Project will not load "Unexpected end of file"

[audioartist202]

Greetings, has anyone ever encountered this error message??

Error occurred while reading from disk
Mac OS error. Unexpected end of file (-39)

Running DP7 on 10.6.8 went to open a clients project
and was greeted with the above message of death, luckily I had
a back up but now I want to figure out wtf went wrong.
Any input and or clues are welcome. thanks

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I haven't seen that in a very long time but it is not an unknown issue. Generally, it is usually the result of a corrupted file. You're luck (and smart) to have a backup.

I've never figured out what caused the issue when it has occurred here. I suspected that something may have gotten screwy in the save process. Maybe an interrupted disk access? That's only a best guess.

I'd start by checking the health and available space on your hard drives. I seem to recall that on occasion I may have been able to have the file recognized by DP and LOAD the chunk(s) and data, but again, it was a very long time ago.

All that said, I would seriously consider updating your OS and DP to the latest version. Your OS is 10 years old, which in computer time is a brazillion years. I'm only guessing here, but if your OS and DP versions are that old they have been sitting on the same disk for years as well (maybe not) and it may be time to at least look at updating your hard drive.

That would be my suggestions, but the bottom line here is that the file is corrupted. The best way IMO to guard against that is to try and get as current as your system will allow. You can get away with driving a 10 year old car and keep it maintained pretty well, but a 10 year old OS and app are not as easily maintained in 2019.

[mikehalloran]

Is your project and/or audio files on your boot drive or another/

[audioartist202]

Hello, thanks, I use 2 internal drives, one for system and one for data

[mikehalloran]

Hello, thanks, I use 2 internal drives, one for system and one for data

I expected an answer like this. The likely culprit is one of your drives, most likely your data drive. It can also be a hardware issue such as a controller or cable but that is unusual. The last Mac that shipped with OS 10.6 was built in 2011 so, if your drives are original, it’s way, way past time to replace them.

Your boot drive should have your System/Library/Applications and your active work files. That’s the way the Mac OS is designed to work. With 2TB SSDs priced below $300 nowadays, there’s no reason not to set it up properly. Having a second drive for your VIs is fine but there’s no technical advantage in doing that.

You don’t say what Mac you have. A Mini will not require a 3.5” to 2.5” drive adapter. A Mac Pro or iMac will. An iMac will also require a temp sensor—which one depends on the year.

Hopefully, everything is backed up properly. This will make updating painless even if time consuming.

With SSDs, you should enable TRIM to keep the drives healthy. You can get the TRIM Enabler here.
https://cindori.org/trimenabler/

Oskar still has versions going back to OS 10.6 (the version needs to match the OS). TRIM is built into the Mac OS but Apple disables it if it sees a non-Apple SSD and the Cindori tool fixes that. It’s a $10 utilities package but you can use it to enable TRIM only for free. Without this tool, it’s a complicated PIA to set up in Terminal unless you are running Yosemite 10.10.4 or later—then it’s really easy.

[audioartist202]

Thanks Mike, helpful to have some kind of clue what the culprit is.
Really, what I need to do is update the computer etc. Since Apple kinda
"boned" us all with their mac pro jet engine and no pci-e slot, I have been making due with what I have.