The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Leopard data loss glitch uncovered

Moved to tears

Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software

A blogger has uncovered what he claims is a "massive" bug in Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 Finder app that could result in the loss of data when folders are moved from a Mac to directly- or network-connected storage.

According to Tom Karpik, the bug manifests itself when an attempt to move - rather than copy - a folder from the Mac is interrupted. Moving a folder off a disk essentially involves first copying it then deleting the original. Karpik shows that Finder fails to ensure that the folder has been successfully written to the target disk before removing the original.

No matter what happens to the copy, the original is zapped by Finder.

We followed Karpik's instructions - albeit using a USB Flash drive rather than a folder shared on the network - and Leopard does indeed remove the original folder even though we pulled out the drive mid-way through the move.

The result: whatever data you had in the folder is gone from both the source disk and the target.

That said, this isn't the kind of problem most users will encounter. By default, Mac OS X moves files and folders when the target is the same drive as the source, but if source and destination are different, the OS copies them. To move folders, you have to hold down the Command key, and we suspect most users will copy folders and then delete the original manually.

Let's hope Apple takes note. It's already said to be readying Mac OS X 10.5.1 for release, and this should be part of the bug-fix list.

Thanks to reader Erik for the tip - and apologies for not including this line sooner

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Latest Comments

Hardly a dissaster!

Hey, wow, so it could happen!

To put it bluntly, anyone who moves - as against copies - a folder from one drive to another (including network storage) is risking disaster. File corruption can happen at any point and invisibly - as I found out to my cost recently - so anyone who loses information due to moving rather than copying loses my sympathy as well as their data.

It may be a 'bug' but it's one I would never, ever encounter because I am not that stupid.

See you on the dark side... Windows that is.

0
0

http://bugreport.apple.com

I just tried that link (I didn't knows about it). After logging in I get a NullPointer exception - how do I report that do you think?

tee hee!

0
0
Anonymous Coward

@Anonymous Coward Re: @Danny Thompson

But the roughly equivalent Windows (Vista) version of this bug was a show stopper - taking too long to copy, move or delete files over a network. This bug you just have to make sure you copy a file rather than move one over a network - OK, it is a waste of your time having waiting for the copy to finish, so the source file can be deleted.

I'm no particular Mac OS X fan or Windows hater (except when it ruins my day :)

Both Windows and Mac OS X seem to show a lack of network robustness, you can forgive Windows as it is only a PC DOS extended to network, the surprise is that Mac OS X with its NEXTSTEP roots is not.

0
0

More from The Register

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux
Bjarne Again: Hallelujah for C++
Plus: Now officially OK to admit you never used STL algorithms
Interwebs taunt Sir Jony over Apple eye candy makeover
Hey Ive, Ive... add more unicorns, willya?
Apple: iOS7 dayglo Barbie makeover is UNFINISHED - report
Plus: You don't like the icons? Blame marketing
Red Hat to ditch MySQL for MariaDB in RHEL 7
So long, Oracle! Don't let the door hit you on the way out
Shy? Socially inadequate? Fiddling with your phone could help
App 'tells the brutal truth' about social inadequates' chatup lines
Java EE 7 melds HTML5 with enterprise apps
New release arrives with GlassFish, NetBeans support
 breaking news
'Office Facebook' firm Tibbr wants you to PAY for mobe-meetings app
Great idea. Punters won't cough for it though
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
PM Cameron calls for modern, programmable computers! (We think)
IT education musings to G8 chiefs to mystify IT industry