Disk Utility from external drive?

Our mac mini has a corrupted disk and needs Disk Repair, but the DVD drive is also broken. Can I boot from an external DVD drive?

Have you tried booting to the recovery partition, by holding the command and r keys down while booting (or the alt/option key)? That should bring up a short menu, allowing you to run Disk Utility to do the repair.

Similar Messages

After SN install can't launch Disk Utility from external drive

I recently upgraded 10.5.9 to SN on my white Macbook. First I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive onto the replacement drive in an external enclosure. Then I swapped drives so that the new drive is now the internal drive and the old drive is in the enclosure. I then upgraded the OS on the internal drive via SN installer on DVD.
Now when I start from the external drive in OS X 10.5.9 and try to launch Disk Utility from this drive I get a weird error message that "Disk Utility can't be launched because it's incompatible with this architecture." The only things I can think of is that Snow Leopard installs something that globally effects all perhipherals (like new disk drivers?), or that there is something in the enclosure's USB bridge which is causing this, or that installing Snow Leopard breaks the PRAM for older versions of OS X. Tech support for the enclosure vendor tells me there is nothing in the enclosure's USB that would cause this. Any insights into what's happening appreciated.

Thanks for response. Ah, that's it. I was trying to launch it from the applications folder I had dragged to the dock, which was done while running Snow Leopard. That's why (duh!) all the application icons were slashed out. : |

Extremely Slow Disk Access from External Drives (USB & Firewire)

Following the upgrade to 10.6.2 (from 10.6.1), my computer is communicating extremely slowly with all external drives (both Firewire 400 and USB). File transfers which used to take less than a minute now take 5-10 minutes (less than 1 GB). Peering into the Console, I see messages for each aspect of a file reading: Nov 13 12:30:12 Nautilus /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder[152]: Possible unresolved transaction race -105/filename
(Nautilus is the name of the computer)
By "each aspect", I mean that for Pages files, it provides a message for Quicklook,(null) , Contents,(null) , and filename,(null).
All disks are in good health, formatted as FAT32 for ease of use with all OS types, and are SATA.
Again, this occurred immediately following the installation of 10.6.2 (both Software Update and Combo). I've seen similar errors online with iTunes libraries on network drives, but this is on directly connected drives.
I normally wouldn't ask this, but, is there a way to reinstall 10.6.1 over .2? At this point, Time Machine would likely cause me to lose other data as well in a full revert, since it has been more than a few days.

I have various personal files backed up on these drives (not system data): music, pictures, documents, etc.
FAT32 should not be an issue, as I have used these drives for over 2 years with Tiger, Leopard, and then Snow Leopard with nay an issue, until now. Additionally, while the Time Machine backup may be an archive, it is the sole occupier of an HFS-formatted partition which is not exhibiting the issue. I only included that information since it is physically on the same drive as a partition (FAT32) which is being troublesome to rule out driver/hardware problems.
Bottom line: All of my drives worked perfectly on 10.6.1 (and continue to do so on my other Macs (10.5.8), but do not on 10.6.2. I was only looking for a potential solution to my computer's specific issue, not a statement that my "compromise" is the cause of my problems.
Actually, since Apple fully supports read/write access on FAT32 partitions, I should, indeed, be able to "have all things all ways...", no offense intended.

Disk utility crash, external drive won't mount

Hello,
I was performing disk utility on my Toshiba 1T external drive. The disk needed to be repaired, and while it was in progress, I had a system crash. Now I cannot get the drive to mount, it's indicator light is flashing. I suspect the drive needs a data recovery professional now...but I'd like to know if there are any steps I can take with it.

Turn it off and leave it that way.
Professional data recovery is expensive (think thousands). You could try software, a Data Rescue is well regarded.

Can Disk Utility get SMART status from external drives?

I recently updated my backup plan with a NewerTech quad-interface dock and a WD Caviar Green hd. I'm using the FW800 interface to connect to my iMac (10.6.7) Everything works perfectly, as expected. I noticed, though, that Disk Utility cannot report the SMART status on the new WD drive. DU simply says "Not Supported" under SMART Status.
Is Disk Utility telling me that it doesn't read SMART status from external drives? Or is it telling me that the new drive doesn't support SMART (which I would find highly unusual)? And, if it's Disk Utility that can't read the status, are there any third-party apps that can report the SMART status on an external drive?
Thanks,
JimC

Unfortunately I cannot speak to the NewerTech enclosure, but in principle it appears to be possible to have SMART information displayed even for external drives if the enclosure's bridge controller chip allows it.
My experience:
I've used two MacPower Pleiades FW800/400/USB/eSATA enclosures for several years and I've now supplemented them with two additional inXtron enclosures. They all work as expected daisy-chained to the iMac.
The interesting thing is that the inXtron enclosures came with a CD with some software on it ("Smart AP") which is not available for download, notably a Dashboard Widget for displaying actual and maximum temperatures, total hours of operation, start/stop cycles, drive model and serial number.
This widget is complete garbage, though – it is a nauseating nightmare of extreme over-design at the expense of even basic usability:
http://www.inxtron.com/information-center/smart-ap-for-external-hard-drives
To make matters even worse, it can only display the above information for the first external drive connected.
BUT: This Widget internally calls a command line utility which does the actual parameter retrieval, and that one can be called from the terminal as well.
So after installing the software from CD and effectively discarding the Widget, I checked out the command line utility in the Terminal and found that this utility actually reported data about ALL my enclosures, both the inXtron and the MacPower ones (there seems to be firmware compatibility across these):
(The '$' is supposed to be Terminal's bash prompt – type in only the rest of the respective line.)
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 1
29 50 13 8
53 67 645 15829
52 53 90 7105
51 52 18 13
Each line reports the following for one connected enclosure:
[temp] [maxtemp] [cycles] [hours]
The drives are reported first USB, then FireWire drives, each in the order of first connection / mounting.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 2
WD-WCA**************
WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
WD-WMA**************
WDC WD30EZRS-00J99B0
Each drive gets two lines reported, first the drive's serial number ("***" blocking out my exact ones), then the drive model.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 3
29 50 13 8
WD-WCA**************
WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0
53 67 645 15829
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
52 53 90 7105
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
51 52 18 13
WD-WMA**************
WDC WD30EZRS-00J99B0
This combines both of the above.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 5
disk4
disk1
disk2
disk3
This reports the mounted disk names (referring not to the volume names but to the internal Unix names as in /dev/[drive]); Numbering is in connection / mounting order, the actual sequence is as always USB drives, then FireWire drives.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 6
USB
1394
1394
1394
This reports the connection interface for each drive in the same sequence as all other commands.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 7
MPT934DS1.20.0104.00
MPT934DS1.20.0104.00
This might report the firmware revision or something like that.
These are the commands I know about, and they apply only to the "Smart AP" software supplied with current inXtron enclosures, but it may be possible that other brands use it as well.
I have not been able to identify information about the self-test (early(?) failure warning), but it might be contained as well in the data reported above.
As always, your mileage may vary and you should never do such experiments without FIRST making sure you've got backups of your data and that such backup is not connected during experimentation!
Maybe this can help some people getting the information they need; And maybe there are similar capabilities with other enclosures. At the very least it demonstrates that with the proper firmware in the enclosures themselves and some software on the Mac it IS possible to get at least some of the SMART information from the drive in an external FireWire- or USB-connected enclosure.
None of that is fed into the system's "official" SMART mechanism, though, so no luck using standard mechanisms or applications for it. It's strictly a command-line affair (deservedly disregarding the mishappen Widget).
Good luck!

Since you can no longer backup to disk, how to restore from external drive without losing all ratings and playlists

since you can no longer backup to disk, how to restore from external drive without losing all ratings and playlists?

My own opinion is that you should install the later appropriate version of Silverkeeper. That said, I would in fact recommend if you can wait a few days for an answer, that you email the La Cie Silverkeeper backup team via the email link on the site at http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
They are careful to say they are not officially providing a backup service, but when I emailed them with a query regarding usage about a year ago after downloading Silverkeeper for myself, I got a reply within a couple of days that cleared up my question.

Hard drive is missing. I can boot from the cd but when running the disk utility, no hard drive shows up.

Hard drive is missing. I can boot from the cd but when running the disk utility, no hard drive shows up.
This is a problem that suddenly appeared.

Please post a screenshot of Disk Utility that shows what you mean. Be careful not to include any private information.
Start a reply to this message. Click the camera icon in the toolbar of the editing window and select the image file to upload it. You can also include text in the reply.

Cannot remove Disk Icons from Disk Images or External Drives from Desktop

After years with PPCs, I just upgraded to an Intel Mac. I am now running into a funny problem. The majority of the time (although occasionally it works as it should), I am unable to eject disks. These include disk images from my internal hard drive, external hard drives, and disk images from external hard drives.
I do not get the “Cannot eject this disk because it is in use” error that happens when something is trying to access a file on the disk; instead, nothing happens. I’ve tried ejecting by dragging the icon to the dock, hitting the eject icon in finder, right-clicking and ejecting from there, and even using a terminal-based script that I found on the WEB. None of these do anything- no errors, but the icon hangs about as if nothing happened.
Occasionally I cannot log off at all (I just get the SBBOD); here I have to do a hard reboot. Sometimes I can log off properly. Either way, all seems to be fine when I log back in.
I’ve run Applejack multiple times.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated! Thank you.
OS 10.5.6
2.8 GHz Intel Core Duo iMac with 2 GB factory RAM

The linked macfixitforums topic is over seven years old and isn't applicable. Follow nerowolfe's suggestions. Once you sort things out, see these:
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials,
MacTips, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

HT4848 how to erase the disk utility from my usb portbalbe flash drive

how do I erase the disk utility from my usb portbalbe flash drive. I need the flash drive for other stuff and it isn't allowing me to do so.

Here is information on the recovery partition, includin how to remove it from a drive: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20083166-263/managing-the-os-x-10.7-lion-re store-drive/

Cannot copy files to/from external drive

Hi All,
Bit of a cry for help. I run an iMac 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 10.7.3 and I'm having some serious problems with an external drive. Some history first - I have a large iTunes library (~3Tb) of everytype of media which I stored on an external NAS (iomega StorCenter) with no problems - then this NAS started to report a drive error with imminent failure. I purchased a new DAS (Western Digital) drive and moved all my content from the NAS to the DAS and everything was ok. Then I started to get errors through iTunes about cannot find the file and cannot read the files - and then I couldn't access anything on the drive. At this time I thought this was a different problem because I was running preview Mountain Lion, or there was an actual fault with the disk. After investigation, and coughing out for Data Rescue 3 I found that somehow the entire file structure had been corrupted and all my files had been orphaned. So at this point I had one dying NAS drive and one DAS which wasn't usable and no space to recover any files to.
So - next step was to purchase another external drive (and returned the WD) - this time I went for a G-Raid 4Tb (non-thunderbolt) drive and I've been in the process of recovering files from backups and iTunes. I've had no problems until today when yet again I've started getting errors and now I have problems copying files to/from this G-Raid drive.
Technical details - OS-X 10.7.3 - G-Raid 4Tb formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - currently showing 1,163 folders and 15,452 files.
Symptoms - using finder drag and drop copy a file from the g-Raid to desktop results in 'The operation can't be completed because the item 'xxx' is in use. - 'The operation can't be completed because one or more required items can't be found (error code -43).' and the copy fails.
Using the cp command I get a 'Resource Busy' error.
However, this is not for all files - I've managed to copy all my books back to the desktop ok, when a couple came up with the above error I tried again and it copied successfully.
I have run Disk Utility - here are the details :-
- 4TB G-Tech - Verify
Verifying partition map for “G-TECH”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
The partition map appears to be OK
Volume (Media) - Verify
Verifying volume “Media”
Checking file systemPerforming live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Unused node is not erased (node = 24190)
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Unused node is not erased (node = 24784)
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume bitmap needs minor repair for under-allocation
Checking volume information.
The volume Media was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
Verify and Repair volume “Media”
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Couldn’t unmount disk.
Verify and Repair volume “Media”
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Couldn’t unmount disk.
Verify and Repair volume “Media”
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Couldn’t unmount disk.
Verify and Repair volume “Media”
Checking file systemChecking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Unused node is not erased (node = 94)
Checking catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
The volume Media could not be repaired.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
and it's just got worse - in getting the info for this post I no longer have access to the drive.
This is the second time this has now happened on two different directly connected drives (USB and Firewire) - which means the problem is elswhere. I've a stack of errors in the system.log file
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** /dev/disk1s1
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** Phase 2 - Checking Directories
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: 0 files, 201632 KiB free (403265 clusters)
May 10 17:52:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x7fff799da960): sending attach for device fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
May 10 17:52:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac usbmuxd[29]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x100781000): IPv4
May 10 17:52:39 Neil-Cattons-iMac iTunes[747]: _AMDDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 (thread 0x1180fc000): Device 'AMDevice 0x7ffe6d2d04a0 {UDID = f398e56f8aa95276585e0c5f74544bc24dda99bd, device ID = 58, FullServiceName = fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}' attached.
May 10 17:52:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:52:46: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
May 10 17:52:46 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x7fff799da960): sending detach for device fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
May 10 17:52:46 Neil-Cattons-iMac iTunes[747]: _AMDDeviceDetached (thread 0x1180fc000): Device 'AMDevice 0x7ffe6d2d04a0 {UDID = f398e56f8aa95276585e0c5f74544bc24dda99bd, device ID = 58, FullServiceName = fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}' detached.
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in _copyFile:error (2) opening 0.directoryStoreFile
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in recoverIndex:Unrecoverable error: could not recover path index (0.)
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/Media
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoCreate:Tried to create index when index already existed
May 10 17:53:49 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:01: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
May 10 17:54:01 Neil-Cattons-iMac login[1000]: DEAD_PROCESS: 1000 ttys000
May 10 17:54:05 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:35: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
May 10 17:54:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x7fff799da960): sending attach for device fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
May 10 17:54:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac usbmuxd[29]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x100781000): IPv4
May 10 17:54:46 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:50: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in _copyFile:error (2) opening 0.directoryStoreFile
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in recoverIndex:Unrecoverable error: could not recover path index (0.)
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/Media
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoCreate:Tried to create index when index already existed
May 10 17:54:51 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:55: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 238d0016, actual seed is 7fdcc233
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2f760017, actual seed is 1befd79f
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 255a0018, actual seed is 41a7c4c9
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 292e0019, actual seed is 6b68079a
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2263001a, actual seed is 4e6afb66
May 10 17:55:01 Neil-Cattons-iMac kernel[0]:
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** /dev/disk1s1
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** Phase 2 - Checking Directories
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: ** Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters
May 10 17:52:16 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.diskmanagementd[1057]: 0 files, 201632 KiB free (403265 clusters)
May 10 17:52:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x7fff799da960): sending attach for device fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
May 10 17:52:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac usbmuxd[29]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x100781000): IPv4
May 10 17:52:39 Neil-Cattons-iMac iTunes[747]: _AMDDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 (thread 0x1180fc000): Device 'AMDevice 0x7ffe6d2d04a0 {UDID = f398e56f8aa95276585e0c5f74544bc24dda99bd, device ID = 58, FullServiceName = fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}' attached.
May 10 17:52:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:52:46: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
May 10 17:52:46 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x7fff799da960): sending detach for device fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
May 10 17:52:46 Neil-Cattons-iMac iTunes[747]: _AMDDeviceDetached (thread 0x1180fc000): Device 'AMDevice 0x7ffe6d2d04a0 {UDID = f398e56f8aa95276585e0c5f74544bc24dda99bd, device ID = 58, FullServiceName = fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}' detached.
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in _copyFile:error (2) opening 0.directoryStoreFile
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in recoverIndex:Unrecoverable error: could not recover path index (0.)
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/Media
May 10 17:53:40 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoCreate:Tried to create index when index already existed
May 10 17:53:49 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:01: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
May 10 17:54:01 Neil-Cattons-iMac login[1000]: DEAD_PROCESS: 1000 ttys000
May 10 17:54:05 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:35: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
May 10 17:54:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x7fff799da960): sending attach for device fc:25:3f:7e:2a:19@fe80::fe25:3fff:fe7e:2a19._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
May 10 17:54:38 Neil-Cattons-iMac usbmuxd[29]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x100781000): IPv4
May 10 17:54:46 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:50: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in _copyFile:error (2) opening 0.directoryStoreFile
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in recoverIndex:Unrecoverable error: could not recover path index (0.)
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/Media
May 10 17:54:50 Neil-Cattons-iMac mds[39]: (/Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/5E86681D-E756-465C-925C-A631D78C3A46)( Error) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoCreate:Tried to create index when index already existed
May 10 17:54:51 Neil-Cattons-iMac fseventsd[15]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd/fc007480d049964a (Invalid argument). mount point /Volumes/Media/.fseventsd
May 10 17:54:55: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 238d0016, actual seed is 7fdcc233
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2f760017, actual seed is 1befd79f
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 255a0018, actual seed is 41a7c4c9
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 292e0019, actual seed is 6b68079a
May 10 17:54:55 Neil-Cattons-iMac Finder[147]: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2263001a, actual seed is 4e6afb66
May 10 17:55:01 Neil-Cattons-iMac kernel[0]:
I'm now out of ideas and when I got in touch with G-Tech support I got "Unfortunately the drive seems to have been corrupted. You can try to retrieve the data using third party data recovery software such as Data Rescue 3. You can find the software at a discounted rate at the following page:http://www.thedatarescuecenter.com/gtech-data-recovery-software.html If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask."
any help/advice/pointers very much appreciated as I really don't want to have to start recovering again :-(
Thanks all.

Hi Ncat,
I might have had similar problems with yours. Finder stuck at 'Not Responding' while I boot my Macbook Pro with external HDD plugged in, my macbook heats up considerably maybe because it keeps trying to access the external disk. And Finder can only proceed after I unplugged my external hard disk.
So what I did was:
I rebooted my macbook into recovery mode (by holding cmd+R before / during the booting chime
I used the Disk Utility from there (instead of from normal booting)
Then I proceed to with 'Repair Permissions' and 'Repair Disk' for each and every partition of the external harddisk, and also my internal hard disk.
Rebooted after everything's done, and now it seems to work.
I hope that it will work for you

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.

Trouble Booting from External Drives; Trying to Defragment from External

I have a Verbatim External Firewire 400/USB 2.0 hard drive that has Leopard installed on it. I have installed Drive Genius and Disk Warrior on the external drive. I boot holding the Option key and see the list of drives, and the External does appear. When I select it, the computer just reboots and loads the loads the internal hard drive. I'm trying to defragment the MacBook Pro from an external drive, but I can't do much if it won't boot from an external. I know with Intel Macs, you can boot from USB 2.0 and FireWire. Why won't it work? To be more advanced, I made a disc image of the MacBook Pro Restore DVD and restored it to a new partition of the external, thinking the operating system might be different in the new MacBook Pro because of the new settings in the System Preferences that control the glass trackpad. I'm stuck. Please help.

No, I would not recommend making a disc image. I would recommend cloning the drive to a freshly erased external drive. Cloning is not the same as making a disc image. Disc images cannot be used to boot the computer. They are large and unwieldy. They are intended to be burned to an optical disc and not used as a system backup.
Clones are exact file copies of everything on the source drive such that the destination drive is a mirror of the source drive. You can boot clones, you can update them, and you can access them directly just like any other drive.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the drive to which you will restore or backup.
Source means the drive you are restoring from or backing up.
There are many alternatives to using Disk Utilities Restore option. Any of the following can create clones as well as perform regular backups, and they can incrementally update a clone:
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
10. MimMac (Shareware)
11. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)

Wont edit or play from external drive

I've been using mac for about 4 years now, and have been making videos (mostly skateboard) during that 4 years. My normal plan of action in making a video is record, dump to my external through the iMovie import and then edit from that same file.
Up until my most recent video which I am trying to make now, this process worked fine. I opened the file right from the external drive, and edited away, no problems. Now all of a sudden I cannot do that (even though my computer is BETTER now then it was during previous videos as I upgraded to 2 GB of ram) now when I open the video from the external, it will play for a second, then completly stop and freezes iMovie. So just to be sure that it wasn't a problem with the program i moved some of the video over to my internal hard drive, and it works fine.
I understand that other ppl have had this problem, but why is it that I was once able to do it, and now all of a sudden I can't. My problem is the fact that the video I am currently trying to edit has about 7 hours of raw footage, and that just wont fit on my internal drive, as the video is about 50 GB and I only have 20 left on my internal.
Just some points on why it doesnt work from my external anymore would be great.

To check the formating you can open Disk Utility, select the drive and along the bottom left it will tell you how the drive is formatted. Or you could right click on the drive (control + click) and get info and this will tell you how it's formatted. You want Mac OS Extended (or Mac OS Extended Journaled). I should image that it is formated this way if you have been using it for some time. However, you mention that you have been using it for 3 or 4 years but your computer is a MacBook- which hasn't been out that long! So what else has changed? What make/brand USB drive do you have? Does it have it's own power supply? Can you copy large files over to it without a problem, in other words- is it only iMovie that doesn't like the drive? Has it worked on the MacBook before? What other USB devices are you using (for the record, Firewire would be a much better choice for video editing). Besides that, for general trouble shooting, I would repair permissions, reset the PRAM (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238) and possibly the SMC (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319). It would be a good idea to test the drive and power supply on the "original" computer where you know it works- a bad power supply can give you problems. And of course check the USB cable by trying another that is known to be OK. Finally, if you have Disk Warrior, I would run that as well!
Mike

Format External Drive Error can't unmount disk LaCie 1TB External Drive

Need Help Can't Format This disk. I have tried Formating with Disk Utility and It says it can't be unmounted.
Help!!

Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After Disk Utility loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

MacBook fails to start from external drive

My Photoshop CS3 would not launch. After many other things, I installed the Mac OS (10.4.11) freshly on an external volume, and now PS launched, if I selected that volume as the startup volume.
This emergency solution worked briefly.
Since the Adobe support at some point suggested that a defect font might be the culprit, I trashed all fonts from the main volume and replaced them by those of the fresh install. But then, I could not install PS onto the main volume.
And now, I can no longer make the Mac start from the external volume. The volume shows up in System Preferences/Start disk, I can select it, it is highlighted, everything looks like it should, but the Mac starts from the main volume.
So now, I can neither use PS, nor activate/de-activate/un-install it and thus not re-install it anywhere else. Adobe support has dropped out in silence.
One strange observation: the fresh OS install contained 2 custom fonts, that must have come from my original system -- how did they come to the new one??
2 other observations that might give a hint to the knowledgeable:
1-Before the system starts, the quotation mark flashes up briefly
2-Whenever I need to authenticate as the admin, I need to do it twice.
The main volume is a MacBook Pro 15", 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, from about 2007, serial number W86***VWW. <Edited by Host> The external volume is a WD MyBook connected via USB.
I have repaired the external disk and its permissions using Disk Utility from the System CD.
Can anybody help? Hopeful - Hening

Hi there, I asked for the Serial# to be removed, so don't be shocked.
Before the system starts, the quotation mark flashes up briefly
That means it can't find a booter on the drive selected to start from.
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Resetting MacBook and MacBook Pro System Management Controller (SMC)...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
If all the above fails, then it appears to be time for a relatively painless Archive & Install to your +External drive+, which gives you a new/old OS, but can preserve all your files, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space and no Disk corruption, and is relatively quick & painless...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Just be sure to select Preserve Users & Settings.

Disk Utility from external drive?

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