IMac refuses to mount or eject disk

My iMac 24 inch 2009 has taken a disk in but will not mount or eject it

By "disk" are you referring to a hard disk or a DVD or CD? Please try to be more specific about the problem you are having.

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IMac g5 will not mount in target disk mode

I am trying to recover data from an iMac G5 with a failing hard drive. The mac recently stopped booting and does not get past the grey startup screen before just turning off. There have been many other cases like this that I have looked at, but I still have not found a solution. I have started up from the install disk and can see that disk utility still regonizes the disk (althought it is marked as failing) but no options for repairing or verifying are available (greyed out). System Profiler on the non-target mac can see the drive (under firewire tab), but I don't know if I can mount it because Disk Utility can not see it. Is there anything I can do to extract the files? Thanks for any help you can offer. Sheldon

If the HD has failed on the old computer then you can either recover from your backup, however I'm assuming from your post you were not backing up. If that is the case then you can purchase Data Rescue 3 (Google it) and see if it can recover some data or you will need to take it to a data recovery service which will be extremely expensive.
As a general rule of thumb ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have a solid backup plan! Beginning with Leopard 10.5.x there is no excuse to not at least be using Time Machine. If you are not familiar with TM then please watch the Time Machine Tutorial.

How do I fix iMac that automatically ejects disks without reading them

How do I fix an iMac that automatically ejects disks without reading them?
Have tried resetting the SMC, didn't work.
If I have to get a new drive, how much do they cost on an iMac and where do I get it fixed?
Very disappointed if we have to spend money to fix computer as we have not had this computer for a very long time and we bought a Mac because it was supposed to be better.

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.
Also might try one of those cleaning CDs.
Replacing it isn't very easy, but...
So we know more about it...
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware> and report this upto but not including the Serial#...
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.21f4

I have a Free Agent external backup hard drive connected to my iMac Intel desktop via USB. Why do I get an error message, from time to time, upon startup stating: "disk was disconnected improperly, always eject disk before disconnecting"?

I have a Free Agent external backup hard drive connected to my iMac Intel desktop via USB, I never unplug it. Why do I get an error message, from time to time, upon startup stating, "Disk was disconnected improperly. Always eject disk before disconnecting."?

I never unplug the external harddrive, and the error message comes up only occassionaly upon startup. Maybe the USB connection gets disrupted enough to cause the computer to see it as disconnected and then reconnected while the iMac is powered.

Mounting Windows shared disk - getting stuck; won't eject?

I'm sharing the C: on my windows 2000 server machine, on the network. Most of the time I can mount and eject the volume just fine.
However, sometimes it gets "stuck". Meaning, I can mount it once, then eject it, but when I try to mount it again, i get the ?-mark over the drive. I go to relaunch Finder, and the volume is still there, but it won't eject. I can browse it still, but every action I try seems to not cause it to eject. I have to reboot to get it to clear off.
Is there a way to force a volume to eject? Am I mounting my drive wrong in the first place? Is there a proper way to eject a volume? Thanks.
Ryan

bump.
it seems to do it more after i wake the macbook from sleeping...

Time Machine and mounted sparse bundle disk image - file by file backup?

I think I had this system working in Leopard, but upon upgrade to Snow Leopard it seems to have broken. Does anyone have any idea how I can get Time Machine to back up the contents of a mounted sparse bundle disk image in real time - file by file within the disk image? For example, I have a 2GB sparse bundle disk image that i keep all of my bank statements/files/records in. It auto-mounts on boot and stays mounted. I use the disk image to keep it password-protected, so if I unmount it it is fairly safe. In Leopard, I would exclude the .sparseimage file from backup, but it would still backup the mounted image itself on a file-by-file basis, so I could enter Time Machine and explore the image folder by folder, file by file (say I deleted an old bank statement by mistake, I could go into time machine and recover as if it were a normal file/folder).
In Snow Leopard, after a clean install, and creating a new sparse bundle disk image and excluding the .sparsebundle file, I can't seem to get this to work even though the image is mounted. Is there any way to trick Time Machine into backing up the mounted image as it would any other folder? I know I can back up the .sparsebundle file incrementally but in order to recover a lost document I'd have to remount the old bundle and that seems rather roundabout.
Thanks,

I think you're trying to bypass the finder to mount the disk. Try this (I'll bold the key steps):
- *Turn off Time Machine* in the System Preferences.
- Option A: If you directly use a hard disk (not wireless) that has the sparsebundle you want to open, *connect the disk* but don't double click on the sparsebundle.
- Option B: If you are using wireless, this means use shift-command-k (or shift-apple-k), and if it says "Connect As..." in the upper right instead of disconnect, then use that button to *connect to that wireless drive*.
- Confirm the sparsebundle shows in that folder before proceeding...
- *Open Terminal* (Applications>Utilities>Terminal.app)
- Type: *hdiutil attach -noverify* (<-- notice a *space " "* must be included after typing this here but *DON'T hit return* yet.)
- *Drag the sparsebundle to the cursor in terminal*, and it should fill in something like /Volumes/HardDrive/COMPUTERNAME.sparsebundle for you. Now you can hit return, and the disk will mount.
- After you are done browsing sparsebundle's mounted image, *eject the mounted disk* like you would any other disk (not the sparsebundle image itself, just the disk icon that appeared if you successfully mounted it).
- Turn *Time Machine back on* in the System Preferences.
Hope this helps.

Original iMac will not boot from new disk

I am having considerable difficulty getting a new disk to boot in an original 'Bondi blue' iMac.
I think I have researched this issue reasonably well and found a few references to it but no solution. I have more resources than most and have tried every trick I know. The story at the following link is not dissimilar to my experience:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/20518
Details:
iMac - original 233 MHz revision A with 160 MB RAM
New disk - 120 GB 7200 rpm Western Digital disk type WD1200SB
Format - HFS+ with 7 GB first partition and 107 GB second partition
Jumpers - both CD and disk set to master - normal for this iMac I believe
The iMac will seldom boot from OS X 10.3 on first partition or OS 9.2.2 on second partition with or without the other OS totally removed. I have reformatted several times and played with several disk drivers. I have zapped PRAM a few times. I sometimes get a grey screen but more frequently get a flashing question mark.
I can mount both volumes when booted from a CD and every test shows that they behave as expected. The disk boots properly in a G4.
I am prepared to try anything but I would particularly appreciate advice from somebody who knows what the problem is.

Eureka - it works - thanks very much.
It now boots from OS 9.2.2 on both partitions every time. I have yet to replaced the OS X that I removed earlier but I am not expecting difficulties.
My view is that http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25249 is badly written. I assume that item 4 should read 'OS X' and not "Mac OS". It may have been written on the assumption that users only want OS X and Classic on a single partition. My experience, particularly with early iMacs, is that it pays to have 2 bootable partitions and it is expedient to have OS X on one and OS 9.2.2 on the other with the OS 9.2.2 being used for Classic and for direct booting into OS 9.2.2.
My error was in paying insufficient attention to
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?p_faqid=1277&pcreated=1095792241#jumper
which clearly indicates jumper positions for single drives although a few words about it would underline the point. I had already discovered that these iMacs normally have both CD and disk set to master so should have realised that strictly they are 'single drives'. I had initially used the clear, but misleading, drive silk screen printing, ie CS, slave, master to set the jumper but should have changed it when checking the WD site later. Perhaps they could use this thread to update their FAQs - I will mention it to them.
In answer to those, on this thread and elsewhere, who were not happy with my sloppy copying of OS 9.x, I discovered some years ago that as long as you 'blessed' the end result in situ with one of the free OS 9.x updaters it is surprising what you can get away with. - I am not advising anybody to do this unless it is within the terms of their Apple license!
Now I wonder if I should stick with OS X 10.3 or if it is worth trying OS X 10.4 with
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto.htm l
Does anybody know how satisfactory it is and if it has serious memory or speed implications? My only slightly unusual software is Cisco VPN client.

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

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

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

MacBook won't eject disk during multi-disk installs, or after an install

Oy, will the problems never stop?
I have a dual-core MB 2.66 machine. I just put a fresh 500 gig drive and installed a retail copy of Snow Leopard. That seemed to go fine. Now I'm installing apps. And what's cropped up is that the machine refuses to eject disks after the install is complete.
I had to run the Adobe CS5 install twice because of this problem; luckily it ejected disks as it was supposed to the second time around. However, with iLife, iWork, Quicken, etc., after the install was done the disk refused to eject, and I had to hard-quit and eject the disk during next startup. And now Final Cut Pro is acting the same way...I use the install disk, then put Audio Content 1 disk in...it churns for two hours adding those files, then asks for Audio Content disk 2...but WON'T eject Disk 1!
I'm at my wits end. I never had these problems with Tiger...

If I understand you correctly, you have two disks with Tiger and you installed a new disk on which you install Snow Leopard & apps.
Personally I would not have done this project that way. I would have used CCC or SuperDuper to clone one of the Tiger disks on to the new disk and then test to be sure the disk is working correctly first. A clone is a bootable copy of a system disk that contains everything from where the device used to make it.
Then and then I would install Snow Leopard. After installing Snow Leopard, you could use Setup Manager to copy over your data from the Tiger disk.
With the problemas you are currently having it might be easier to start over this way.
Allan

Why does Tiger always mount Time Capsule disks automatically?

I have a Time Capsule (early 2009) with wireless connections to an iMac running OS 10.5.7 Leopard and a PowerBook G4 running OS 10.4.11 Tiger. The G4 always automatically mounts on the desktop the TC Data disk (i.e., backup volume disk) and any disks physically connected to the iMac. Even if I unmount them, they will come back to the G4 desktop. The iMac requires manual mounting of disks except for the Data disk which mounts automatically during a backup. How do I stop the G4 from automatically mounting disks?

I had looked in the G4 (OS 10.4.11) System Preferences/Accounts/Login Items and found an item called Airport Base Station Agent listed as an application. This also appears in the Login Items on the iMac (OS 10.5.7). So I didn't see that as the culprit. I didn't see the Time Capsule listed in the Login items on either computer. Maybe this application or some preference file is corrupted on the G4. I don't know how Airport Base Station Agent got installed so I am reluctant to remove it and later find out that wireless no longer works. Maybe when Airport Utility is installed? I was unable to locate it using Find File. The G4 remounts the Time Capsule disk on a Restart so it must have something to do with the Login. But I don't know what.

Superdrive stopped functioning/ can't see or eject disk

Hi
I've got two (related problems):
I performed a Repair Permissions on my HD and now the Superdrive no longer works. And, I can't see or eject the DVD that's in there (a Leopard install DVD), so can't restart with a bootable DVD either.
So, any ideas how to (a) eject the disk and (b) get the drive working again?
I've gone through methods suggested in this forum, such as starting up in firmware mode, resetting the PRAM (with or without switching the computer off and holding the start-up button for 15 seconds) etc.
System profiler does not see the Superdrive.
Is there a (non-damaging) method of retrieving the DVD with tweezers etc.?

*A few suggestions:*
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58566 iMac (Slot Loading): Troubleshooting CD/DVD Eject Failures
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106752 Macintosh: How to Eject a Disc When Other Options Do Not Work
Launch Disk Utility (Finder>Go>Utilities), select the ‘stuck disc’ in the volume list on the left & then either click the "Eject Button, Press Command+E or choose File>Eject Disk.

Consistent OS bug when ejecting disks (Mac OS 7.5.5 to 10.4.9)

I have a problem and a complaint about a bug in every Mac OS since 7.5.5, up to and including 10.4.9, and it is about disk images and ejecting disks. It has already happened to me twice tonight, and I hate rebooting my macintosh so frequently.
The problem has been both highly repeatable and extremely annoying because I have to reboot the computer every time it happens.
Its simple to repeat, just put a cdrom in the drive--I'm using an imac G4 USB with OS 10.4.9 at the moment but I've verified a similar problem occurs with floppy disks in various OS versions back to 7.5.5 on a Mac SE 30.
Next use Disk Utility to make a copy of the disk. I make a copy on the desktop and keep the same name as the original disk because I want to use them for archives. Now open the disk image to inspect its contents and make sure it looks right. Once the disk image opens on the Desktop it becomes impossible to eject the cdrom.
I've tried:
- the media eject key--graphic flashes but nothing happens
- dragging the icon to the trash can--icon disappears but the disk doesn't eject
- remounting the disk in Disk Utility and then using 1) the eject command, 2) the media eject key, 3) dragging the disk icon to the trash can.
Since I have an iMac G4 USB (the flat panel) the computer doesn't have a manual cdrom eject. The only way I've found to change cds is to reboot the computer and hold down the mouse button. Every single time I copy a disk I have to reboot--I hate that.
This bug is really overdue to be squashed. Until then, is there a way to force the cdrom to eject without either 1) damaging the drive or 2) rebooting the computer?
I don't want to damage the computer by forcing the cdrom drive open. Nor do I want to keep rebooting every time I make a disk image.
Thanks,
- Mike

Can you eject the disk after unmounting the .dmg file? Can you eject the disk if you change the .dmg's name slightly? BTW, my mate has a 17" 1GHz G4 iMac and her keyboard has an eject button.
If none of those work, the file a bug with Apple through their BugReporter system. Go to https://connect.apple.com/MemberSite and join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Then, go to https://bugreport.apple.com/, click on the Login to the Apple BugReporter link (using your Apple ID username and password), and file your bug report/enhancement request. The nice thing with this procedure is that you get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering.
Posting here won't get you any action from Apple engineering.

Unreliable mounting of Firewire disks and Finder crashing

On both my MacPro3,1 and MacBookPro5,1 running 10.6.2, mounting of Firewire disks is unreliable. Sometimes a partition being mounted does not show up in the Finder (but does appear as mounted to the df command). When that is the case, launching Disk Utility will cause the mounted partition to appear in the Finder. On mounting the disk, the system log always shows these entries:
21/01/2010 14:32:39 diskarbitrationd[14] unable to probe /dev/disk2s1 (status code 0x0000002D).
21/01/2010 14:32:39 diskarbitrationd[14] unable to probe /dev/disk2s2 (status code 0x0000002D).
21/01/2010 14:32:39 diskarbitrationd[14] unable to probe /dev/disk2s3 (status code 0x0000002D).
On dismounting the disk, the system log always shows these entries:
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 43
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 39
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 38
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 37
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 36
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 34
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 42
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 35
21/01/2010 14:33:13 com.apple.notifyd[13] EV_DELETE failed for file watcher 41
21/01/2010 14:33:14 mdworker[1824] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
Sometimes, on dismounting the disk, the Finder crashes, with these entries in the system log:
21/01/2010 14:33:17 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[165] (com.apple.Finder[175]) Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault
21/01/2010 14:33:18 ReportCrash[1827] Saved crash report for Finder[175] version 10.6.2 (10.6.2) to /Users/mike/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Finder2010-01-21-143318Shackleton.crash

Hi Dr. T,
> There is an OnDemand key in there which looks
like it may be doing something useful.
   I'm afraid that I don't know anything about the contents of those files but yes, an OnDemand key sounds like it might do what you want. Although I'm still fuzzy on this point, I gather that what you want is for the device file to be created in /dev but for the volume to not be mounted. As long as the device file is created, you can use the path to the device file as an argument to the "mount" command to mount the drive at any time. I assume that one of "the relevant parameters" in the fstab is the path to the device file.
   I don't know how well I understand what goes on "under the hood" here because I don't do this a lot. I was of the impression that if you eject or detach a drive, the device file is deleted from the device tree. However, if you merely unmount the drive, the device file persists and you can easily mount the drive again.
   By the way, it is supposed to be possible to use fstab with only data that persists between boots. You can use drive UUIDs or labels to refer to partitions. You can use the df command to discover the appropriate device files at the moment and then "diskutil info <device>" to get the UUID.
Gary
~~~~
   If A = B and B = C, then A = C, except where void or
   prohibited by law.
         -- Roy Santoro

Mounting/unmounting firewire disk via LaCie shortcut button

I wrote this little script to be ran everytime i push the button on my firewire disk.
tell application "Finder"
if not (disk "LaCie" exists) then
do shell script "diskutil mount " & last word of (do shell script "diskutil list | grep 'Apple_HFS LaCie'")
else
tell application "Finder"
activate
eject disk "LaCie"
end tell
end if
end tell
Is there an easier way to do this, without the shell-call for mounting the disk. Ie can i tell finder to mount a disk by name?
Regds,
Martin Bergman

Hi and welcome
Their are quite a few ways to do what you ask.
tell application "Finder"
update desktop
if not (exists disk "VOLUME NAME") then mount volume "afp://00.00.00.00/VOLUME NAME"
end tell
you can change out the mount volume areas to any one of these suggestions below
--mount volume as guest, just add ip and volume name, this has no user authentication.
mount volume "afp://;AUTH=No User [email protected]/VOLUME NAME"
--mount volume, just add ip and volume name, and user authentication.
mount volume "afp://Macintosh HD:[email protected]/Macintosh HD"
--mount volume from a pc, just add ip and folder name
mount volume "smb://00.00.00.00/HOTFOLDERS"
--mount volume
mount volume "afp://[email protected]"
hope this helps
Budgie

Prevent iPod from mounting as a disk?

I have an iPod Classic. When I connect it to my main iTunes Library, I had set it to manage my songs manually. So it now mounts as a disk and shows the "do not disconnect" icon.
Trouble is, when I am at work I want to connect it to the USB port on my MBP just to not run down the battery. I have no songs on my Mac there. I listen through the headphone jack on the iPod and use its controls. But one I plug it in, the screen changes to the "do not disconnect" screen and I can no longer use it. Sometimes it does not show up on the Desktop, so I can't "eject" it to use it as an external iPod.
How can I disable this mount as a disk behavior for this iPod?

Hello Maxwell,
Thank you for contacting Apple Support Communities.
The following article describes how to enable Disk Mode on your iPod. Disabling it is as simple as unchecking the box.
Use Disk Mode to copy photos from iPod
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1930
Regards,
Jeff D.

IMac refuses to mount or eject disk

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