Click on hard drive causes Finder to quit

I can't get to files on my hard drive. When I double-click on the icon it won't open and Finder relaunches itself.
From these discussions, I have:
deleted finder.plist
repaired permissions
booted up with install disk and ran Disk Repair ("minor repairs")
This happened before I downloaded 10.4.10 which I thought might help but it hasn't.
From open applications, I can access the files and save them to the desktop, I just can't get the hard drive to open.
Any other thoughts?
Thank you.

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Grab your system restore disk. Make sure your MB is shut down. Now, while holding down the C key, press the power button and insert the disk all at the same time. When you see the Apple logo, let go of the C key. Now, an Installer window will open by default. Quit the Installer from the Menu and instead click Utilities/Disk Utility. When DU opens, select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, then click Verify. If DU reports errors, click Repair. Hopefully that will solve this problem. To boot back up from your internal disk, just click Utilities/Startup Manager, select MacintoshHD 10.4.x and click Restart.
Carolyn

Similar Messages

External hard drive causing finder to crash

The problem in a nutshell:
On 2 different occasions today, trying to open the hard drive folder (after not accessing the EHD for a couple hours) caused Finder to crash and my Macbook hung on shutdown - I had to unplug the USB hub or do a forced manual shutdown. When restarting the computer, my computer couldn't read the hard drive - I did find a way to fix that (see details below).
I don't know why this is happening in the first place or whether this indicates a bigger problem. Thus far, all data on these drives is backed up elsewhere, but I want these drives to be my backup (aside from DVD hard copies, of course). If anyone knows what may be causing this problem, I'd appreciate your help, thanks!
My system:
I have an early 2008 Macbook with OSX 10.6.8 and 4GB RAM.
Last week I bought two identical Hitachi DeskPro 3TB USB hard drives -- call them External HD A & B --, connected to my Macbook via a USB hub that has its own power source. The EHDs have their own power sources as well. All power sources are plugged into surge-protected power strips. (The EHD B is a cloned copy of the EHD A using backup software).
Each EHD is divided into 3 partitions.
In System Preferences, I did NOT choose to have the hard drive(s) go to sleep whereever possible.
Both EHDs run cool - I've never seen any sign of overheating.
Details of What Happened:
Both times, I was actively using my computer but hadn't accessed the EHD for a couple hours or so. Both times, only EHD A was present in the Finder. (EHD B was physically plugged in, but ejected from Finder, as is my ususal practice.)
Upon restart, I got a message that "a drive plugged into this computer cannot be read", giving me the option to Initialize, Ignore, or Eject. Restarting my Macbook (with one or both EHDs connected) didn't make a difference.
Neither drive showed up in Disk Utility, but they both showed up in System Profiler under USB, albeit with much fewer details than when the drives are showing up normally. The scanner attached to the USB hub has worked just fine.
Both times, the solution to the undetectable EHD problem was to plug in the drive's power source directly into the wall socket and the drive would promptly show up on my desktop. (It doesn't matter whether I plugged the USB directly into my Macbook or kept it plugged into the USB hub.) Once I do that, I can eject the drive, plug it back into the power strip, and it works just fine. I verified the drives in Disk Utility both times and they tested ok.

I'm replying to my own post here since it's far to late to update the original message: To update: after more than 6 months, I can verify that the solution given at bottom of my original post (plugging the drive directly into a wall socket) has worked every time, both in the US and in Asia. I have no idea why this is so, just that it works.

After sleep, cannot click on hard drives...

On my Intel Core 2 Duo iMac I find that I cannot click on my hard drives to get to my files after waking the computer from sleep. I can open the apps in my dock, but I can't click the hard drives directly. Restarting fixes it... but I obviously shouldn't have to do that...

Oops no looks like there's a bug so that you think you're in the finder, but you're actually in an app which doesn't allow right clicking. I'm not sure what's happening yet!

I don't see my hard drive in finder , i wanna know how much hard drive space i have.

i don't see my hard drive in finder , i wanna know how much hard drive space i have.

Check the settings in the General and Sidebar tabs of the Finder's preferences.
(67071)

I am trying to clean up my iMac hard drive and find a lot of space in 'Deleted Users'...what is this and can I delete that folder?

I am trying to clean up my iMac hard drive and find a lot of space in a folder named 'Deleted Users'...what is this and can I delete it to save space?

If a user account is deleted and the data for that account is not deleted, it is placed there. Yes, you can delete the files there.

Adobe digital editions will not finish downloading ebook even after double clicking on hard drive .

ADE will not download and open the ebook automatially. After locating the .ascm (ebook) file on the hard drive and double clicking on that, it still will not open in ADE.

I did all that and after I close the ADE and double click on the file, ADE opens right up and it looks like it is downloading (very fast), but nothing shows up in the ADE.
How do I only get emails from you and not all the other people on the discussion?
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:48:24 -0700
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Adobe digital editions will not finish downloading ebook even after double clicking on hard drive .
    Re: Adobe digital editions will not finish downloading ebook even after double clicking on hard drive .
    created by Jeff A Wright in Adobe Digital Editions - View the full discussion
Right click on the ACSM file or option click and go to Open With and select Other. You can then navigate to your Adobe Digital Editions and set the file to open with that. I would then recommend closing Digital Editions, if you have it open, and try double clicking the file. If Adobe Digital Editions opens then the file association is still correct. If you continue to have difficulties then I would recommend contacting the vendor you obtained the e-book from.
     Replies to this message go to everyone subscribed to this thread, not directly to the person who posted the message. To post a reply, either reply to this email or visit the message page: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4101791#4101791
     To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit the message page at http://forums.adobe.com/message/4101791#4101791. In the Actions box on the right, click the Stop Email Notifications link.
     Start a new discussion in Adobe Digital Editions by email or at Adobe Forums
For more information about maintaining your forum email notifications please go to http://forums.adobe.com/message/2936746#2936746.

I'm using a Intel Core 2 Duo Mac OS X 10.4.11. When installing the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable hard drive, I find an error in the logs - "dyld: Symbol not found: ___stack_chk_guard". How do I fix this? Thanks,

I'm using a Intel Core 2 Duo Mac OS X 10.4.11. When installing the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable hard drive, I find an error in the logs - "dyld: Symbol not found: ___stack_chk_guard"
Referenced from: /Volumes/Mac Installer/MacInstall.app/Contents/MacOS/MacInstall
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
How do I fix this? Thanks,

OK, OSX can read that but not write, but...
A few options...
You could format that HDD as Fat32/MS-DOS, but you'd be limited to 4 GB Filesizes.
NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...
http://www.osnews.com/story/16930
MacDrive for the PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

I have a external hard drive connected, Finder will not let me search for files in the external hard drive how do i search in a hard drive

i have a external hard drive connected, Finder will not let me search for files in the external hard drive how do i search in a hard drive

What are you using to search? You should be able to search any drive in from the Finder. If you're having trouble, try "EasyFind" from the App Store (free). You can search any volumes with it.
Clinton

External Hard Drive Mounts & Finder Quits

Upon updating this new iMac to 10.5.2 everything went well until I plugged in a particular LaCie external hard drive. Then the finder and desktop disappeared. Using Disk Utility to unmount the hard drive restored the desktop and finder. Remounting it causes the finder again to disappear. I first updated from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 via the computer's software updater. I tried running the combo update with no improvement. Another, older, external LaCie hard drive works perfectly fine. I am able to back up files to the suspicious hard drive using Retrospect and I can view files on it from an "open" or "save" menu from an application like Word. And I can open and save files, including to the desktop. But with the drive mounted there is nothing on the desktop.
Is there an obvious way to correct this or is it something that Apple needs to fix, or LaCie?

Is that Lacie drive the one you've setup as your Time Machine backup drive? If so, go into System Preferences->Time Machine and select "Change Disk". In the sheet that appears, click the "None" entry and then click the "Stop Backing Up" button. That should fix it. You can then re-set that drive as the Time Machine volume if you want. Good luck...

External Hard Drive Causing Force quit not to work

I have 2 Lacie 500 gig FW 800 external drives daisy chained to my imac. I use one for Time Machine and one for weekly backups. After upgrading to 10.5.3 I noticed applications were freezing and I could not force quit. Today Microsoft Word froze and I noticed when I went to force quit, (holding the mouse button down on the icon to get menu) that one of my drives spun up. I disconnected the FW800 cable from my Mac and the application unfroze. Help are my drive incompatible now in 10.5.3? Is something wrong with one of my drives?

Try running repair permissions in Disk Utility on your hard drives.

Internal Hard Drives Disappeared, Finder Memory Problem

Hello Helpful Folks,
I recently installed an addional internal Hard Drive, and an additional 1GB SDRAM. This worked great for a day, but the next morning, after powering up, system was extremely sluggish, and after much deadline-induced impatient problem solving, has gone from bad to worse (system refuses to acknowledge existence of internal Hard Drives). I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but as
the devil is in the details, I figure too much info is better than not enough.
Following is a breakdown of my system: AS IT LAST WORKED; RECENT UPGRADES; and MY LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE. Please don't interpret my all caps as shouting, just trying to organize this post for better clarity.
System is dedicated to Video Editing with FCP 3, running under OS 9.2.2. System is "off the Grid", i.e. no network, no internet, no printer, no gaming devices. System was purchased new in July 2001, by a friend. At one point I know this system had an Airport card, which was removed prior to my purchase in 2003. I can't remember what else it may have had installed in its history, but here's what it has now:
SYSTEM AS IT LAST WORKED:
**bold items are upgrades Original Owner or I installed with no apparent problems**
Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver" 2001
867 PowerPC G4, 256 L2, 2MB L3
-1 Stick "ValueRAM - KVR 133 x 64 C3/512" in PC 133 DIMM slot **
- "Virtual Memory" was turned off years ago due to conflict with FCP 3
-2 empty DIMM slots
-1 60 GB internal HD (Maxtor Ultra ATA/100), 1 partition, formatted HFS+, jumpered as "Master" on Internal ATA 2 ID=0 (which as I understand it is ATA/66 speed)
-1 Pioneer "Superdrive" DVD-R/W/CD-R/W on Internal ATA 0 ID=0
-NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB SDRAM in AGP Slot, feeding a 17" Apple Studio Display.
-PCI Display Card "formacGA7" - not attached to any external device, not sure what its intended purpose is.**
-3 Empty PCI Slots
-OEM Keyboard attached to Monitor's rear USB port.
-Microsoft 3 Button Wheel mouse with "IntelliEye" (wheel is 3rd Button) connected to Keyboard USB port (right side).**
-2 OEM FireWire (400) ports
-2 OEM USB (1) ports
Peripherals that have worked in various configurations with this system over the past 3 years:
-3 OWC Mercury Elite ("Oxford Chipset") Externally powered, External FireWire(400) 200GB Hard Drives, 1 partition each, formatted HFS+, daisy-chained to either of the FireWire ports.
-1 Canon GL1 MiniDV camera, attached either to the other FireWire port, or to the last drive in the chain, depending on my urgency/laziness factor. BTW, FCP 3 has worked flawlessly controlling this Cam for logging and Batch Capturing.
Applications on System Hard Drive that I have OEM CDs for:
-OS 9.2 - (I think I remember that OS X was removed from system due to conflicts shortly after original purchase)
-FCP 3
-DiskWarrior (version unknown, purchased from Alsoft in 2003)
-OWC Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools ver 3.5
Other CDs I have:
OEM CDs for Power Mac G4:
-Software Install, OS 9.2, CD vers 1
-Software Install, OS 10.0.4, CD vers 1
-Software Restore, OS 9.2 & 10.0.4 CDs vers 1, Discs 1-4 of 4.
-OEM Apple Hardware Test; Power Mac G4, SW vers 1.2.1
Applications on system Hard Drive that I don't have CDs for, that I rarely use, but I'd like to keep:
-After Effects 5.0
-QuickTime Player 6.0.2
-Toast Audio Extractor 1.1
-Toast Titanium 5.0.2
Applications on system Hard Drive I use if my wife is busy on our Windows XP machine:
-Photshop 6.0
-Microsoft Word & Excel
# of other Applications on System Hard Drive I either don't use or may be integral to the system: 260
# of Control Panels:
-Enabled: 34
-Disabled: 0
# of Extensions:
-Enabled: 174
-Disabled: 0
note: a number of the applications and extensions are for AOL, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money and the like, as well as other things I don't use (Airport, USB printers, Networking, etc.)
Smart things I did:
-Regularly made backup copies of my FCP projects to the external drives.
-Bought a copy of MacDrive so I can see what's on my External Drives on the XP machine.
-Printed out System Profile before I installed upgrades.
-Thoroughly searched this discussion board for and gathered as much info as I could before upgrading.
Dumb things I did:
-Made a copy, but not a clone, of my System Folder to one of the external drives when I first got it.
-Didn't keep any sort of separate log of what's on the External Drives.
-Never ran any sort of Disk Maintenance, even after one of the Externals crashed (DiskWarrior saved my butt on that).
-Ignored some of the advice on this discussion board.
Really dumb thing I did without even realizing it:
Captured all media for a rush job onto my internal system Hard Drive, as well as storing and using massive jpgs for the same job on that same drive...
Which led to painfully slow rendering times, and crashes caused by "Error: Out of Memory", which I interpreted as "Must buy more memory" and not "must make sure I'm not trying to edit media stored on system drive, especially with massive jpgs that I should reduce"
RECENT UPGRADES:
Here's what I did, and how I did it:
Turned off system, disconnected all External FireWire Devices, disconnected Monitor, opened case, touched various metal parts of case and power supply to discharge any Static, unplugged power cable.
-Installed 2 512MB sticks of "Lifetime" PC 133 SDRAM; total System RAM is now 1.5GB, all 3 DIMM slots now occupied.
-Installed 1 Maxtor "DiamondMax" Ultra ATA/133 100GB Hard Drive (8 MB buffer) as "Slave" (no jumper) in top of U-Carrier above System Hard Drive; attached to middle of original Apple ribbon cable, attached available power plug.
Taped spare jumper to inside of empty drive bay, noting origin and date. Did NOT push PMU button. Carefully closed case. Reconnected Monitor, did NOT reconnect any FireWire devices. Powered System on, but did NOT perform PRAM reset.
I don't remember the exact order of what happened next, but I think: System booted up normally, a window popped up saying a new drive had been found, would I like to intitialize it?, which I did as Mac OS extended, and then named. If I was instructed to restart, I did so, otherwise did not. Clicked on "about this Mac" and saw that it now showed 1.5GB RAM. I then went about moving Media/Render files off the System drive (and one of the Externals) onto the Internal Drive, with a combination of FCP's Media Manager, and dragging from the Finder. After files had copied, dragged Media/Render files from System Drive to Trash. Opened FCP project, had FCP re-link to new locations of missing files. Saved, closed, and re-opened project, set Capture/Scratch disc to new internal Drive. At some point I changed FCP's Memory Allocation from whatever it was to 512000KB Minimum, and 900000KB Prefered (and I hope I got all those zeroes right). Did NOT restart after changing Memory Allocation, unless a window popped up instructing me to do so, in which case I did. Re-opened my project, rendered a few thing at a noticeably increased speed, saved everything, emptied the Trash, shut everything down, and called it a night as it was 4:30 am.
A few hours later, I plugged the MiniDV and an External Drive into the FW ports and powered up the System. It was behaving extremely sluggishly. I would click on something, the pointer would turn into a wristwatch (sometimes with the minute-hand moving, sometimes not) and like an actual minute later, what I'd clicked on would open. All three drives were on the desktop, still had their files, and "About this Mac" still showed 1.5GB total Memory. So I powered down, disconnected the FW devices, waited a bit, and powered back up. Same sluggish response. I tried to open my FCP project file, and instead got a Window that said something to the effect of "The Application associated with this document could not be found". I think I tried to open FCP from the Applications folder on the System Drive and got the same message (I'd only had 3 hours sleep, no coffee, my client had died, and his family was coming for whatever I had in a few hours).
LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE
Panic had set in, which never solves anything, so I don't remember what order I performed which tasks, between searching for clues in this forum, and convincing myself that that would be faster than trying to compose a question, waiting for a response, etc.
The first two things I did, and I can't remember which I did first (both from Keyboard Commands during Restart):
Rebuild Desktop
PRAM Reset
Neither of those solved the problem, so I continued.
I tried restarting without extensions.
I would get errors that said something like "Not Enough Memory to Open Finder".
I tried booting from Disc 1 of the Software Restore Disk, which only wanted to destroy my data.
I tried booting from the OS 10 disk, with the same result.
I was finally able to boot from the OS 9.2 Software Install Disk, and actually saw both internal drives on the desktop, and the 1.5GB RAM in About this Mac. I tried to allocate more memory to Finder, but was informed that "Cannot Perform Requested Operation. This operation requires versions above 8.0".
I think at this point I decided that I must have too many extensions, and started disabling ones I thought irrelevent to my cause (mostly anything that said "AOL", "Airport", "Ethernet", "Printer", "Modem", "Speakable", and a couple things called "Open TPT".
It gets worse. Then I decided to turn off some "unnecessary" things via the control panels, but somehow managed to disable the control panels themselves: AppleTalk, DialAssist, File Sharing, Modem, Mouse (as I saw that Microsoft Mouse was among the others), Remote Access, Speech, USB Printer Sharing, and possibly TCP/IP.
That certainly didn't help anything (though upon restarting from the OS 9.2 Disc I was able to see the extensions and control panels in their respective "Disabled" folders in the System Folder). But I still wasn't able to get more Memory to Finder.
So, I decided a few more PRAM resets might help, which succeeded in making both Internal Hard Drives disappear. I tried booting up from the DiskWarrior disc, but even the Mighty DiskWarrior couldn't find the drives. I performed the longer, in depth version of the Apple Hardware Tools tests, which reported that everything's fine (including the new RAM), but made no mention of the Hard Drives at all. The deadline having long passed, I shut the system down. I read through more posts and tech articles, etc.
I searched my External drives with MacDrive on my XP, and found the drive that has the copy of my System Folder (which shows all extensions and control panels as enabled); not sure if the Quicksilver will boot from that, I don't know what the Keyboard command for booting from a FireWire drive is (if there is one) and the drive itself only has 900MB of free space.
I can't find any reference to Internal ATA drives anywhere in the MacDrive documentation; if it was possible I'd put them into the XP, get the files off the Mac drives, reformat them and install OS9 from the Discs.
This is where I am now:
The Quick Silver is still powered down. I removed the Microsft mouse and replaced it with the OEM Apple mouse. I opened the case, and removed the PRAM/Backup battery (manufacture date: July 2001). Couldn't find my voltmeter, so took the bat to Radio Shack and bought a new one. Had the Radio Shack guy test the old one: it showed 3.69 volts still. Have not installed the new battery yet. The case is still open, waiting for any advice any of you might have to offer.
Thank you all so much for your patience in perusing and pursuing this.
Sincerely,
Patterson
Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 867 Mac OS 9.2.x 17" Studio Display, 512MB RAM

Thank you Rodney and John,
The jumpers are correct for both Maxtor Drives.
Rodney, you are correct in that the initial problem (slow rendering/"out of Memory" crashes) was caused by my not realizing I'd stupidly captured several GBs of media to my system drive, and not checking which drives those files were on (as I'd assumed I'd put them on one of my external media drives) once that problem presented itself.
Before I'd determined what I'd done, I bought the extra RAM. After I'd found the media files on the System Drive, and saw that my dedicated media drives were too full to easily move them, I decided to buy an additional Internal drive so that I could:
-Move the Media onto it relatively quickly and finish my urgent project.
-Juggle all my media into a more organized fashion for archiving (as most of my projects are on-going long-term affairs)
-Wipe it, Partition it, and clone my System Drive onto it, as a spare bootable drive in case my OEM System Drive failed.
Copying the Media files onto the New Drive and moving the System Drive's Media files into the Trash worked great: huge improvement in Rendering, etc.
Before shutting down for the night I Emptied the Trash, and was pleased with the amount of space I'd freed up on the System Drive.
My guess is that the System Drive was terribly fragmented, having been subjected to intense use over the past 5 years without any sort of Drive Maintainence, and deleting that massive amount from it in one shot caused my extreme system sluggishness upon Startup the next day.
My subsequent lame attempts to solve the sluggishnes ultimately resulted in my losing access to both drives.
Today, I replaced the Backup Battery, pushed the PMU, re-attached the AC, and Powered Up with the case open as per your suggestion.
It was trying for a few minutes (the gray screen went black at one point, and then returned to gray) before presenting me with the flashing question mark.
There was, however, a quiet but distinct "buzzing" sound that would alternate: 1 sec "buzz", one second silence, one second "buzz", one second silence, etc. coming from the drives, even after the "?" appeared.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power Cables from the new "Slave" drive, and powered up again, with the exact same results.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power cables from the original "Master" drive, reinstalled the Jumper on the New Drive as "Master", plugged the End of the Ribbon and the Power cables into the New "Master" drive and powered up. The screen went to the "?" within 20 seconds instead of 4+ minutes, and no more "buzzing".
I put the Apple Hardware Tools Disk in, ran the "long" test, and everything came out fine.
I have to abandon this for now, but thanks again for your previous advice, and any more you may have!
Cheers,
Patterson

Will using an external hard drive cause me to have duplicate files on my itunes library?

I put all my ITUNES MEDIA folder on my external hard drive from my older computer.. I recently bought a new computer and installed Itunes. I synced some of my Itunes purchased songs back on by using my Ipod.. however the songs I ripped from my cds are still not reinstalled in my library.. I will have to use my external hard drive or re rip those.. and there are a lot of them.. since I have already replaced some of the ones I purchased back on using my Ipod will it duplicate them if I use the prefrences method and return them all from my external hard drive? If i delete my files that I have already returned on my new computer before using my external will Itunes remember which are Itunes purchased music and which arent as well>??? also how exactly do you move music from an external? just plug it in and click the prefrences box about syncing files and keeping Itunes library organized?? any other thing to click?

An iTunes library consists of both the media and the database that knows which files are in the library and hold details of ratings, playcounts, playlist membership and other details not stored in each file's metadata.
Depending on how you have moved content to your external drive you may find you are only moved the media, but not the database. If you import this media into a new library it will work, but your library will be seen as "new" with respect to any devices that you have and iTunes will want to erase and reload them, losing you current selections, settings and data on the device.
These are two possible approaches that will normally work to move an existing library to a new computer.
Method 1
Backup the library with this User Tip.
Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer want to access protected content on it.
Restore the backup to your new computer using the same tool used to back it up.
Keep your backup up-to-date in future.
Method 2
Connect the two computers to the same network. Share your <User's Music> folder from the old computer and copy the entire iTunes library folder into the <User's Music> folder on the new one. Again, deauthorize the old computer if no longer required.
Both methods should give the new computer a working clone of the library that was on the old one. As far as iTunes is concerned this is still the "home" library for your devices so you shouldn't have any issues with iTunes wanting to erase and reload.
I'd recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library.
If you have an iOS device that syncs with contact & calendar data on your computer you should migrate this information too. If that isn't possible create a dummy entry of each type in your new profile and iTunes should offer to merge the existing data from the device into the computer, otherwise the danger is that it will wipe the information from the device.
If your media folder has been split out from the main iTunes folder you may need to do some preparatory work to make it easier to move. See make a split library portable. Alternatively you could copy over the iTunes folder and make sure your external drive has the same drive letter on the new system as the old, however moving the library into a portable form will make every subsequent move that much easier.
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on how to set up your devices with a new library with the maximum preservation of data.
tt2

Copying to and from external drive causes Finder Freeze

I recently purchased a Shintaro USB HD dock to archive my many Gigs of Video footage.
I plug it all in and powered up without problems. Plugged a SATA disk into the dock it showed up (it was previously formated in an FW drive)
The drive showed up on the desktop and the files on it were there as well. When I try to either copy files to or from the dock the copy window comes up works for about 40% of whatever file I'm copying and then Freezes.
I've tried several disks and all do the same.
I cannot relaunch the finder, I cannot stop the process in Activity monitor, all I can do is power down, restart and try again.
I have tried using both a USB hub and hooked direct to the USB card in my PowerMac but the same thing happens everytime.
When I look at the external drive it has all the icons there but all the files are Zero Bytes.
Anybody got any ideas ?

Hi Brett,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
Use Disk Utility to Repair the external drives.
While still in Safe Mode, move these files to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
Reboot & test.

Airport "sees" USB hard drives, but Finder can't find them!

Yesterday, my iMac's Finder could see my external USB hard drive connected to AIrport, but not today. Airport sees it right now--I've checked and updated it and restarted it. Finder still can't find the drive. I click on my Airport connection in the Finder sidebar, my usual route to the hard drive, but the connection window hangs. And hangs. I need access to the files on that hard drive. Problem is, another iMac using Tiger needs access, too, so I can't disconnect arbitrarily. With that iMac, Tiger's Finder sees the files, and can access them. But not this 20" 2.4G iMac with Leopard 10.5.3. What's going on?

floba,
the first solution, clearing the entire index and letting it rebuild, did not work.
But setting the drive in 'privacy' and then removing it did immediately work, my search window which was left open refreshed instantly to reveal my items. I'm curious however if it will stick..
i have another issue that may be completely unrelated, but maybe not..
i clear my spotlight shortcut key (command+spacebar) because it conflicts with common Adobe app commands i use. But i frequently will find that this shortcut key is RE-ENABLED. At the same time, my shortcut to use Spaces (command+f8, command+arrow keys, and command+numk keys) are CLEARED as if i had never set them. This happens consistently and is frustrating. I don't reboot very often, but i under 10.5.2 i often came home to find my computer has locked up, so it would seem these shortcuts all reset when i reboot, and i wonder if my external drive index is lost every time the drives are ejected.
Vista's completely useless search features were a main reason i gave my PC's away and bought macs. I'm obviously finding these failings frustrating on the mac. I'm even more disappointed at the news Snow Leopard is a bug fix and is selling as a separate OS. Installing additional programs is not an option, i want the OS to do what i tell it to do /rant

Going into my hard drive causes mac pro to lock up like fort knox

Hi, I have been a mac user for just a hair over a year.(Apple will not help me with anything)
All has been swell until now.
If I go into my hard drive my computer locks right up. I can do
nothing to move it along. The only option I have is to hold down the
power button for six seconds, which kills me and the computer a little
each time. I booted up the computer using the mac install disc and I
used disk utility to "repair" the disk. It reported the disk was "OK".
I thought swell, and went into documents on the hard disk and it
locked my computer up again. I let it sit there for an hour and
nothing moved. apple/option/esc does not do anything. I went into time machine and
went to the documents there and it locked up the computer too. I went into finder and went to documents and it locked up the computer. I went into other areas of the hard drive and it locked up the computer. The funny thing is I can go on the internet, use programs, read email, and everything works fine. Can anyone guide me in
the right direction in solving this problem I am facing?
Specs:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP21.007F.B06
SMC Version: 1.15f3
troubled drive:
ST3750640AS P:
Capacity: 698.64 GB
Model: ST3750640AS P
Revision: 3.BTH
Serial Number: 5QD1P*
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Bay Name: "Bay 1"
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 698.32 GB
Available: 328.75 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
second drive:
SAMSUNG HD753LJ:
Capacity: 698.64 GB
Model: SAMSUNG HD753LJ
Revision: 1AA01112
Serial Number: S13UJ1CQ6***
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk1
Bay Name: "Bay 2"
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Boot OSX:
Capacity: 128 MB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point:
<Edited by Moderator>

Sounds like itneeds some good basic maintenance and troubleshooting. Stop using this drive. Start trashing temp files, and off loading good files.
Everytime you freeze and do a hard restart, the chance that the journal, directory, file system and data are compromised increases, in spite of the "OKAY" from Disk Utility's repair routines it is not reliable. And leads to false sense of security. Disk Utility only checks the basic directory, not the files themselves.
It may be something like a damaged Finder plist/preference, or worse, but either you look for an easy fix, or just start cleaning up and moving files and system to a good drive and system.
You may have bad blocks on your drive causing all this. Or not. TechTool can detect bad sectors, but not map them out. (Deluxe is part of AppleCare; or Pro, commercial version).
Start using SuperDuper if you don't already, and Disk Warrior, premiere for disk repairs.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
What you need to be doing is rebuild your system from the foundation up.
You may need to check out Data Rescue II demo from Prosoft Engineering to recover files.
I would begin by installing OS X on another drive, or restoring from TimeMachine. Create/name an "emergency" boot drive partition. Doesn't need to be that large. Keep it handy just for doing repairs and maintenance. Keep another as a clone of your working system and backup - in addition to TimeMachine.
You may want to start by erasing the drive (not just the OS volume) with a 7-way write (not just zero all, it does NOT do a reliable safe job mapping out bad blocks) and restore from TimeMachine. Or work with a new drive.

Click on hard drive causes Finder to quit

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