Encrypted disk doesn't mount

I erased and then encrypted a 1TB Western Digital USB drives to use as Time Machine backups. It worked for awhile then Time Machine told me that there was an error in backing up that might be temparary and that I should try again later. So, I tried again later and it appeared to go through the backup procedure correctly. The next time I plugged the drive in the password screen came up, I typed the password and then the password screen just went grey. I can't hit cancel or unlock. It takes no input. The only thing I can do is yank the usb cable out of my computer. After that I can then hit cancel.
This is the second time this has happened. After the first time I used Disk Utility to erase and reformat the disk. The exact same problem came back. So, it appears to be consistent.
Thank you for any help you can give.

For directions on how to encrypt backup read http://pondini.org/TM/31.html
Allan

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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...?

Pls help: I can't start my mac because I took too much space and now the disk doesn't mount

I am most certain that this is the case: foolishly, I didnt leave much free space and now the disk doesnt want to mount. I tried the single user mode, I also booted from DVD, they appear but the disk utility shows the disk but I cannot repair the disk, because it is unmounted. I tried the basic commands in single user mode, no effect either. I still cant get over the blue screen with the apple logo and a circle running. I need to free up some spasce. Unforetunately, important files were not backedup, so I really cant delete the whole disk. I need to delete specific files.
I came across this in a post:
/sbin/fsck -yf (optional, but a good idea to run a file system check. If you do this, repeat this command if any problems are found.)
/sbin/mount -uw / anables to read and write via the single user mode
/usr/bin/cd /Library/Audio
/bin/rm -R Apple\ Loops - rm is remove
(and any other deletions that you need to do here)
/sbin/reboot
The troulbe is, I dont know where are my big files located - so, how do I orientate myself among the folders? Lets say I would delete my itunes libary, which I would later on renew thanks to the back/up, how would I delete them?
Thank you very much for any advice. I really need to make it work.
Adam

adamfromcernosice wrote:
| just read that the password doesnt show while being typed - ok, but still it says "invalid argument" once being typed after the sudo rm -r. how is that possible?
Probably some error in typing. Copy the command line from Terminal and post it here, exactly as it is.
a way to install applejack or someother helpful software?
AppleJack only works on the boot disk, and only in single-user mode. IMHO, if there is a space or corruption issue on the disk, the last thing you want to do is to install new software on it.
DU once I select repair disk reports ''it could not unmount'' the disk.
If you chose the right disk, you probably have some process using files on the disk or referencing the disk. For instance, if you have Terminal open and present working directory is on the disk, DU will refuse to unmount it. Make sure you've quit all other apps before using DU. If it still refuses to unmount, you can force it in Terminal
$ diskutil unmountDisk force
and drag the disk from Finder to the Terminal window (there's a blank space after force).
could I somehow use time machine just for my original disk?
I don't know about Time Machine. I suspect you can't use it under your circumstances, but I really don't know.
how to force through adn delete some folders? I still believe that it should solve the problem, shouldnt it?
Not all problems have convenient solutions. If the file system is corrupt (which could well happen when running out of space, let alone the fact that you couldn't boot from the disk and thus the journal couldn't be replayed), then deleting files may not work or may make matters worse. We still don't know why you couldn't boot from the internal disk. It may be because there isn't enough space to create the necessary temp and ancillary files—or it may be because the file system was badly corrupted when the operating system ran out of space.
If you want to stick with it, post here the rm command, as I wrote above. It may or may not work, it may or may not delete the files you want to delete, which may or may not fix the problem. There's no guarantee. It you want to do it right, the only way is to back up everything you can and re-format the internal drive.

External disk doesn't mount

I have a La Cie external 200 Gb disk which the system profiler recognises, and which Disk Utility recognises as a DEVICE only. It does not show the disk name ie the directory below the device icon. I can't drag the device icon to the repair box on the right and the verify/repair boxes are all greyed out. I have tried Drive Genius and at one point tried Norton Utilities 6 (which is what probably made it vanish!). Any pointers would be welcome!!
Castlerigg
Imac PPC Mac OS X (10.4.8) La Cie 200 GB 1394 firewire drive

"Methinks you're perpetuating a myth"
I'm too long in the tooth to either listen to or perpetuate myths of any kind! Not a myth unfortunately, a weakness in Leopard that was pointed out to me some time ago (when Harry Potter was a boy) by a sage far wiser and way older than you or I - and he was right, and more importantly brought to an end some hours of frustration with Leopard.
So there!
Thank you for your suggestions, which have made me think. It can't be the cable because it works with all the Tiger Macs. It might be the slot but if it is, I have two faulty slots which would be rare on a pretty new machine.

External FireWire disk doesn't mount on Leopard, does on Tiger?

Hi All,
I have an external FireWire Hard Drive that mounts as it should on all our Tiger Macs, but is invisible on our Leopard Mac. If we swap the FW cable for a USB2 cable, it shows up.
Is this perhaps another Leopard 'thing' maybe? Like the one where Leopard couldn't erase a hard drive to FAT 32 like a Tiger could?
Cheers and thanks in ant...
Chris

"Methinks you're perpetuating a myth"
I'm too long in the tooth to either listen to or perpetuate myths of any kind! Not a myth unfortunately, a weakness in Leopard that was pointed out to me some time ago (when Harry Potter was a boy) by a sage far wiser and way older than you or I - and he was right, and more importantly brought to an end some hours of frustration with Leopard.
So there!
Thank you for your suggestions, which have made me think. It can't be the cable because it works with all the Tiger Macs. It might be the slot but if it is, I have two faulty slots which would be rare on a pretty new machine.

Time Machine Backups of Encrypted Disk Images, Part 2

Hi:
If Time Machine is backing up a hard drive that contains a subset encrypted disk image as part of its contents, and this encrypted disk image is mounted (in an unencrypted state) where the enclosed data has been changed/manipulated in any fashion, what and when does Time Machine backup?
In other words, does the data in the encrypted disk image only change when the encrypted disk image is unmounted? Or is it somehow backed up real time even when the encrypted disk image is mounted on the desktop in an unencrypted state while Time Machine is working?
Sorry I can't explain this very well, but hopefully the gist is clear.
Thanks!
(OS 10.8.2)

Time Machine doesn't back up a disk image file while it's mounted, whether encrypted or not.

How does one save new files to an encrypted disk image?

I encrypted a particular folder, and used a sparse image to leave plenty of room, as well as using read/write permissions, but I don't see how to save new files to the encrypted folder.

So, I guess you have to save the file to the desktop and then drag it to the mounted disk?
No, you should be able to save directly to a mounted disk image via a dialogue box. There is no need for an intermediate step. As long as the encrypted disk image is mounted, it is open and appears to be just another folder.
As an experiment, open a Textedit document and save it to the mounted (open) disk image via Save As in Textedit. It should be able to do that.

Encrypted Disk Image mounts without Password

I've created a new encrypted disk image so that I can store sensitive documents and did it carefully, step by step,(per instructions from www.macworld.com/2425) but after I unmounted, then remount, it doesn't ask me for a password. It just mounts as if it were a regular file. Am I suppose to unmount the volume and drag the disk image to the trash? I don't know what else to try.

The Mac uses and encrypted database of keys called the "Keychain". When you login, it opens the "login" keychain using your login password. That keychain can be used to provide passwords for applications and services, and form data for web sites. In this particular case, the password for your encrypted disk image is being stored in the keychain and automatically provided.
If another user attempted to open the disk image, the disk image mounter would first look in his keychain and then the system keychain for a key to open it with. Finding none, it would prompt the user to specify the key (password). If the user supplies the correct password, the system would put it in his keychain for safe keeping, and the user would then be able to open the image again without supplying the password.
You can remove the key from your keychain by opening up /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access, selecting the "login" keychain, and then looking for an entry with a name that matches the .dmg file in question. Highlight it, and then press the delete key to delete it. The next time you attempt to open it, it will prompt you for a password.

Encrypted disk image mounting

I'm trying to find a way to make an AppleScript that will mount an encrypted disk image and enter the password for it automatically. I can make it open all right, but I can't figure out how to make it enter the password (the 'with password' command doesn't seem to work, I'm assuming it only works on remote volumes?).
Any help would be appreciated.

Something like this should work:
<pre>
set myResult to display dialog "Enter password:" default answer "" with hidden answer
set thePW to text returned of myResult
set cmd to "echo -n \"" & thePW & "\" | hdiutil attach /path/to/encrypted/disk/image.dmg -stdinpass"
do shell script cmd
</pre>
There are some security concerns with passing a command string to "do shell script" that contains your password. If other users log on to your machine they could see your password if they happened to be watching the process list at just the right time.
Steve

Encrypted disk image mount error

When I try to open one particular encrypted disk image, a Warning dialog box opens with the following message:
The disk image you are opening may be
damaged and could damage your system.
Are you sure you want to open this disk image?
If I answer yes, the image mounts and I can see at least the one file I tried.
I don't want to risk ruining the contents of the disk image, so I am not using
it anymore, and have run Disk Utility/First Aid on it.
By running this script while Disk Utility "Repairs Disk":
{ while [ 1 ]; do ps axlwww >> psout; sleep 1; done; }
I can see that Disk Utility runs:
/sbin/fsck_hfs -y -f -g /dev/disk1s2
to check a mounted disk image. This works fine on a good encrypted disk image,
but Disk Utility shows these errors for the broken one:
A Warning dialog box opens with the following message:
First Aid failed
Disk Utility stopped repairing "Safe" because the
following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit
and the first aid window shows:
Verify and Repair disk "Safe"
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Any ideas how to fix this? I tried running
/sbin/fsck_hfs -y -f -r /dev/disk1s2
from the terminal, but it complains:
** /dev/rdisk1s2
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
** Cannot repair volume when it is mounted with write access.
** The volume Safe could not be repaired.
and running it on the parent .dmg file doesn't work at all.
Thanks,
Scott

Well, I wish you luck, but haven't seen many people fix busted images.

Disk Utility says everything's fine, but Install disk doesn't find my internal drive as a possible destination. When I startup with Command S, I get a looping "cannot mount errno = 19" message.

Disk Utility says everything's fine, but Install disk doesn't find my internal drive as a possible destination. When I startup with Command + S, I get a looping "cannot mount errno = 19" message.
Problem started when I used Tech Tool Pro 6 to "de-fragment volume". Had to cancel that process before it finished because I ran out of time. Thereafter, when I startup my machine normally, I get the gray Apple logo at first, but it changes to a prohibited symbol (circle with a slash thru it) and hangs.
When I startup holding the Option key, I can see my internal drive, but I get the same results as above.
When I startup using the MacBook OSX Install DVD, it does not find my internal drive as possible destination.
When I startup using the MacBook OSX Install DVD and then run Disk Utility, it finds my drive, allows me to "repair" and says everything is fine.
When I startup with Command + S, I get a looping error message "errno = 19" and cannot stop it to do anything else.
When I startup from Disk Warrior v4.4, it does not find my internal drive to do any repairs.
When I startup from Tech Tool Pro 6 and run the "computer check" diagnostics, everything passes but the Volume Structure, which fails at "Volume Extents (B-tree)." When I use TTP's "Tools" option to run "volume repair" it will show my internal drive and allow me to click the GO button, but nothing happens and nothing changes.
I have a Time Machine backup on an external USB drive, but for as long as the internal drive doesn't mount, I can't use the backup to restore.

It's a false report and should be ignored.
I would not rely on TT as I've already said earlier even before Grant posted similar advice.
I really think the Rigid Disk Block may be corrupted. This holds the partition map and could prevent a volume from being unmounted. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix that without repartitioning the drive which will remove everything. So, before going down this road I hope you have backups or can make a backup.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard 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.
2. After DU 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 Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X.
5. Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Hi, I have a freecom 1TB hard drive which was working fine until it froze. I pulled it out (mistake I now know) and now it doesn't mount. It shows up in Disk Utility but won't manually mount. When I try to repair it gives message 'failed on exit'. hel

Hi, I have a freecom 1TB hard drive which was working fine until it froze. I pulled it out (mistake I now know) and now it doesn't mount. It shows up in Disk Utility but won't manually mount. When I try to repair it gives message 'failed on exit'. Some people have said to try Disk Warrior, but at $100 it's quite expensive maybe fix. help!

You likely need to reformat the drive which will destroy all data and you need a backup to restore it. If no backup is present then a data retrieval service can be more expensive than DiskWarrior. There is software that can rescue the data but I can not vouch for it's effectiveness as I have always maintained backups. .
http://www.prosofteng.com/
http://www.wondershare.net/ad/data-recovery-mac.html?gclid=CLTp3Mj07rkCFevm7AodL lUAHw
http://diskdoctors.com/software/mac-data-recovery/utility.asp?gclid=CMyf_MH17rkC Fcvm7AodSE0A8A
http://www.cleverfiles.com/

Even though I have LCD font smoothing disabled, Mountain Lion still uses it in PDF views, Safari's location bar, Mail's message view, and the dialogs for mounting encrypted disk images.

Even though I have LCD font smoothing disabled, Mountain Lion still uses it in PDF views, Safari’s location bar, Mail’s message view, and the dialogs for mounting encrypted disk images. Is there any solution to this problem? Also diabled the Smoothing in the SystemPrefs and also via Terminal. Font smoothing is still there. Very annoying, especially in PDF attachments in Apple Mail.

Try feeding Safari a user-defined CSS file with font-smoothing tweaks (including none). The filename and its filesystem location are arbitrary. Use your favorite coding editor.
Safari > Preferences > Advanced > Style Sheet:
Here is an example with all elements uncommented. Pick the one that works best for your Safari viewing and comment out the others:
Preview. Try Preview > Preferences > PDF > Smooth text and line art (uncheck)

Leopard doesn't mount the disk with time machine backup!

Hi friends. It's my first time in this forum, and I'm sorry by now for my poor english.
My problem: One week ago I had some problem with hard disk, but after a visit to an Apple center and after a replacement of my disk the problem was solved.
Now I want to restore all my file and my system preference from an external hard disk (USB LaCie 500GB) when have made a complete backup with time machine.
But Leopard doesn't mount the disk in finder or in Utility Disco. I see it only in System Profiler. I try with my old iBook with Tiger and it mount correctly the disk! It's amazing! Please Help me, I need my file on my iMac for work!
Thanks and merry Christmas!!!

Similar thing for me as well. I however haven't made a backup using Time Machine.
In preparation for Leopard, I reformatted my laptop's hard drive and installed Mac OS X 10.5.1 fresh. As soon as I plugged in my trusty 500GB external WD MyBook Pro (trying both Firewire 400 and 800 on my MacBook Pro 17"), I get the following alert:
"Disk Repair
The disk "500GB" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. you must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible. OK"
Keep in mind, I run Disk Utility and "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions" religiously every week and have had no issues while running under Mac OS X 10.4.11. My other laptop running the 10.4.11 doesn't report any issues with the drive at all - only when I plug it into this one running 10.5.1.
Is there a firmware update for this drive? Is this Apple's issue? I have another LaCie Firewire drive and it works flawlessly even under 10.5.1.
Right now, I can't even use the drive as it's Read Only (due to the error).
In system logs:
Feb 9 19:02:59 Cam diskarbitrationd69: unable to repair /dev/disk4s3 (status code 0x00000008).
/dev/rdisk4s3: fsck_hfs run at Sat Feb 9 19:00:41 2008
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** /dev/rdisk4s3 (NO WRITE)
/dev/rdisk4s3: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM DIRTY
/dev/rdisk4s3: fsck_hfs run at Sat Feb 9 19:00:41 2008
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** /dev/rdisk4s3
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Extents Overflow file.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Catalog file.
/dev/rdisk4s3: Incorrect number of file hard links
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking multi-linked files.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Catalog hierarchy.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Extended Attributes file.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking volume bitmap.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking volume information.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Repairing volume.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** The volume 500GB could not be repaired.
The drive is reported to be "Ok" when running Disk Repair on other machines not running Leopard. As a test, I just "upgraded" my wife's laptop to Leopard and now I have the same issue on that machine.
Help.

Nested items in docked folder inaccessible on mounted encrypted disk image

When I click on a folder in the dock, then select a nested folder and try to open it, I get the error message:
"The application cannot be launched. -35"
The folders in question reside on an encrypted disk image (which is mounted). If I remove the folder from the dock and then put it in the dock again, this fixes the problem until the disk image is unmounted, and then mounted again.
Are there any solutions? Thanks.
iMac G5 10.5.7

I finally discovered a quick and easy workaround for this problem.
Using Automator and Cocktail's "built in" Automator actions, I created a script with 2 actions. The first clears the user's dock caches (using Cocktail). The second action is a shell script that relaunches the dock. The script is simply "/usr/bin/killall Dock" (case sensitive, without the quotes).
I saved the Automator script as an application and dragged the app into my Dock. Now, all I have to do is click on the app in the dock, and click allow in the window that pops up (allowing the app to obtain the password for Cocktail from my keychain) and then the nested items then become immediately available. I don't have to reset any prefs regarding the appearance or behavior of the docked folders. Problem solved!

Encrypted disk doesn't mount

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