Mac OSX Leopard glitch may lead to data loss

It seems that Leopard isn’t so perfect as Apple would lead many to believe, though this is a relatively minor problem, it may annoy or anger some.

A blogger claims that attempting to move a folder (not copy) from a local disk to an external source (network storage or flash memory that if the external source is removed, Leopard will delete the original and copy.

According to The Register, “No matter what happens to the copy, the original is zapped by Finder.”

The staff there did their own test to see if this was the case by moving a folder from the hard drive to a USB stick and when the USB stick was removed, Leopard did delete the original even though the transfer was only half done.

Regardless of what happens to the files being moved, Leopard will delete the original even if it doesn’t successfully finish.

But, this isn’t a problem for most users because to move a folder, the command key must be held down and the file dragged to a new location, most people will just use copy and delete the original manually.

To me, the move features seems a bit pointless but maybe not so pointless when dealing with many files or transfers at the same time.

It’s anyone’s guess if Apple will be fixing this in the next batch of bug fixes.

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