The dragging and dropping problem is still there after the restart. Got anymore suggestions for my problem? Do you know which file, or command, or script, or whatever controls the drag and drop function? This computer is perfect except for that one little snag. Oh and sometimes when wake my computer and put in my password the screen goes black, but a few seconds later it asks for my password again and logs in fine, so I can live with that.

Then it sounds like it's time to reexamine your system log to determine just what is crashing.

This has been a long and confusing thread with many different issues.
Could we please have a recap?
Please explain again what the drag & drop problem is. And if possible, show us a screen capture of the symptoms.

And tell us what things you have done to try to fix this. E.g. have you repaired your filesystem (using Disk Utility or DiskWarrior)?

The problem is quite simple. If I have a file on my desktop (I will use the variable X for my desktop document in this example it is a jpeg) X can be any type of file, I've tried it with all different kinds. I click on X and drag it to the Macintosh HD Icon, it opens the contents of the MHD icon showing my home folder, documents, pictures, etc... Then while still holding on to the original document X I take that document and hold it over any of those places inside my MHD (home folder, applications, documents, etc..) Now the contents of that folder are exposed (in this example the pictures folder). I let go of the clicker on the bottom of the trackpad to drop X into the desired location, I hear a noise that goes boing, and then a finder message comes up that says the volume pictures could not be found ( I can physically see the folder, but when I double click it that finder message comes up). Then I restart the MBP and all of the contents of the pictures folder are there, and so is the file that I dragged and dropped into it originally.

The pictures are in order from start to finish.

Here are the last two pictures, because it would only let me do three at a time. I have used Disk Utility to verify and repair disk permissions, but I don't know if there is anything else I should be doing. I even did the steps Trevor suggested in post #2

Boot to your OS X Install disc, select Disk Utility from one of the pulldown menus, go to the First Aid tab, select your boot drive, and click "Repair Disk". Repeat until no problems are found.

Or if you have it, run DiskWarrior while booted to the DiskWarrior CD.

I don't have Disk Warrior so I didn't do that, only the first part.

The last picture is after I restart.

Please note that "Repair Disk Permissions" (what you say you did) is quite different from "Repair Disk" (what Trevor recommended).

After looking at the screen captures you supplied, I see that the problem is when you are dropping the file on the "Pictures" icon in the Finder "SideBar".

So one thing to try (as a diagnostic measure, not as a solution) is to drop the file on the actual Pictures folder in the right-hand side of the Finder window (not in the SideBar on the left). I.e. open a Finder window on your home folder. You should see a Pictures icon in the bigger area on the right-side of the Finder window. Try doing the same drag & onto this Pictures icon instead of onto the one in the SideBar. Does that work - or do you get the same error message?

If the problem is only with your SideBar, then I would recommend removing the plist file (under ~/Library/Preferences) that stores your SideBar configuration - it is the one with SideBar in its name. And then you will need to set up your SideBar the way you want it by dragging the folder icons (e.g. that for Pictures) from the main area on the right-side of the Finder window into the Sidebar.

Sorry I meant I did both.

I did what you said in the first paragraph and it worked fine.

I removed the .plist from the preferences in my HD and home folder. However, I still had the same problem after I restarted.

So that shows that your problem is limited to the Sidebar.

You had a Sidebar plist under /Library/Preferences ? That is strange.
It is usual only to have a per-user plist for the Sidebar - i.e. under ~/Library/Preferences
( ~ = your home folder)

The name of the Sidebar preferences file is:
com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

Please launch the "Terminal" application (under /Applications/Utilities) and copy & paste the following commands (all together), press Return, then copy & paste the results back here so we can see:

id
ls -l ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists
defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists useritems | grep Name
echo "done"

uid=501(myname) gid=501(myname) groups=501(myname), 80(admin)
my-name-computer:~ myname$ ls -l ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists
ls: /Users/myname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists: No such file or directory
my-name-computer:~ myname$ defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists useritems | grep Name
Name = Desktop;
Name = myname;
Name = Applications;
Name = Documents;
Name = Movies;
Name = Music;
Name = Pictures;
my-name-computer:~ myname$ echo "done"

In the picture the first is the one in my HD and the second is the one in my home folder. I removed both of them to the desktop, restarted, and still had the drag and drop problem. I think the computer just created new ones when I removed them, because the dates are recent.

Hmm, I've never seen that (a system-wide Sidebar prefs file in the /Library/Preferences folder) but it is of course possible (i.e. is consistent with the general preferences handling).
But I don't know what causes this system-wide prefs file to be created.

Has anyone else seen a system-wide prefs for Sidebar contents?

No, I haven't. I wonder if one logs in to the GUI as root if that is where the SideBar prefs would be saved?

JUS2MUCH, do you log in to OS X as the root user?

Trevor

I am not sure about the term "root user", but I am the only one who logs on to this computer, and the only one who uses it. I created another account for my wife, but she never uses it, because she has her own computer.

OK, then it sounds like you have a normal admin account. The root user is a special user in Unix operating systems that is basically all-powerful. Apple disables the root user in OS X for good security reasons, but it is possible to re-enable root.

Trevor

So do I need to re-enable root? Or am I good with the admin power?

You do not need to re-enable root. It's a security hole. I was just theorizing that you had, and that that is why you had the a SideBar preferences file in /Library/Preferences. There must be some other explanation.

Trevor

And that other explanation has to explain why the system-wide plist file is getting recreated after it was moved out to the Desktop.

JUS2MCH, you've given us a screenshot of this file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist. However, I'd like to see it from the Terminal, which might reveal something additiional.

Can you give us the results of the following command? Copy/paste it into your Terminal, and then hit the Return key.

ls -alheiu /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

As far as the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist goes, searching for it with Google yields zero results--all listed results are for ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist.

Trevor

It might also be useful to show us the contents of your two com.apple.sidebarlists.plist files by doing the following:

Launch the "Terminal" application (under /Applications/Utilities) and copy & paste the following commands (all together), press Return, then copy & paste the results back here so we can see:

id
echo "Contents of system-wide plist:"
defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists | sed 's/<.*>;/<>;/g'
echo "Contents of per-user plist:"
defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists | sed 's/<.*>;/<>;/g'
echo "done"