Is it possible to mount an external hard drive as a folder?

When the drive is connected, I would like it to show up as a folder inside the documents folder instead of a mounted drive on the desktop. I'm quite new to this mac thing, is this possible?

When a disk appears on the "Desktop", it isn't actually mounted there - usually, it is mounted in the "/Volumes" folder, and the "Finder" is just displaying what is more or less a shortcut to the disk. This can be turned off by going in to "Finder" > "Preferences" and deselecting "Hard disks" in the list of items to show on the "Desktop".
In terms of having the drive "show up as a folder inside the documents folder", I'm not sure I understand what you are asking for. In the simplest interpretation, but if it is just a question of access, it would be fairly easy to create an alias or symbolic link to the "/Volumes" folder and place that inside the "Documents" folder - openning that alias will show you drives in the "/Volumes" folder. For example, in "FInder" you can select from the menu "Go" > "Go to Folder…" (⇧⌘G) and type in "/Volumes" (without quotes), switch the "Finder" to "column view" (⌘3) and drag the icon for the "Volumes" folder (it will likely appear "ghosted") to the "Documents" folder while holding down the "command" (⌘) and "option" (⌥) keys to create an alias.
If you actually want a specific drive to be mounted using a mount point within the "Documents" folder, it is possible to unmount the volume and remount it manually using the mount point of choice, and it might also be possible to script something to automate this somewhat. In some cases, it might even be possible to specify something using '/etc/fstab' and / or "NetInfo" so that the volume will use that mount point automatically (but I find that it only works consistently during boot). But generally, "automount" mounts everything in "/Volumes" so adapting to that behaviour is probably the best in the long run.

Similar Messages

My MacBook Pro won't let me mount my external Hard Drive. Just trying to restore my iTunes library.

My MacBook Pro, less than a year old, started acting weird. I backed everything up, took it in to Best Buy, who sent it out to Apple Repair and they put in a new motherboard.
It's running on Mac OS X Version 10.7.4
Now I am trying to put everything back on the computer from my external Maxtor 80GB Hard Drive. MacBook Pro won't recognize the external drive.
I tried Disk Utility. I can see the external drive, and did a repair disk and verify disk. Several times. Each time it says "This partition map seems to be ok."
However, I am not able to mount it, as that option is greyed out and i can't select it.
Also, under the Icon for the external hard drive, it has the Macintosh HD Icon (essentially my computer). I tried to restore this way, didn't work.
I need this to mount, as it has all of my itunes stuff on it; dozens of my sons movies, and my entire iTunes library.
PLEASE HEEEEELP!! HOW CAN I MOUNT THIS EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE? Thank you in advance

Try things in this USB/Firewire faq.
DALE

Laptop no longer can mount my external hard drive

After updating to Mavericks, my laptop no longer can mount my external hard drive. What on earth is going on here and how can I fix this?

The drive is spinning and I was using it the night before I updated my macbook. It is viewable in disk utility but not in finder, and attempts to mount it are thwarted. The problem is literally coincident with updating the mavericks. When I click verify it didn't appear to have any problems but I will retry when I am back at home and report the findings.
It is a Toshiba 1GB external hard drive and has adequate power. Lights are on, etc.
I have not checked on another computer as do not have one available, but that will be my next step.

Is it possible to format an external hard drive on my mac?

I purchased a portable external hard drive to back up my former pc in the hopes of using it on my mac. Obviously, I did not research this seeing now that I can integrate my files and photos from my pc to my mac. It appears possible to format the external hard drive to my mac os, which should be done prior to downloading files from my pc to the hard drive. Has anyone dealt with this or am I the only idiot that purchased the external hard drive thinking that was the thing to do before my pc dies completely?

A HD formatted in EXFAT will transfer data between both PC and Mac.
However dont make the titanic error most do in having merely a single external HD backup of your data, thats a tragedy waiting to happen.
HD are cheap as dirt.
Ideal situation is 3 HD , 1 for Mac backups, 1 for data archives stored away safely and updated as needed / often.
and a 3rd HD in Exfat for data transfers (or a thumb drive for the same thing to save $$)

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

I am using an external drive in the exact way that you described. You just keep it plugged in to the computer when you want to access the movies and files. In order to put files on it, just go to finder open up the drive under devices and drag and drop files onto the drive. It is just like using a usb drive with a terabyte of space.

I mounted my external hard drive to a pc and now I don't have edit or write permissions on my Mac (read only). How do I get them back without erasing the drive?

Hello all, I am a photographer and have my portfolio, edited and raw images backed up on a Seagate Free Agent External Hardrive. I mounted my external hard drive to a pc recently and now I don't have edit or write permissions to it on my Mac (read only). How do I get them back without erasing the drive and loosing my valuable work?

If you re-format it you will lose all the data on it!!!!! So make sure you have backed up the drive or moved all the data on it to another external HD or the internal HD on your iMac.
Below is an Apple Advice letter that explains how to format an external HD, it's written for Aperture but you can use the instructions to formate any external HD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3509

Mount an external hard drive in single user mode

Do any know how to mount an external hard drive in single user mode:
I've issue the following command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Volumes/ex1
/sbin/mount_hfs /dev/disk2s3 /Volumes/ex1
(I've checked my external hard drive using df -k showing the device is disk2s3)
Result:
Permission denied

Hi leung wai,
   I wouldn't mind knowing the answer myself. I think the problem with doing it in the manner you attempted is that the device tree hasn't been created yet so the mount command is certainly not going to work. I assume that the answer is to start up enough of the system to have the device tree created. Unfortunately, I don't know where in the startup process that occurs. You could try the following command after making the boot volume writable:
/usr/libexec/registermach_bootstrapservers /etc/mach_init.d
Then check to see if the /dev virtual filesystem has been created. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't also mount your disks. If not, try the following:
/sbin/SystemStarter
It should have been created after that because at that point almost the whole system has started.
Gary
~~~~
   You've been telling me to relax all the way here, and
   now you're telling me just to be myself?
         -- The Return of the Secaucus Seven

Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows?

Hello,
Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows? If yes, then please let me know, because I intend to use my hard drive for both Windows and Mac, without losing any file.

Yes. By default, Mac OS X and Windows can read and write drives which are formatted as FAT32 or exFAT; NTFS drives aren't writable from Mac OS X without additional software.
(124553)

Since upgrading to Lion I can no longer mount my external hard drive

I backed up about 10 minutes before installing Lion when I was on Snow Leopard. I know my drive works fine and there are no issues with it.
However, when Lion was installed, I wanted to perform a Time Machine Backup, but it said my backup disk was unavailable. I checked in the Finder and it wasn't showing up in the side bar, even though it was connected to my Mac and the indicator light on the hard drive itself was flashing - suggesting drive activity. I can also hear the drive spinning.
I opened Disk Utility and the external hard drive appears in the side bar and it says 'WD My Passport 071A Media'. Underneath that is the 'Time Machine Backups' drive which is greyed out. I have tried right clicking on it and choosing Mount but it won't mount, and I have also tried Repair Disk which doesn't finish, but also doesn't report any errors either. If I run Verify Disk and Repair Disk on the 'WD My Passport 071A Media' drive (which is the same drive) it does not report any problems and says the drive is working fine.
I have tried updating the drive's firmware and using different ports but neither have worked. I have also tried rebooting my Mac.
I really need to use this drive to backup and I can't format it because I can't afford to lose any data on there. Could someone please give me some advice or tell me how to fix this? I would appreciate it so much.
Thanks,
Nathan

Nathan Miah wrote:
Is there absolutely anything else I could do to sort this such as phone Apple Support
If you want.
or maybe install Snow Leopard using the disc it came on with my Mac and just set it up from a Time Machine Backup on my external hard drive (since it works under SL)?
Did you install Lion on an empty partition, or did you upgrade Snow Leopard? If you upgraded, I'd not recommend erasing it, since your backups are apparently gone. It's doubtful Snow Leopard will recognize them.
It's not just backups on the drive either, there are other important things on there, so why won't they show?
Mixing Time Machine backups and other data is not a good idea. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. It sounds like the whole disk is corrupted.
I just really don't understand how this happened. Could it not be an issue with WD because they haven't issued firmware to support Lion yet?
If this is a simple external HD, connected by USB or FireWire, no, unless you installed some of WD's software on it. That shouldn't prevent it from being seen at all, but anything's possible.

Connecting and mounting an external hard drive on 10.5.2 Fusion/Mac

Hello I'm french and speak a bad english sorry
I recently installed Fusion on my laptop to watch PC avi video and I connected an external Hard Drive formated in FAT. When plugging the drive to MacBook Pro this message occured: initialize, ignore or eject.
I push the IGNORE button and the volume then mounted to my desktop.
It was possible to read the volume informations and then I launched Fusion and using Windows Player it was really good to watch avi video.
Actually, and I do not know why? plugging the drive on my Mac and pushing IGNORE results unmounted disk or volume. I used Disk Utility and expecting to mount the volume called disk3s1 occured IMPOSSIBLE.
As well, in Fusion when the disk icon appears , trying to double click results NOT fORMATED DISK
I own a lot of photos of family and musical video on it and this make me sad.
Where would be the problem? soft or hard?
I disconnected the unity, plugging, and unplugging the USB cable, changing port, removing DC cable and so on and so on ........... My external LED 's drive is correct and indicates that the unity is still working.
May you HELP ME to SOLVE this PROBLEM , GOD ALWAYS WOULD BLESS YOU
THE drive name is SEAGATE extenal USB and I do not know the actual partition card but it worked very well yesterday.
They suggested to me to type /etc/hostconfig using Go TO on text edit and verify -REMOVABLE- but on 10.5.2 this file doesn't exist, does it?
EXPECTING FOR A MIRACULOUS ANSWER
THANKS THANKS AND THANKS
LOT OF LOVE

Hi smike;
I had a simular situation with a hrad drive back when I was still using Norton. Everyone was saying dump and put in a new one. I used Disk Warrior on it. It took forever ( over 16 hours) but Disk Warrior was able to recover it for me.
Immediately after that, I got rid of all things Symantec from my Mac.
Allan

How can I mount an external hard drive via command line

I have an external hard drive that's been formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" (the default option from Disk Utility). I'm in single-user mode and want to mount the drive. I noticed that when I plug in the drive to the USB port I get some new items in the /dev/ directory, namely:
disk3, disk3s1, disk3s2, rdisk3, rdisk3s1, rdisk3s2
I imagine I'm only interested in the disk3*, but I'm not sure which one (or what the differences are, there's only 1 partition on the drive).
Also, I'm not sure which mount command to use, there are several in the /sbin/ directory. I tried the "mount" command and got a message that noted: "Incorrect super block." Any ideas?

/usr/sbin/diskutil mount /dev/disk3

My G5 will no longer mount any external hard drive

I am running a G5 Power PC on OS10.4 and am recently unable to mount any of my 4 external hard drives via firewire 400, 800, usb on either front or rear buses. I have tried multiple cables, power supplies, and have run disk utility but still cannot see any of my external drives. I have disconnected everything and shut down my computer for 15 minutes, restarted with one drive at a time, and still nothing. Any other ideas before I lug my desktop in for repair?

I have disconnected everything and shut down my computer for 15 minutes....
Don't just shut it down, shut it down and disconnect it from wall power for 10-15 minutes.

Can't mount WD external hard drive after upgrade to Mountain Lion

I have two external hard drives on my iMac. One for Time Machine and Aperture Library Files (My Book Essentials formatted Mac OS Extended Journaled) - this works fine.
The other is an older WD 500Gb drive which is partitioned Windows_Fat_32. (Keep in mind, I'm not even sure what this means exactly). It contained my iTunes library and a lot of photo backups. It worked fine on my iMac with Snow Leopard, but since upgrading to Mountain Lion, it won't mount. I get an error that says "this drive is not readable by this computer" and I get options to "intialize", "ignore", or "eject". Disk Utility sees the drive but won't let me do anything with it. Is there a way to salvage this data? I don't mind reformatting after I move the data or getting a new drive, but I don't want to lose the data. My iTunes music files are extensive and they are on the good external drive, but the "library" is on the bad one...
Sorry if I haven't explained well..

hi,
it is kind of late, but I wonder, did you manage to solve the issue?
I have lacie drives, and the firmware upgrade is apparently required, but I cannot find the appropriate one at lacie's website... the ones i tried do not recognize my drive...
my lacie quadra d2 250 GB (USB, FW 400, 800) goes to sleep, and does not wake up....
I'm still searching for help...
ps: lacie's support page is quite hard to pierce, they require one to sign up, but no support for latinaamerican countries... so I could not sign up, therefore could not reach their support

Is it possible to use an external hard drive wirelessly w Leopard?

Upgrading to Leopard seems to have ruined my wireless home network, which worked very smoothly with Tiger. After a couple of tries, I was unable to connect wirelessly to my external hard drive (connected directly to Airport). I was then unable to even access the data directly. I am right now using Data Rescue II to see how much of the data on the hard drive can be retrieved.
I tried an old external HD with airport to see if that would work, and it failed also.
Is it even possible to set up a wireless network with Leopard that will let me move data to an external HD??
Any help is appreciated.
Message was edited by: Joe Mondo

I may have phrased my question poorly.
Pre-Leopard, my external HD was connected directly to Airport. I used it wirelessly.
When I upgraded my MacBook Pro to Leopard, it was almost impossible to access the HD wirelessly, and then outright impossible.
I tried the same setup with another external HD and that didn't work either. When I try to access the HD wirelessly, I get nowhere.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive to store my music?

I am attempting to clean my internal hard drive. Is it possible to have my iTunes library on an external hard drive? If not, what about on a different internal hard drive?
Thanks.

Sure, it's possible to move your music library to a different drive, internal or external. You do have to be a little careful, though, or else iTunes can get very confused about the location of your files. This Apple knowledge-base article describes the exact process to follow:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
If you search these forums, you'll find both many tales of success, and the occasional tale of woe, most typically from someone who didn't follow the correct procedure and ended up with an iTunes library full of little exclamation marks next to each song - the sign that iTunes has lost track of a file. But if you follow the documented procedure above exactly, you should be good to go.

Is it possible to mount an external hard drive as a folder?

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