Name Too Long and -50 errors

[ronhare]

G5 iMac, 10.5.7

File Name Too Long and -50 errors when attempting to copy files on the boot drive OR to external drives. Boot drive has plenty of free space. Files have short names with no questionable characters in their file names.

Booted with the Leopard Install disc and repaired minor errors. No luck.

Repaired permissions and zapped the PRAM. No luck.

What could I try next other than wipe and reinstall?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

...and -50 errors when attempting to copy files on the boot drive OR to external drives...

So... this happens in which of the following situations:

1) You copy a file on the boot drive to another location on the boot drive.
2) You copy a file on the boot drive to an external drive.
3) You copy a file on an external drive to the boot drive.
4) You copy a file on an external drive to another location on the external drive.
5) You copy a file on an external drive to another external drive.

Which of those situations brings about the -50 error?

My first impression is that you've got an external drive that you purchased, unboxed, and immediately began using without formatting the drive first -- in which case, the drive is probably in FAT32 format (which is ancient and doesn't offer the greatest compatibility with Mac computers).

 

[ronhare]

Thanks for asking the questions. I went back to the user and got a different story:

These two problems existed ONLY when copying files to EXTERNAL drives. There are 3 externals, all formatted for Mac Extended Journaled.
This convinced me to zap the PRAM again and the problem cleared.
My apologies for bad info and thanks again.