Can somebody please fucking explain to me why the Finder would simply stop copying files without throwing an error? I was backing up all my project files because I needed big space on my laptop for video editing. It said the copy was done, I opened the folder, everything looked okay, I erased the files off my hard drive.
Today I discovered that, in fact, no folder with a name after ‘P’ got copied. It just stopped, no alert, no explanation. When I opened the folder to verify, I just looked and saw that all the subfolders and everything seemed to be there, so I didn’t notice, because I didn’t scroll down in the window.
I’m so fucked.
You’re fucked. Never erase unless you’ve verified your backups. Use Time Machine or Backup software.
Finder copies of drives don’t count as backups, because there’s no verify of the data copied, and also due to Finder’s tendency to cancel copies when it hits a weird file name without complaining about an unfinished copy.
If you haven’t overwritten the files, you can find programs to recover data. You MIGHT be able to find some of it.
get linux. Fedora works well. Format your drives in ext 3, use at least 2 drives per machine, your files will be safe.