Strange folder problem

[Black]

I keep a folder at the root level of my hard drive called "music."
It's around 300 GB-- originally it was pure CD rips but my standards have lowered . . .

After transitioning from a 2006 iMac running 10.5.8 to a 2010 iMac running whatever version of SL is shipping via Migration Assistant, I got the "broken alias" dialogue when trying to open the folder. Get Info never finishes calculating. It was definitely taking up the 300 GB or so on the hard drive.

I trashed it (and got all the space back-- it's definitely not an alias) and copied it back over from a backup.

When I went to try it-- same deal. Broken alias, can't be opened.

More disturbingly, the same thing has now happened to the corresponding folder on the backup drive.

I just tested on my portable and 10.6 does not seem to have a problem with a "Music" folder at root level.

Obviously this is a bit of a problem . . . years' of collected music, all of my iTunes libraries based on this folder, etc. And somehow "infectuous." Anyone seen this before?

[Black]

More- when I try to link it to itself it's grayed out.
Permissions are read/write for everyone.

[Chakravartin]

Is "ignore ownership" checked in the Finder's Get Info window for that backup drive?

[space-time]

I keep a folder at the root level of my hard drive called "music."


any particular reason why you don't keep this inside your home folder? I bet you would not have these issues. Do you have issues with any other folders inside your home folder?

[Black]

space-time wrote:
I keep a folder at the root level of my hard drive called "music."


any particular reason why you don't keep this inside your home folder? I bet you would not have these issues. Do you have issues with any other folders inside your home folder?

I want it accessible from all users. Also, there's a "music" folder in the user folder that's full of random crap that seemed to get in there automatically from iTunes in the past-- I want to keep complete control over the folder (and don't want a name clash). My Music folder predates OSX.

[Black]

Chakravartin wrote:
Is "ignore ownership" checked in the Finder's Get Info window for that backup drive?

Not sure-- will have to check when I get home. I don't think so though.

It's going to be tricky trying to solve this without hosing the rest of my backups. Extremely unnerving that the same thing happened to the folder on the backup drive. It was opening and displaying fine when I before I copied it over last night.

[Chakravartin]

Black wrote:
I want it accessible from all users.

There's a "Shared" folder in the Users folder for that.

[Chakravartin]

Get info on the folder and see if it belongs to "Nobody."

You may have deleted or migrated the user account that the folder was originally created under, leaving it associated with a nonexistent UID.

[Black]

Chakravartin wrote:
[quote=Black]
I want it accessible from all users.

There's a "Shared" folder in the Users folder for that.
It's been sort of grandfathered at root location and I have not wanted to risk breaking any links to iTunes playlists and such. If I end up having to relocate it I'll put it there, thanks.

[Black]

Chakravartin wrote:
Get info on the folder and see if it belongs to "Nobody."

You may have deleted or migrated the user account that the folder was originally created under, leaving it associated with a nonexistent UID.

Good suggestion, thanks-- will take a look when I get home.