Cannot mount external USB drive with FDisk_partition_scheme

Due to some recent mac issues in my lab, we updated one of the computers to Maverick 10.9.4 from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 yesterday. Anyhow, this seems to have erased the ability of the mac to read or mount several identical USB drives with the NTFS format (WD My Passport Ultra 500GB USB3.0). It could do it yesterday when it was OSX 10.6.8, but not today (OSX 10.9.4). The drives still work fine on other OSX 10.6.8, Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04 computers (this is appears to be a problem with the Maverick 10.9.4 operating system itself, rather than the flash drives which work flawlessly with every other computer I've tried). I want to remove data from the computer to create backups on the USB drives (no, I don't want to create an online backup or buy a new set of USB drives).
diskutil can see the drives, but cannot verify or repair them as they lack a GUID (GPT) partition scheme. I'm assuming this is the root of the problem. Manually mounting the drives does not work. Installing the ntfs-3g driver also did not work (I was using this to write to the NTFS drives until we upgraded OS's). Installing the WD Passport drivers for OSX also did not work. How do I get the mac to mount these drives?
I could reformat one USB drive and then copy to the others, but this would be extremely inconvenient and take days of copying files back and forth (and would prefer to fix the mac rather than go through this with every NTFS drive I own). If I did this, the FAT32 hard drive format would not be suitable, as format is unable to handle the extremely large sequencing datasets I need to transfer. I'm not super familiar with hard drive formats, but in the event we cannot get Maverick to actually work could someone possibly suggest a format able to handle large file sizes (the largest file I need to move is ~60GB) and be compatible with Windows 8.1 / OSX 10.9.4 / Ubuntu 14.04 as well?
Another workaround I thought of would be just to install an Ubuntu partition on the mac and get the files off through the Linux install. Which is also inconvenient, but would probably be faster than trying to reformat the drives and copy everything over onto them again given the amount of data I want to transfer.
Unrelated, but is there any way to view files and folders in the OSX root directory besides through Terminal? It seems like this functionality was also removed when we "upgraded" from Snow Leopard. (At this point, if it were up to me I would wipe all of the macs we own and replace them with Ubuntu... even the most minor of tasks always require some sort of workaround with them... at my wits end here ).

Yeah this definitely appears to be a problem specifically with this mac. It's been having all sorts of weird problems lately, and we figured that upgrading to Maverick might fix them (but instead we got new problems).
To give an update on this, I ended up reformatting one of the drives to HFS+ and disabled journaling. It now recognizes the drive again, and I'm pulling the files off that way. I looked at exFAT, but it looks like HFS+ has much better Linux support (Windows is read-only but that's only a minor annoyance, as the algorithms to process the data only run on UNIX machines anyways). It's a shame I couldn't keep using NTFS (had to copy over literally EVERYTHING again...) but whatever. Again, no solution for the issue (where this mac can't read NTFS drives).
@rkaufmann87 - To give a bit more explanation, we recently had to disable online backups because apparently the sheer amount of data causes Time Machine to freeze the computer and fail every time it has a scheduled backup (original issue we thought that upgrading to Maverick would solve... didn't work). The hard drive has been having a lot of issues when it begins to reach max capacity as well. So I am pulling off all of my files to external hard drives and deleting the local copy before we attempt to back up online again. And the data would probably take me a year and a lot of money to recreate (for the curious, it's high throughput sequencing data). I'm choosing not to take any chances as a result.

Similar Messages

Cannot mount external USB drive

During a recent update I remember pacman asking about replacing some package with another package to handle disk mounting. I think the added package was "gnome-volume-manager" or "gnome-disk-utility" (or both). I didn't see any postings describing problems with doing this, so went ahead and allowed the change. Now it's a few days later and I find I cannot mount an external USB hard drive anymore. It has an entry in fstab, and although I have tried mutiple edits of the device to associate the drive with, nothing works.
The disk used to associate with /dev/sdb1. Now this device no longer exists. Here is what has happened to my /dev/sd* entries:
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 2009-10-27 11:08 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 3 2009-10-27 11:08 /dev/sda3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 2009-10-27 11:08 /dev/sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 2009-10-27 11:08 /dev/sda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 4 2009-10-27 11:08 /dev/sda4
brw-rw---- 1 root storage 8, 16 2009-11-04 13:00 /dev/sdb
Trying to force association with "/dev/sdb" "/dev/sda5" (or some other number not in use) or "sdb1" (or 2,3,4, whatever) just yields "special device ... does not exist".
Does anybody know how to deal with this?
Does anybody know what package(s) I replaced when the update in question took place? I think I'd like to reverse whatever happened.
And on another note, I think another gnome-based package also recently replaced a package relating to printing. Yesterday I discovered I have printing problems too:
At first there were no printers found. Although cups is supposed to start according to rc.conf, cupsd was not running. I started it manually and then all the printers showed up again, though I cannot print duplex (again, worked fine before). What is going on with these gnome packages?!? Anyone know which package(s) I need to remove (and then what to put back) to make printing work like it used to also?
thanks much.

oddly, fdisk -l shows nothing, even for disks which are mounted (eg. /dev/sda4). when I insert a standard USB thumb drive, the following show up properly:
brw-rw---- 1 root storage 8, 32 2009-11-05 10:50 /dev/sdc
brw-rw---- 1 root storage 8, 33 2009-11-05 10:50 /dev/sdc1
and I am able to mount and use the drive as usual.
The external drive I've been struggling with has xfs for filesystem type. After using the thumb drive, /dev/sdb showed up spontaneously, but no /dev/sdb1. attempting to mount gives:
mount: /dev/sdb is not a valid block device
or
mount: special device /dev/sdb1 does not exist
depending on which device is specified in fstab.
I am thinking that either a) my ability to mount xfs filesystems has somehow been hosed, or b) there is something wrong with drive, which must have spontaneously failed very recently (it is less than 1 yr old, but this happens from time to time).
If the drive is okay, any ideas about how mounting xfs filesystems could have been broken by recent upgrades?
btw, the fstab entry (which worked fine until a couple days ago) is: /dev/sdb1 /mnt/external_1 xfs rw,noauto,user,exec 0 0

Is it possible to format an external USB drive with XFS or EXT3 ?

Greetings all.
I am running a 2,8Ghz 8x core with 6Gb ram. I have a NAS, (Buffalo Pro Duo Linkstation) which has a built in linux which saves data using XFS (I think). It has a built in backup routine, but the drive it backs up to MUST be in XFS or EXT3 (Fat 32 works but it drops all files over 2GB ;( ... ) So - here's my question:
How can I format the external USB drive (A seagate freeagent) in XFS or EXT3 so that it can run on my Buffalo? My preference is to use a GUI mac program (does one exist?) or to use a command line UNIX command (FSK? - but then, how????). I could also use (GASP!) a windows utility on parallels, or even install a linux distro via parallels. But it should be easy I hope...
Looking forward to any ideas/thoughts, tips, etc.
thanks and best to all from Berlin,
Jason

Download a "Live CD" (one you can boot of into running copy of Linux without having to install anything; for example, [OpenSUSE Live CD|http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/iso/cd/openSUSE-11.0-GNOME-Li veCD-x86_64.iso]).
Use OS X' Disk Utility to burn it to a CD.
Insert the CD you just burned (if it ejected afterwards), and then restart your Mac.
Hold down the 'C' key on the keyboard as the Mac boots, and it should switch to booting off the CD. Once the CD starts loading, you can let go. It will take a couple of minutes, but it will eventually boot into Linux.
Attach your USB drive.
Run gparted (you need to search the menus for it, it's under system administration, I think -- or you can open up a terminal window and simply type 'gparted').
Find your disk (/dev/sdb or /dev/sda) and partition and format it using the filesystem you want.
When done, restart the computer. You'll boot back into Mac OS X and have an EXT2/EXT3/XFS formatted external drive (that OS X won't recognize, by the way).

External USB drive with 3000 N100

Hi,
Good to be here - first post!
Needing more capacity I bought a Seagate FreeAgent Go 2.5 inch 120GB drive that draws its power from the computer using two USB ports.
I could not get this to work at all - it seemed be a hardware issue with the drive: it made a bleeping sound and was not detected by the computer. It also seriously upset the Lenovo and I had to do a hard reboot by disconnecting the battery, after which it ran normally (but the Seagate still didn't work at all).
I then connected the Seagate to my desktop PC with the same (negative) result.
So, was the Seagate dead from the word go? Or was there a power issue with the Lenovo that killed it?
I've checked that my Lenovo has the latest BIOS, and all its WinXP Pro updates are up to date. What success, or otherwise, have others had with portable external drives with the 3000 N100?
Best wishes

Thanks to all for their suggestions. The final outcome was a bit of a surprise - it works! Depending upon which USB ports you plug into (this drive, like many other portable ones) uses two USB ports to supply extra power). It would appear that the Lenovo uses "some" power from the USB for internal devices - the built-in webcam being one. Examining the USB ports in Device Manager shows which ports are "used", although I confess the information is not easy to interpret. It looks like this drive needs the full 1 amp (2 x 500mA) from the two ports. On the 3000 N100, using the two ports on the right, nearest the front of the PC, seems do do the trick.
The same applied to my desktop - the two ports I plugged into originally shared a common 500mA supply and that's why the drive didn't work. Again, finding two "independent" ports did the trick.
So it might mean that the Lenovo is a bit marginal in regard to supplying power from the USB ports

Cannot access external USB HDD with ThinkPad e145

I just purchased an E-145 without an OS installed and I am having a problem getting the BIOS to recognize an attached usb drive. None of the ports work with an external HDD. I can boot with flash drives from all ports, but the external drive is not recognized. The BIOS (2.02) is set to allow both legacy (first) and UEFI boots. The same drive works without problems on my T500. Anyone else seeing problems like this?
Also, in the notes for updating the BIOS, I see the following:
- Lenovo recommends to install the USB 3.0 driver for Windows (Version 1.4.0.225 or higher) prior to updating the BIOS. Because the BIOS requires the modification in the USB 3.0 driver to fix USB 3.0 related issues.
What update is this supposed to be? There is no link or further information. I have no idea what to do with that recomendation. I see this recommendation on a lot of the BIOS readme files for other ThinkPads, so it looks like a blanket statement that is IMO of no help to the customer.

I wonder what the chipset in the case is. If I remember, the Oxford chipset may have a problem with Mac.
If you have a Windows box there, I'd suggest plugging it in and letting Windows format the disk. Then see if it works on Mac.

[SOLVED]failure to mount external usb drive, possible hardware malfu

Please excuse me for posting this in the Arch forums, but I'd appreciate at least a point in the right direction. Every Google hit I came up with had a dubious solution like "reinstall USB drivers". I've never had an external drive fail on me yet, and I think this might be a sign of one. I recently moved and set up a 750gb WD external drive connected to this laptop running Arch and WinXP. Drive was working fine until this morning. I see it's entry in Thunar, but when I try to mount it:
Failed to mount "xxx".
WARNING: Couldn't set locale to 'en_PH.utf8' thus some file names may not
be correct or visible. Please see the potential solution at
http://ntfs-3g.org/support.html#locale
Error opening '/dev/sdb1': Permission denied
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Permission denied
Please check '/dev/sdb1' and the ntfs-3g binary permissions,
and the mounting user ID. More explanation is provided at
http://ntfs-3g.org/support.html#unprivileged.
I got an entirely different error msg in Arch before, suggesting a chkdsk but I don't remember beyond that.
In Windows, I get USB device not recognized. I've tried turning the thing off and back on, making sure it's connected and swiping cables, rebooting Arch, nothing. Is it fried? Also, how does one even run a chkdsk on a drive that can't be mounted in Windows?
Thanks for the assistance.
Last edited by elephantos (2008-07-11 04:59:28)

Thunar is saying it's a permission problem... have you tried manually mounting it?

Terminal/Unix Command to Mount External USB Drive?

I am having a probelm with the directory on an external HDD. The "device" is showing up in the utility software (DRIVE GENIUS/DISK UTILITY) but not the "volume," so it can't affect any repairs except INTIALIZE. So, I'm presuming the drive is physically okay - just the directory is fouled up. Is there some unix command to run that will repair the directory in some manner? Thanks!

Hi Metroxing,
   What you presume is not a given but yes, the existence of the device file greatly decreases the relative probability of your having a hardware problem. However, I have a question. I'm not sure of what you mean by the term "directory".
   In "UNIX" jargon a directory is that which in "Mac" jargon would be a filesystem "folder". However, there is another data structure in the filesystem that I think is called a "directory". I assume that's simply an abstraction of the Catalog B-Tree and related files. I know about this use of the term "directory" from discussions and readings on Alsoft's DiskWarrior. That is supposed to do exactly what you want, "rebuild the directory structure", and is a relatively inexpensive "best-of-breed" solution.
Gary
~~~~
   Imitation is the sincerest form of television.
         -- Fred Allen

Cannot mount external TM drive

This may be a general drive-related question.
TM was in a loop saying "waiting for index" or something similar. This went on for over two hours.
I thought a repair might solve the problem. Turned backups off in preferences.
Tried to eject the drive. Failed with "in use." Tried unmounting. Same result.
Did a restart. Got message that "a device" was not ejected properly. TM drive is no longer on desktop.
TM drive is connected via FireWire. Tried unplugging, then reconnecting the drive. Nothing. Tried power off, then power on. Nothing.
Suggestions please?
Thanks,
harv47

Pondini wrote:
harv47 wrote:
Well, I guess I can try those substitutions. But the power and FireWire cables that don't work now are the same ones that worked fine before.
You'd be surprised how often a new cable fixes that sort of problem.
That point about disabling virus checking of the backup drive is a good one.
Yes, and you might also want to exclude it from Spotlight indexing, at least temporarily, via +System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.+ For some odd reason, Spotlight sometimes interferes with TM backups, especially the big initial one.
Virus checker now bypasses the TM volume, as does Spotlight.
Please define "temporarily". Should it be included again after the initial backup?
harv47

IPhoto cannot see external storage drive

Very unusual freeze-up while "repairing" iPhoto required a forced shut down. Now cannot see external hard drive with photos on it. Can you help please.

Have no idea the format of the external disk. It plugs into the back of my big monitor and has worked perfectly until I upgraded to Yosemite and iPhoto 9.8 in late December. I had difficulty setting up iPhoto at that time, and you fine folks walked me though the process in mid January. All photos were there and in the proper albums. External disk is a Seagate Free Agent GoFlex, and it is backed up on Mozy and also on an iPad Air 2.
Problem started when I simply plugged in my iPhone and iPhoto told me I had to repair my database, which I did -- it took some time. Then I had to do something with Permissions. That never ended and a Word document froze on screen while I was working on it, and when I couldn't close any tabs in Safari -- couldn't do anything, actually -- iPhoto was continuing to spin with Permissions. Finally after about 15 minutes of that, I did a hard "push the start button" shutdown. The restart took a very long time.
Since I installed Yosemite and got iPhoto working -- when it was working -- the entire computer has been a bit sluggish and slow. And for the first time ever --and I've used Macs since the 1980s -- I had a freeze yesterday. Likely unrelated, but just a data point.
(BTW, is there any way I can find the discussion I had w/you folks back when I setup this iPhoto in mid-January? Anyway to search and find it in Support?)

Single-user mode: How to mount and access an external USB drive?

My MacBook Pro HD is acting up. Cannot boot normally or into "safe mode". Cannot reinstall OS without wiping out the HD. Need to recover some critical files but DiskUtil First Aid and Restore options cannot successfully complete. Problem traced down to "invalid node structure" which means I either have a hardware problem or my filesystem partition directory structure is corrupted. I need to recover some files that are not backed up (timin issue with my regular backup process).
I can boot into single-user mode, mount the root file system (/sbin/mount -uw /) and can see/navigate the rot filesystem structure via good UNIX command line. Here's what I would like to do (in single-user mode):
1. Mount an external USB drive (250 GB already formatted as Mac OS X Extended)
2. Copy various files and/or directories from my HD to the external USB drive (UNIX cp command)
I realize I could go spend $$ for the Disk Warrior or Data Rescue products (or something similar) that SHOULD help me recover my HD or files, but it seems silly to do this when I can see, touch and taste them from within single-user mode....
Comments? Suggestions?
TIA --
Trent
P.S. Once I've recovered my files, I'll try to reformat the HD and then reinstall the OS. And THEN go have Apple look at my machine (thank goodness for AppleCare coverage)!

Resolution:
1) Boot system in single-user mode (SUM) with external HD attached.
2) Execute the following UNIX CLI commands once SUM boot process is completed:
# fsck -fy
# mount -uw /
# mkdir /Volumes/target_directory
# mount -t hfs -w /dev/diskXXX /Volumes/target_directory
# cp -RXv /source_directory /Volumes/target_directory
Where XXX is the device-level name for your external HD's data partition. In my case this was /dev/disk1s2. It may take some experimentation to identify this device name if your system has multiple HD's.
3) Verify contents were successfully copied onto the /Volumes/target_directory.
Comments and observations:
- Do NOT use "/" as your source directory - cp will make a second (redundant) copy of /volumes/target_directory
- I was able to successfully copy ALL files off my HD despite the fsck command's "invalid node structure" error message with this simple procedure. YMMV, depending on the state of your HD.
- The repeated disk0s2: I/O error warnings displayed during the SUM boot process did not seem to have a negative effect on this procedure. I also received this same error warning intermittently as I navigated the mounted filesystem did not seem to be a problem, either. Again, YMMV.
Commercial software:
I downloaded ProSoft Engineering's Data Rescue 3 product (trial version) before spending $99 to attempt to recover my "bad" HD's data via mounting to a good system with FW target mode. It could not successfully complete its "QuickScan" process and immediately hung on block 0 of 390M during its "Deep Scan" process. The product did seem to function properly on an operational system. ProSoft's technical support was responsive and helpful but had no answer for my "Deep Scan" error.
I did not attempt to use Alsoft's Disk Warrior 4 product. I could not find any trial software available and was reluctant to spend $100 based upon the mixed reviews and comments on this discussion forum as well as other reviews. Alsoft does claim to address the "invalid node structure" error in their marketing materials. Hindsight being 20/20 - I saved $100 by using this simple procedure.
Final note:
Neither Leopard nor Snow Leopard's installation DVD could recognize the bad internal HD when trying to do a reinstall. While DiskUtil was able to "see" the bad internal drive it immediately failed when I tried to do an "erase and format". Took the system to my local Apple store and the Genius ran a tool called "SMART Utility" from Volitans Software (www.volitans-software.com). SMART utility confirmed that my HD was bad so it was replaced. AppleCare pays for itself (once again!).

External USB drives will not mount under Mountain Lion

Since upgrading to Mountain Lion, two external USB2 drives that I have will not mount and cannot be viewed in the Finder. The same occurs on a 2012 MacBook Air, a 2009 iMac 27 and a 2010 MacMini, all running OS X Mountain Lion version 10.8.2.
Both drives are Samsung Story external USB drives (one is 1.5 GB and the other is 2 GB) and both have been formatted using Mac Disk Utility with a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition, one using Snow Leopard and the other with Lion.
Both still mount correctly on a friends MacBook Pro that is still running Snow Leopard, and I had no problem with the same drives under Lion. Interestingly both can also be connected to Time Capsule USB port and show up correctly.
Both drives mount correctly under Windows 7 on BootCamp partitions that I have on both the 2012 MacBook Air, a 2009 iMac 27. These BootCamp partitions have Paragon HFS+ installed so I can read Mac formated drives.
Both drives show up in Disk Utility, but when attempt to mount the drives I get the message "The disk could not be mounted. Try running First Aid on the disk and retry mounting." I can run Repair in First Aid on the disk and get the message that the volume appears OK, but again have the same problem when I attempt to mount the disk.
I have also tried using Disk Utility 3,2, but still cannot mount the drives, though the program indicates there is no problem with the drives.
I have other portable USB including a Samsung portable USB2 drive, and two external USB3 drives, and I don't have problems with them.
There is clearly a problem with Mountain Lion with accessing (mounting) these Samsung Story USB drives, and the problem appears to be with Mountain Lion itself as the problem did not occur on the same Macs with Lion and does not occur with Bootcamp partitions on the machines.
I have a lot of time searching forums, but I have not found anyone with an identical problem.
I sure hope someone can help or that Apple come up with a fix for this issue which has only developed since the update to Mountain Lion.

bj10au wrote:
Since upgrading to Mountain Lion, two external USB2 drives that I have will not mount and cannot be viewed in the Finder. The same occurs on a 2012 MacBook Air, a 2009 iMac 27 and a 2010 MacMini, all running OS X Mountain Lion version 10.8.2.
Both drives are Samsung Story external USB drives (one is 1.5 GB and the other is 2 GB) and both have been formatted using Mac Disk Utility with a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition, one using Snow Leopard and the other with Lion.
Both still mount correctly on a friends MacBook Pro that is still running Snow Leopard, and I had no problem with the same drives under Lion. Interestingly both can also be connected to Time Capsule USB port and show up correctly.
Both drives mount correctly under Windows 7 on BootCamp partitions that I have on both the 2012 MacBook Air, a 2009 iMac 27. These BootCamp partitions have Paragon HFS+ installed so I can read Mac formated drives.
Both drives show up in Disk Utility, but when attempt to mount the drives I get the message "The disk could not be mounted. Try running First Aid on the disk and retry mounting." I can run Repair in First Aid on the disk and get the message that the volume appears OK, but again have the same problem when I attempt to mount the disk.
I have also tried using Disk Utility 3,2, but still cannot mount the drives, though the program indicates there is no problem with the drives.
I have other portable USB including a Samsung portable USB2 drive, and two external USB3 drives, and I don't have problems with them.
There is clearly a problem with Mountain Lion with accessing (mounting) these Samsung Story USB drives, and the problem appears to be with Mountain Lion itself as the problem did not occur on the same Macs with Lion and does not occur with Bootcamp partitions on the machines.
I have a lot of time searching forums, but I have not found anyone with an identical problem.
I sure hope someone can help or that Apple come up with a fix for this issue which has only developed since the update to Mountain Lion.
You can start here
http://support.seagate.com/kbimg/flash/213059/213059_EN.HTML
Pete

Cannot access shared external hard drive with other mac accounts

I cannot access a shared external hard drive with other mac accounts (all accounts are on the same macbook Pro). The shared external drive is shared via time capsule and is connected (of course) in USB. I see well this external hard drive as a shared disk with my main account. Yes shared option has been activated with the Airport Utility .. but when I open other account these othe accounts can see the external drive but cannot access to its content that is flagged with a no way sign. Strangely enough when I close my main account and start opening a new session with one of the other account then fine I can access the external hard drive and its content .. BUT then it is from my main account than I cannot access its content the no way sign showing ..
Looks like only one account at a time can access the content of this SHARED external hard drive .. any one as an idea on how to really make it a shared hard drive so that all accounts on the same mac can also access it ? I am at my wit ends on this case. THANKS ..

Results of my enquiries at Apple Genius Bar .. the guys found the problem interesting. They've been unable to provide a fix neither to give any explanation as to the reason why. To be fair I was not much impressed by the technical level demonstrated ..
In the mean time I have found that if account no.1 can see the shared external drive content and in such case account no.2 (same Mac computer) cannot see its content (only the external HD with a no way sign) this account no.2 can UNMOUNT (by ejecting) this external HD from account 1 and then remount it (just clicking on the TC shared part in a finder window) and .. see and access its content ; whilst account no.1 cannot see its content anylonger. Unless it unmounts the shared external HD and remount it .. then account no.2 can see its content anylonger. This can goes on an on.
So eventually YES the TC can allow to share a USB external drive between several accounts and a same Mac .. BUT this require to unmount and remount EACH time the external drive is accessed from a "no.2 account". So OK to share files with seldom access but not practical in case of frequent access needed.
I just I have now to figure how iTunes can automatically unmount and remount a shared external HD when it needs to access one of this shared HD content from on time account no.1 and then next time from account no.2. May be I am asking too much ..

EXTERNAL USB Drive will not open with Snow Leopard

External USB drive will open with SL. The drive icon appears on the desktop. When I click on it, Error message, "The alias USB Drive can't be opened because the original item can't be found." When I click on "Fix Alias", a window pops up and shows the usb drive in a list but does not respond when I click on it. I then tried disk utility and tested the disk and it tested OK. The drive still will not open. This problem started after I installed Snow Leopard. Need Help.
Message was edited by: PHAT ROB

The same error is produced when I try to mount a smb share.
I select the "connect to server" (cmd-K). Input the share info "smb://<user>@<server>/<share_path>
At the auth prompt, I input my credentials.
The error pops up, same as original poster.

FSCK and reboot issues with external USB drive

I'm having an issue with an external USB hard drive I'm using. I've always had issues with this drive cause my reboot to "freeze" when it's mounted. Basically the system message with be sent out, but it doesn't actually proceed with the reboot. No switch to init 6 or anything, but the shutdown process is still active. I can continue to use the computer as usual, but I can't cancel the existing shutdown or try to enter init level 6 by hand. So I just got around this by unmounting the drive before I shutdown. However, lately when I try to unmount the drive I get an error saying that the drive is in use and I should check to see what processes are using it by runing lsof or fuser.
Yesterday I tried copying dsome files from the drive but there wasn't and activity on the drive. cp didn't report any errors though, it just sat there and did nothing. I tried running fsck on the drive, but didn't get much farther. I'll see some activity on the drive for about a second, then all activity stops and fsck just sits there. When I try to kill fsck, it won't. Even with a kill -9.
I'm really confused as to what is going on. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone have any ideas what could be causing all this or what I can do to stop this? Thanks in advance!
David
[email protected]

Press the reset button on the device. It is located between the USB and power ports. Make sure to take-out the external USB drive before you reset the device. Or you can also restore the defaults by accessing the Administration tab > Factory Defaults sub-tab in the router’s web-based setup page. Check out this link for the set up; http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?vw=1&docid=32cffead811249aea7e9fc6730bf59ad_KB25681_EN_v1.xml...

OS refuses to mount external USB flash drive. Says a piece of OS software is missing.

OS refuses to mount external USB flash drive. Says a piece of OS software is missing. The flash drive (thumb drive) usually lights up but does not go through the flashing on/off that was tyjpical when first inserting it.
I tried an external hard drive and got the same results; that is, no result, as if it wasn't connected. No icon appears on the desktop and no device shows up in the sidebar. It (10.6.8, Mac Pro Duo) had worked perfectly before this, of course.

Hmmmmm,,,,
Disconnected all peripherals. Did a Safe Mode startup and that worked fine. Very limited features, of course.
Started up with the Snow Leopart (10.6.3) disk. Used disk utility to verify permissions and ran disk repair on all three internal HDs. No repairs needed.
Ran Drive Genius and did the same things, as a double-check.
Plugged in the flash drive (thumb drive) and it came up fine (still operating the OS from the Sno-Leop disk).
I wanted to re-start with the disk and bring up the Apple Hardware Test as you suggested. I had lots of kernal panics on a previous machine, a G4 desktop, and has used that at that time (with a 10.2 or 10.4 disk). thought I remembered that you hold the D key down when starting up from the disk and it would open the hardware test, but either I remember wrong or it works different in 10.6 because it was just a normal startup.
How do I get to the Hardware Test on the 10.6 Snow Leopard disk?
Restarted without the disk and the Mac Pro desktop still showed the gray screen with what Apple calls the "prohibitory" sign, the circle with the diagonal line in it.
I decided to load the OS disk onto HD 3 and designate that as the startup disk, which I did and it works fine. The USB flash drive loads properly, opens, etc. just as it should. I haven't yet plugged in the peripherals (scanner, printer, second DVD/CD recorder, tablet, an external drive, or connected to ethernet yet. Will do those one at a time and see if any of them casued a problem.)
Am I right in thinking:
A) HD One might have bad sections. I didn't defrag with Drive Genius (26% fragged) or look for bad blocks, which I'll probably do tonight.
or B) the OS has been slightly corrupted and may need reloading
or C) I have a virus or conflict (though I haven't added anything new lately). I do have the ButtonManager loading problem for Mac. which is talked about on MacRumors site, etc. but the timing of its appearance and this problem don't match.
Apologies for being so wordy; want to get all information that may be helpful. I appreciate your interest.

Cannot mount external USB drive with FDisk_partition_scheme

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