one thought might be that the superblock/directory 'structure' on the externals has been corrupted somehow and teh Mac is tripping over it.

One of the best tools to check that with is Diskwarrior but it's not cheap.

Have you already run Verify/Repair via the Mac's Disk Utility on the extenrals?



Jun 26, 2015 at 12:53 PM
cambyses
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · NEF files corrupted when copying!


howardm4 wrote:
very very weird.

one thought might be that the superblock/directory 'structure' on the externals has been corrupted somehow and teh Mac is tripping over it.

One of the best tools to check that with is Diskwarrior but it's not cheap.

Have you already run Verify/Repair via the Mac's Disk Utility on the extenrals?


Thanks a lot... Yes, very weird indeed... Will try the Disk Utility tonight, though cannot imagine how both external drives would simultaneously end up with a corrupt structure.



Jun 26, 2015 at 01:25 PM
Alan321
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · NEF files corrupted when copying!


Welcome to my world, where if it can go wrong then it soon will

Get yourself a copy of Image Verifier so that you can (1) create a unique code for each file, (2) compare files at any time and any location with their stored code to see the file contents have changed, (3) see if the files have a valid image-like structure (it uses DNG Converter to create temporary DNG files and report structural errors, then discards the DNG files).

After copying files I verify the destination files to make sure they copied correctly.

There are other very good comparison utilities but this is the only one I have come across that can check to see that each file is a usable image file, whether or not it copied correctly.


I also suggest that you change the cable(s) between your computer and the external drives. They can go bad, as can drives, computers, cameras, etc., etc. The cable might get kinked, tugged, bent too much, or whatever. Some cables have circuits in them that can go wrong.

Also check whether or not the external drive needs an external power adapter and whether or not it is work. It is possible for some drives to draw more amperage than a USB cable is meant to supply (0.5 A for USB 2, 0.9 A for USB 3.0) and then not function properly and consistently.

- Alan



Jul 01, 2015 at 11:58 PM





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