Disk images not mounting

Here's the question: how come .dmg files downloaded from apple.com (amongst other places) won't mount?
Here's the detail: This has to be a FAQ going by Google searches. I've downloaded the Mac Firefox DMG 3 times, and the Safari DMG from apple.com once, and when I try to mount the images I get a range of different cryptic errors, including "codec overrun", "not recognized", "error -some number or other", and so on. Sometimes, I get two different errors for the Safari image.
Existing disk images on my hard drive mount fine. Today my hard disk has been playing up, with files being corrupted, keychain being broken, prefs disappearing, and so on. I boot from the Tiger DVD, run Disk Utility and Repair Disk, tells me no repairs carried out as all hunky dory. Use Disk Utility on the HD to check permissions, those are fine. Run Onyx maintenance, all is fine. I've not changed the router prefs at all, so it's not that corrupting the downloads.
All was fine until mid-afternoon today, when a number of apps (Firefox, Safari, Dreamweaver) started behaving strangely and the machine kept on hanging. On restart a number of taskbar icons became question marks, so something's being corrupted. Some downloaded PDFs became corrupted.
What I might try to do is download DMGs from my work PC, put them on a stick, and try to mount them. If the problem recurs then that would eliminate download errors.
My conclusion is that either the OS has become damaged, or the HD is physically fubar'd, or at least has some physical errors on it somewhere which DU isn't picking up. If the latter I'm screwed as I'm out of warranty and I might as well chuck the machine in the bin, so let's hope it's the OS. I could reinstall the OS (again) but a) that would be highly time-consuming as I'd also have to reinstall a shedload of apps, prefs, configs, etc, and b) if there's a physical HD error it'll do zero.
I've already spent some fruitless and frustrating hours today on diagnosis, and having done tech supp in my career I know what to look for, so this is my last throw of the dice to try to get some kind person to suggest a) a diagnosis, and b) suggestions for a cure.
Without a cure I might as well take a clawhammer to the thing and get a Linux laptop. Ok, PCs are far inferior to Macs with crappy hardware, but at least you don't lose over a thousand quid when your PC laptop fails.
Cheers
Fred Riley
Web Developer, Nottingham, UK

I was able to get a partial fix of this problem by following instructions that I found on the All Experts web site:
Regarding disk images and mounting media:
delete the following files and folders:
* /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache (file)
* /System/Library/Extensions.mkext (file)
* /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches (folder)
(Note that after deleting these files you need to reboot your Mac for the fix to take effect.)
All of these files and folders were date 18 Aug 2009, which is in around the timeframe when I installed the last security update for OS10.4 ppc.
I say the solution is a partial fix, because it did allow me to open some, but not all .dmg files (the problematic ones are showing a checksum error). Now I find that iTunes will not operate (yeah I know that should be another thread), but I have not used it in several weeks, prior to the last OS update.

Similar Messages

Disk image not mounted

I have had a host of problems since i installed a Time Capsule. The latest is that after reinstalling my system software -- another story -- I have not been able to make back-ups. The message I get is back up failed, disk image not mounted. What is this? On my time capsule there is a disk image of my hard drive on a dog eared page called a sparse bundle. I'm sure this is easy, but I'm stumped.

huk730,
Welcome to the Apple discussion!
Consider the following causes of that error message. Also bear in mind that when you reinstall the system software, Time Machine cannot continue using the same backups as before and will start a fresh set of backups. [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338]
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
“I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Let us know if any of the above was helpful.
Cheers!
Message was edited by: Glenn Carter

Hard Drive and Disk Image not mounting

Hey everyone,
I'm running a G5 Dual 2Ghz. with OSX 10.5.8 I'm having problems with a back up hard drive. It is an external Western Digital My Book 1.5TB SATA drive. After using it for a few months, it suddenly did not mount anymore.
*1) It also would not appear in Disk Utility.*
a) Disk Warrior couldn't find the drive (I think because it's formatted with FAT32)
*2) I then took the drive out of the enclosure and put it in the spare bay in the G5.*
a) It didn't mount
b) It did show up in Disk Utility
c) In Disk Utility it wouldn't give me the option to Repair Disk Permissions or Repair Disk
d) In Disk Utility is says under Partition Scheme: Unformatted
e) In Disk Utility I don't have the option to mount/eject only gives me the "info" option
f) Tech Tool did find the drive and it passed all tests
g) Disk Warrior still did not find the drive
h) TestDisk finds the drive, but does not find any partitions
*3) I then created a disk image of the drive in Disk Utility onto an external hard drive. The image comes back at 320GB, which seems to be about right I think.*
a) The disk image would not mount with Disk Image Mounter. It would say there is an Unrecognized File System
b) In Disk Utility - I don't have the option to Repair Disk Permissions
c) In Disk Utility - When trying to Repair Disk - I get the error: Repairing Disk failed with error Unrecognized FileSystem
d) In Disk Utility - If I click Open - The Log file says:
+Attach Image+
Initializing...
Verifying...
Finishing...
+Image of "disk0.dmg" attached successfully+
+Mount of "disk0.dmg" succeeded+
-But it is no where to be found
e) Disk Warrior can not find the Disk Image
f) I took the new external drive with the Disk Image to 3 other mac computers but the image would not mount
*4. Other things I've tried when opening the Disk Image for the new external drive.*
a) in Terminal - hdiutil attach -nomount "volumes/untitled/disk0.dmg"
b) in Terminal - sudo hdiutil attach -nomount "volumes/untitled/disk0.dmg"
c) Deleting files System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernalcaches
ALL UNSUCCESSFUL
I'm running very low on ideas. I know I could just erase the drive and reformat it, but the files on it are very important and must be recovered.
Any help or suggestions would be very helpful. I will not have time until after the weekend to try more things. Thanks in advance if you do not hear back from me until after this weekend.

Yes, it will. But if DU says the disk is unformatted then it is also not accessible. If you have files you don't wish to lose then you will need to try recovery software:
Basics of File Recovery
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

Backup disk and Disk Images not mounting

*Intial Disk Utility problem:* Recently my trusty 6 year old PowerBook G4 died from hard-drive failure, with most of my data backed up on external drives. Before migrating data over to my new iMac, I performed "First Aid" in "Disk Utility" on the external backup drive. One of the drives (500GB iomega drive) that backed up my PowerBook and my PC had 5 partitions (4 were FAT32, and 1 was NTFS), somehow got erased in Disk Utility. Even though I was just verifying one of the partitions the whole drive was cleared and renamed: disk2s4 (28kb) and disk2s10 (372.5GB). This didn't take much time, so I knew all the data hadn't been cleared, and checked the Security Options for Erase, and its set to "Don't Erase Data."
*Disk Warrior attempt:* At this point, having a sorta wrecked backup drive that still apparently had data, I bought Disk Warrior and gave that a try. It read the drive the first time, but couldn't recover any of the directory information. Hoping to not overwrite anything, at that point, I didn't proceed with the "rebuild" option. Now when I try Disk Warrior, it just says:
Directory Cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (-50,447)
- This disk appears to be a MacOS standard sik
- This disk does not appear on the desktop
- This disk is 372.49 GB in size
- Disk ID: disk2s10
- File system: HFS (standard) +even though most of the drives had been fat32+
Now Disk Warrior doesn't even give the option to scan the drive.
*Disk Imaging attempt:* Disk Warrior is claiming a hardware problem (which isn't really the case), so I tried making a disk image in Disk Utility of both disk2s10 and disk2s4. I tried opening disk2s10.dmg in Finder and in Disk Utility, and get the message: "No mountable file systems." In the past when confronted with unmountable disk images, I've used VLC media player. So, I pull up VLC read disk2s10.dmg and music starts playing!!! At first I freak out, then I realize that its the first song listed in my iTunes library -- the data is there, can be retrieved, but I'm not sure how to get it!
*Next attempts:* the only other thing I can think of is to try daemon tools or something on my PC, or bring the drives into the the school IT guys.
Please let me know what you think would work that I haven't already tried. Though I have redundancy in the backups, I haven't been able to recover some data for my PhD thesis due in a month, and therefore haven't given up on reviving this disk yet.

I've downloaded the DataRescue and FileSalvage trials, and am currently scanning with DataRescue which will take another few hours. Thanks for those recommendations, its so useful to have a trial scan before buying.
*General Question:* I noticed through these various attempts that reformatting extra drives in the current version of Disk Utility has become a little more dangerous than before. For example, I was reformatting a spare disk from FAT32 to HFS+ and the drive became unmountable. This never happened to me in earlier versions of OSX, and now it seems to happen every time, and partly why my partitions got all screwy. Any thoughts?

USB Flash Disk does not mount after Leopard Upgrade

I am not able to use my USB flash disk after the upgrade to Leopard. The disk does not mount at all, though i can see it listed in the System Profiler.
Before the upgrade to Leopard, the same disk used to work perfectly.
Can anyone please tell me how I can solve this issue ?
Thanks.

vikas wrote:
I am not able to use my USB flash disk after the upgrade to Leopard. The disk does not mount at all, though i can see it listed in the System Profiler.
Before the upgrade to Leopard, the same disk used to work perfectly.
Can anyone please tell me how I can solve this issue ?
Thanks.
Check to see if your USB Drive has the latest firmware. Leopard tends not to support older firmware.

Disk image can mount from local terminal with "open" command but not via ssh

I have a disk image "backup_image.sparsebundle". If I go to the terminal on my machine and type "open backup_image.sparsebundle" the disk image mounts as expected. No problems. If I secure shell (ssh) log in from a remote Mac and execute the same "open backup_image.sparsebundle" a warning dialog pops up and states that "The following disk images couldn't be opened" followed by my disk name. This is incredibly odd because it used to work just fine. I didn't think there were any ACL differences between a local terminal shell and remote ssh. I mean a shell is a shell right? Or, it used to be and now it isn't? I'm not doing anything obviously incorrect (to me); I'm the same user locally and remotely, same path to disk image. This used to work fine before Mountain Lion.
Background: All of this started because I wrote a script that would ssh in to a remote machine, open the disk image on that remote machine, mount it across the network over afp and rsync. If I leave the disk image mounted on the remote machine, the script runs fine but if the image is close and I try to remotely open the image as I always did, it fails. The only thing that has changed in the system is, now, both machines are running Mountain Lion. Odd.
Suggestions?

Storing the password for the remote disk image in the local keychain of the computer running the script (in to a variable), then passing it accross to the remote machine worked. I'm not sure why all of this changed moving from Lion to Mountain Lion but I suppose it is slightly more secure.
To programatically mount and sync a remote encrypted disk:
#!/bin/bash
if [ -n "`mount | grep ~/sync`" ]; then
echo "Already mounted"
else
pw=$(security -v find-generic-password -w -D "application password")
ssh -o ConnectTimeout=1 [email protected] "echo $pw | hdiutil attach /Users/user/backup_image.sparsebundle"
mkdir ~/sync
mount_afp -s "afp://matdup01:[email protected]/Disk Image" ~/sync
fi
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Mount succeeded!"
else
echo "Mount Failed"
exit 0
fi
rsync -vrxtu --delete-before --exclude _* "/Volumes/Media/new Media/" ~/sync/new\ media/
umount ~/sync
rmdir ~/sync
exit

Disk Utility Crashing and Disk Images Not Opening Properly?

Hi,
I got a new G-Tech 500GB external drive that I've got into three partitions. All of them have Tiger on them but the main one I'm using is giving me problems. I have Stuffit Expander 11 on here and when I try to open a disk image it looks like it's opening but doesn't. Also I try and open Disk Utility and it crashes on me. I did a repair disk permissions a few hours ago after restarting up again and it seemed to be fine but now the problem is back.
The other problem I have on and off is that out of the three partitions I'm supposed to put them in the trash before shutting down and sometimes the two not in use won't go in the trash.
Any ideas? The two other partitions I have right now I'm using for recovery stuff from my internal drive.
S.

Its the improper unmount of the firewire drive which is the problem. Try to reset all.
1. Shut-down your Mac, and unplug the power cord
2. Turn the power off on your external FireWire devices
3. Unplug the FireWire devices from the Mac
4. Wait for 5 min.
5. Plug the power cord to your Mac only
6. Restart the Mac while holding the Option-Apple-O-F, and keep holding until you get the ">" prompt, then release the keys
7. At the ">" prompt type:
      reset-nvram and hit the Return key
      set-defaults and hit the Return key
      reset-all and hit the Return key
the last command will restart your mac
8. Shut down your Mac
9. Connect all your FireWire devices to the Mac and turn them on
10. Restart your Mac.
All your FireWire devices should reapear, if not repeat the procedure
How to avoid the issue :
The only really proven way to avoid burning up a FireWire port is to connect all devices and to turn them on PRIOR turning on the Mac. Likely, one must unplug them and turn them off AFTER the Mac has been turned off. If you need to connect another device, then you're on for a shutdown of your machine...  It's a tad annoying but it guarantees that the FW ports won't be damaged.  Be careful when using self powered devices such as webcams, iPods, hard drives or hubs, as they can destroy the port pretty easily. Another thing is to avoid daisy-chaining hard drives.
When the FW port doesn't respond anymore :
In this case, peripherals won't be mounted upon plugging, and won't be displayed in Apple's System Profiler. The self powered devices will still be fed by the port, but won't respond either.  It happens that the PHY just hangs after a surge or a random problem. Once hung, the port will not respond any longer, it is possible to reset the component by going through the following steps :
1° boot the mac in Open Firmware by holding [ Apple key - Option - O - F ] after the startup chime.  2° you'll get to a command prompt. the keyboard mapping will be QWERTY, so pay attention when you type the following :  RESET-NVRAM (enter)  RESET-ALL (enter)  3° Now the mac should restart itself and the port should function properly again.  If it still doesn't work, then it means that the PHY is damaged.
http://www.hardmac.com/articles/16/

Can't download flash player - 'Disk image not recognized'

MAC OS X
10.6.8
2,4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
I'm trying to download and install the lastest adobe flash player but having a little problem. It downloads without any problem but when I come to double click it it comes up with the following warning/error message.
The following disk images couldn't be opened. Reason - Not Recognized
I have no idea why this has suddenly come up.
I've complete uninstalled Adobe flash player and tried to reinstall it but it still hasn't worked.
I've also tried to open the 'install_flash_player_osx.dmg' file in Disk Utility but it says its 'Unable to attach'. One thing I have noticed is that the Disk write status is - Not mounted, read only
I'm not sure what this means. If someone could help me out I would appricate it very much.

Not certain what other issue may be the cause of the symptom(s) you've stated above, but there is a link to try & get an Adobe flash player plugin for Snow Leopard 10.6.8 through this page. Also note the comments by users there who relate experience, and an apparent link to a recent beta version(?)
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/4783/adobe-flash-player
While other system maintenance may need to be done for the computer to see any update correctly, there also is a chance the file may not be the proper one. Several exist at the Adobe site, some are not compatible.
Good luck & happy computing!

Sparse disk would not mount

Hi.
A relative of mine is having trouble with an iphoto library back up.
A sparse disk image was created using tiger (I wasn't there), and a fresh install of tiger was made. The back up is on a brand new Lacie HD and the only files on it, are the disk image and an empty folder called desktop.
Since the back up the person hasn't been able to recovers the images.
I looked into it a bit, but with no success.
I have tried repairs in disk utilities. I can mount the disk (HD), repair it, verify it , but I can't do any of these with the spare disk image.
I also tried some old disk warrior application I have on my comp. but with little success. None of the applications I have tried, have made any changes to the problem.
I tried to copy the sparse disk image on the desktop of the imac, but the copy process stop after a bit :
(The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "Macintosh HD.sparseimage" could not be read or written.(code error-36))
When I try to verify it, disk utilities start nicely until it get into a frenzy of sounds and multitudes of error lines, and the only way to stop the concert is to use force quit.
I have read few writing about sparse images disk been corrupted, but the person isn't using file vault, and probably didn't use it when doing the backup on previous install of tiger,although i didn't see the previous install .
Please help as there is over 4000 images to recover.
Thx

(The finder cannot complete the operation because
some data in "Macintosh HD.sparseimage" could not be
read or written.(code error-36))
Error code -36 is an Input/Output error. Even Apple calls those errors "Bummers". There is most likely something physically wrong with the new LaCie drive that is causing this.
The chances of recovering the data are pretty small. You can try to duplicate the sparseimage on the LaCie drive. If you can do that, you stand a chance of getting the data back. You could also try a program such as Data Rescue II. Part of the problem is that the files are located inside a disk image. It may be an all or nothing proposition.
I have read few writing about sparse images disk been
corrupted, but the person isn't using file vault, and
probably didn't use it when doing the backup on
previous install of tiger,although i didn't see the
previous install .
For whatever it's worth, the person making the backup almost assuredly did nothing wrong. The only thing they forgot to do is to make sure the backup would be usable by mounting the sparseimage. There is no way that the person making the backup would have known that part of the drive they were storing it on was physically damaged.
Please help as there is over 4000 images to recover.
I wish I could give you better news. Perhaps someone else will have another idea to try. If all else fails, there are commercial vendors that can probably get all the data back for you, but it will be expensive.
Matt
Mac Mini; B&W G3/300

Encrypted disk image sometimes mounts without password

I have an encrypted sparsebundle disk image containing sensitive information. On occasion (maybe one time out of ten), I'm able to mount it without being prompted for the password.
The password for the image is not stored in my keychain. Can anyone offer advice on this issue?

I was having exactly this same problem!
I keep a small encrypted disk image storing sensitive banking information. I do NOT have the option to store passwords in Keychain checked, and I verified that the password is not being stored in Keychain.
Yet, when I double-clicked the supposedly encrypted sparsebundle disk image, it opened right up and mounted - no password required! Unbelievable, right? So I started to investigate.
I first noticed this behaviour in Mountain Lion, I'm running 10.8.4 on a 2.7 GHz 15" MBPr.
In past versions of OS X I would mount the volume to work on it by double-clicking on the disk image, enter my passowrd, and then Eject the volume either by dragging to the trash or clicking the Eject button on the Sidebar. The next time I would try to access the disk image by double-clicking it, it would again prompt for a password. All good.
What seems to be happening in ML is, using the same workflow, even though the volume is disappearing from Finder, the disk image is not actually being unmounted!
When I go to Disk Utility, the disk image is still mounted, but the volume is grayed out. When I Eject the disk image in Disk Utility, it then reverts to the expected bahaviour, and double-clicking on the disk prompts for a password.
So the workaround seems to be when finished working on the volume, go to Disk Utility and manually Eject the disk image (as opposed to just the volume it mounts) to ensure it has unmounted and is thus again encrypted. The reason for it sometimes requiring a password, sometimes not is probably because after a restart of the computer it would unmount all disks, and then be unable to re-mount it until the password is entered. But in between, unless you were aware of this behaviour anyone with access to the disk image can view its contents.
What a terrible security flaw IMO, as there is no visual indication in Finder that the disk image is still unprotected after you unmount its volume and that icon disappears! I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.
Incidentally brian_c, I tried to look at your linked videos but it returns the message that the videos violated the TOS of the site...?

34GB File Vault sparse image not mounting

Hi there,
I have an ibook G4, OS X 10.4.11, Capacity 55.77 GB, Available 5.53 GB
I've had my home folder (34.69 GB) encrypted with File Vault for about 5 years. A few weeks ago I had to hard shut down when Safari crashed. Upon restart I got the scary "unable to login as this user at this time". I was able to create a new user account. I scoured the internet and followed apple instructions: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2631
I can see my old sparse image file. But when I get to step 18 above, I get the message: The following disk images failed to mount, lockedouthome.sparseimage, reason--> input/output error
When I try to back up the sparse image to an external hard drive, I get the message: The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "lockedouthome.sparseimage" could not be read or written.
Is there anything else I can possibly do before I trash the home folder and start over? I have backups of my itunes and iphoto library, but never got around to backing up the Word documents and web archives that are career related. Please help! I hate to trash it, when I can see the file sitting right there with all my stuff looking like it's still inside (34 GB).
Thanks,
unaware filevaulter

I completely understand the money issue myself.
But DW is your best cheapest hope of any recovery, in fact I do not even buy a new Mac/OS until DW supports it, that's no guarantee it wiil work though.
Could you please explain what you mean by "if you don't have an external drive to boot from" in regards to using the Disk Warrior CD or DVD?
I don't know how you were backing up, nor whether these drives are bootable, but in this day & age it pays to have a bootable Clone of your drive, DW & other Apps can be run from say an external drive to repair your Internal drive... since you cannot repair the HD you're booted from, you need either another boot drive, or a CD/DVD to boot from.
I use FW drives on most of my Networks and use Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/index.html
Can't say enough good about Tri-Backup.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

Contents of disk-image lost (mounted from iDisk)

I've stored an encrypted disk-image on my iDisk and mounted it directly from the network-drive by double-clicking the sparseimage-file. Then I worked directly with the files on that mounted volume. I neither copied the disk-image nor any of the files to a local drive.
Suddenly my MacBook Pro freezed and I have to reboot it. When I mounted the disk-image again, I discovered, that nothing of my work has been saved. I've created a lot of new files and regularily saved changes by storing them on the mounted volume. But it seems, that this changes have never been transferred to my iDisk. Two days of work got lost!
My question: is there any local copy of a mounted disk-image, where I can recover the lost files?
At what time an encrypted disk-image got synced? Only when dismounting it?
I'm very disappointed if mounted network-drives are that unsecure and fragile.
Thanks for any help,
makeCents

I'm thinking it would only be saved on closing/dismounting it., local Disk Images would be that way too.
I can't believe virtual disks work that way. The documentation of disk-images tells that you can open, read, and write files on disk-images like on normal drives. Writing should be a transaction, that means the data should be securely saved or an error message has to be raised if not.
It can't be, that a successful write transaction isn't really stored. Even on network drives this has to be secured. That's basic operating system stuff.

External HD image not mounted

I recently disconnected my ext HD (unknowingly) improperly. Now the HD image does not mount and the ext HD lights are blinking. System profile: Firewire reads it as "unknown device". It is a SmartDisk CrossFire product-company just sold and I cannot find manufacturer support.
Am I SOL or is there a way to recover data?
Tried suggestions of unplugging and restarting - not successful.
Thanks for any help.
iMac 500 MHz (summer of 2000) 512 MB Mac OS X (10.4.1)

"Can you further explain your second idea."
As already suggested, if you have access to another Mac with a FireWire port, you could determine if the problem is with your iMac's FireWire bus, or the drive itself. When you purchased the drive, was it and is it still formatted as a FAT-32 or NTFS volume for PCs, or did you reformat it as a Mac OS Extended volume? If it's still formatted for use with PCs, that provides more options for you, in terms of being able to test it on a PC or Mac.
If the drive has a badly corrupted directory, transferring it to another enclosure won't solve the problem or recover your files. For data recovery, I'd recommend Prosoft Engineering's "Data Rescue." If the problem is strictly with the enclosure's bridge board, the only definitive way to confirm that would be to install another hard drive in it, and see if it's recognized by Disk Utility or mounts on the desktop. If a different hard drive is recognized, then the enclosure and its bridge board are good, and the hard drive itself is probably at fault. If a different hard drive produces the same results as the original drive that shipped in the enclosure, then the enclosure's bridge board may be damaged.
You could open the external case and transfer the hard drive to a new case. You need to know whether your existing FireWire drive has a 3.5" drive or a 2.5" laptop drive, as the data connection is different. Once you confirm what you have, you should check out Other World Computing and other online sources for a compatible FireWire enclosure. For a standard 3.5" ATA hard drive, OWC carries several external FireWire enclosures, such as this one by Macally, and their own line - the Neptune and the Mercury Elite. I'd be willing to spend a little more and go with the Mercury Elite, because I think it has a better design.

How do you get a disk image to mount automatically at login?

I've created a disk image on my iMac in order to share my iPhoto library with multiple users. I would like it to mount automatically when the computer boots up, rather than having to chase it down every time a user wants to access photos. I know how to navigate to Login Options in System Pref/Users & Groups, but don't see any mechanism there for adding disks or apps to startup at login. Thanks...

Adding an application to startup. I'm not quite sure what you mean by mounting a disk image but you could pop your dmg in there and see what happens at login.

Application copied from disk image not recognised as correct arch by Finder

Hi,
occasionally, when I download a disk image ".dmg" that contains an application bundle ".app", I can run the application from the Finder by double-clicking on the icon of the application on the disk image, but when I copy the application to my harddisk, either with the Finder or with "cp -rP", and try to start the copy, the Finder gives me "You can't open the application xyz because it is not supported on this architecture".
However the size of the application bundle, as measured with "du(1)" did not change, and sure enough the copy works just fine when I directly launch the application binary from the shell... The latest example of this behaviour was with the supertuxkart-0.6.1a-full-osx.dmg that I just downloaded.
Anybody seen something similar and/or know what causes this strange behaviour?

I have had a similar problem simply making a copy of a .app file. I spoke with Apple support about it and they said this is the desired behaviour when the application is not a universal application.
You can check by opening the info window for the application and seeing if it says Universal next to Application in the Kind field.
If it says Universal, it should copy without problem, if not, then it won't. Apple support wasn't able to give me a clear reason as to why this is, though.

Disk images not mounting

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for