Lacie won't unmount

Greetings Gurus,
I took part of my system home to do some work over the holidays and am now having trouble unmounting my Lacie BigDiskExtremeTriple. This drive has always been connected to my Dual G5 desktop (profile listed below), but I'd hoped to get some work done on the MBPro 17.
Here's what info I have so far:
I believe the problem started from having several external FW drives looped through a Belkin FW hub (sorry, no specs on it right now other than 3 FW 6pin ports on each side of the hub) - computer froze and I had to reboot.
I believe this caused some possible directory damage to the Lacie since I had been unable to 'unmount' the drive properly.
Support and Google searches have offered several things to try, but none have resolved the issue yet. Most suggest a 'directory issue with the drive' that Disk Warrior may fix. I have DW3.0, but also read that it's not going to work if the drive won't unmount in Disk Utility (which it wont')
Here is what I've tried so far.
any usage of Finder/Spotlight locks up the system.
Drive seems to work, though I've delayed pushing it with apps (mostly FCStudio), until I can resolve the issue.
Force Quit Finder - have been able to then unmount the drive once or twice, but usually not.
Restart Mac - can usually then unmount the drive, but not always
Check Activity monitor - this shows a Process ID/Name 'mds' at Root level running 99% (any ideas there?)
Run Terminal commmand 'sudo lsof | grep "The-Volume-Name"
- This gives me 4 items (one at Finder and 3 at mds) - Here is what it listed...
Finder 98 kevandholdsworth 19r VDIR 14,11 68 10944 /Volumes/MEDIA/.Trashes/501
mds 186 root 22u VREG 14,11 1069056 4392 /Volumes/MEDIA/.Spotlight-V100/store.db
mds 186 root 23u VREG 14,11 1069056 4393 /Volumes/MEDIA/.Spotlight-V100/.store.db
mds 186 root 24u VREG 14,11 0 4395 /Volumes/MEDIA/.Spotlight-V100/.journalHistoryLog
Is it possible to just locate these files and delete them? or will DW need to do it's own thing?
I'm ready to try Disk Warrior, but would appreciate any feedback regarding the issue before I attempt it.
(sadly, I broke the cardinal rule of not double posting [initially in the 'Finder, Dock & Dashboard Forum], but feel much more confident of getting strong advice here...my apolgies to any I've upset by doing so)
Thanks,
Kevan
PS - just checked my profile and it does not yet list the MBP...It's a 17" w/2GB Ram, same OS and Software as on the G5

It's not backed up yet...I'll do that before running DiskWarrior
I'm not convinced what the issue is. I now am unable to unmount any external HDs (all FW) from my G5.
Jim, Disk Utility is not giving me the option to 'disable journaling'.
Spotlight prefs won't let me add(+) either volume to 'privacy'...that's my understanding on how to remove it from being indexed. However, when I tried 'dragging' one of the volumes into the 'privacy' area, it went 'Poof'...now showing up on desktop, but no longer in finder...is this what you are referring to?
Kenneth, I'm the only user/admin...not seeing an issue there. Maybe I'm missing something from your suggestion. I simply boot up as I always do.
UPDATE...
FYI, here is the original prompt I get when trying to unmount any external hard drives: "The disk "DISK NAME" is in use and could not be ejected. Try quitting applications and try again"
There are no visible applications open...I notice now after dragging a volume to spotlight privacy that one of the text lines from the Terminal sudo command no longer shows up.
I have been able to unmount all drives after starting up from a backup drive (Panther). However, restarting from Tiger does not allow this. I'm also a bit concerned about doing restarts without properly unmounting any of these drives.
Here are a couple of links I've been trying to apply, but it's looking like a backup and DiskWarrior are next steps. A show deadline is preventing me from doing so at this time.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/forums/msgs.cfm?msg=80013&forum=4
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1572.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3651281&#3651281
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/stopspotlightindex.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301562
Thanks again for all suggestions. I need to crunch out this show and will keep up with this thread until I can resolve the whole issue...will have to award points in a few days.
K

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LaCie Won't Mount With Mavericks. Any New Leads For Remedy?

I know this question has been asked many times. I've tried the Lacie website, can not get an answer, and a lot of the answers to this question are dated. LaCie won't mount. What Can I Do? Any suggests for an external that is compatible with Maverick, and works???!!!!

The problem is that it won't mount after it has been unmounted. A friend of mine who's a Mac Repairman told me that it could be a number of things...
he told me to check if any smells were coming from the drive...
nope. check.
If the fan had stopped working... nope. check.
If it's a problem being caused by the enclosure.... that i'm going to check on.
I called TekServe in Manhattan and when i get paid, i'm going to see if that's the case.
But they want 1200.00 for data retrieval in a worse case scenario... and i'm going to shop around for that one. I have a feeling that they corner the market in that area for Mac repair and they probably feel they can charge whatever they want and people will pay.
1200.00 is another computer. I'd rather do my research before shelling out that kind of dough.
I had unwittingly unmounted my first external 3 years ago .... it's a Wacom, and it mounted with no problem after literally a minute.
So i don't know why this LaCie is giving me problems.
So i'll try changing enclosures and check out reports for the companies with the best all-around reports on their externals before i buy.
It may not last forever, but i should get better than an external HD's "refusal" to mount once unmounted.
It just doesn't make sense.
Besides, i have a feeling that my computer won't register it's existence if it doesn't mount to make itself known.
Tell me if i'm off.
BUt i will consider the other programs that you guys have suggested.

My dumb external LaCie won't mount.....AAARRRGGHH!!!

I'm really hoping someone can help me here. I was working on some illustrations and in Manga studio debut, i opened a window to post some work i created into my external harddrive. I mistakenly hit the "eject" symbol that unmounted my hard-drive from my computer. So i said to myself,"No biggie... i'll just shut the drive off, unplug it, wait awhile, replug it, shut it on and it'll mount again.
nope.
I shut it off, unplug it, restart the computer. plug it and turn the external harddrive power on... nothing. i wait patiently thinking it'll eventually kick in.
no kicking.
i'm a 40 year old man i'm contemplating crying now... because more than 200 gigs of important work is on my drive and i can't access it.
That and stupid Leopard can't even do the most basic commands.. like accessing my printer. Just get that dumb beachball. Even opening System preferences gives me problems. More beachball.
I'm looking for help here. Please help.
How can i shed my computer of the recent upgrade and go back to 10.5.2?
and Since nothing can be wrong with my LaCie by just unmounting it, what can i do to get it to mount? Just leave it plugged on and powered and pray that the OS recognizes it and hope it mounts?
I don't have that kind of time.
If i need to retrieve all that data onto another new external, how much will that cost me?
I know i'm asking a lot of questions, but i'm desperate here.

The problem is that it won't mount after it has been unmounted. A friend of mine who's a Mac Repairman told me that it could be a number of things...
he told me to check if any smells were coming from the drive...
nope. check.
If the fan had stopped working... nope. check.
If it's a problem being caused by the enclosure.... that i'm going to check on.
I called TekServe in Manhattan and when i get paid, i'm going to see if that's the case.
But they want 1200.00 for data retrieval in a worse case scenario... and i'm going to shop around for that one. I have a feeling that they corner the market in that area for Mac repair and they probably feel they can charge whatever they want and people will pay.
1200.00 is another computer. I'd rather do my research before shelling out that kind of dough.
I had unwittingly unmounted my first external 3 years ago .... it's a Wacom, and it mounted with no problem after literally a minute.
So i don't know why this LaCie is giving me problems.
So i'll try changing enclosures and check out reports for the companies with the best all-around reports on their externals before i buy.
It may not last forever, but i should get better than an external HD's "refusal" to mount once unmounted.
It just doesn't make sense.
Besides, i have a feeling that my computer won't register it's existence if it doesn't mount to make itself known.
Tell me if i'm off.
BUt i will consider the other programs that you guys have suggested.

External hard drive won't unmount for disk utility.

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Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
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RAID won't unmount...can't repair

Problem: after fixed failed RAID (lost in poweroutage), RAID'd drive won't mount. If I drop to single user mode and fsck the boot volume (no errors listed), after reboot it's the RAID volume is back. I loose it after a restart without fsck (boot volume loads but RAID is "unrecognizeable").
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Any suggestions (besides clean install) that you have to keep the RAID volume intact? I refuse to believe that it's toast as i am able to have it function. I guess I wouldn't be opposed to a wipe if I could get a good backup of it, but I can't even do that since it won't unmount.
Can't wait to hear what you come up with!
Thanks in advance.

Really, how toasted can it be when it all works flawlessly
until reboot? THis really bothers me....
Don't get me started about the Apple Hardware RAID card. I hope you have the write caches turned off for all LUNs because they don't always fully flush on graceful power down (the drives are disconnected from the bus before caches are flushed) - I've had a RADAR bug report turned in for almost 2 years on that, it was very hard to track down and create a reproducible test case. LSI Logic fixed the bug in their microcode after Apple split its version from the LSI Logic code tree to modify for use in the Xserve; don't expect this bug to ever be fixed because the product is EOL, only known workaround is to turn off the write caches.
That said, the disks are big. You think it's working flawlessly, but it may not be. Mystery garbage blocks from space, especially on a RAID, can be hard to track down. For example, on a RAID 1, the read data might not always come from the same disk of the mirror.
If you really think that the mirror is good, I'd suggest cloning it off while booted from another disk (perhaps split the mirror, clone - not image - to one of the split disks, then recreate the mirror from the good copy).
Yea, your DiskWarrior issue is because the disk can't be unmounted.
Russ
Xserve G5 2.0 GHz 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) Apple Hardware RAID, ATTO UL4D, Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u

My external HD(Lacie triple interface) won't unmount!

I backed up 30 GB worth of itunes folder onto my ext HD (250GB) and now i cannot get it to stop running.. it keeps giving out that annoying sound that it is working..it has been 24 hours.. the HD also has some valuable FCP footage.. I tried grep lsof to look for open files, didnt come up with anything..
I can still find it under the disk utility.. I dont want to lose the data on it so didnt try the repair option
Any help would be most appreciated..
Panicking in Boston

Hello,
There might be something help here: http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-42044.html
Carolyn

Firewire HD LaCie Rugged 1Gb unmountable on Lion OSX

Hello there,
I have a LaCie Rugged 1Gb firewire HD unmountable on my mac mini intel ( YM9032RA19Y ) with Lion OSX 10.7.5.
The same disk is ok with my last macbookpro retina with Mountain Lion and it works perfectly.
I tested mac mini firewire interface with another LaCie firewire and it works! and I plugged the rugged disk cascading to the bigger one.
I checked on /Volumes/ whether the rugged disk is visible or not: no way. I heard it's running but the OSX doesn't recognize it.
Are there others things I can do? I wanna keep my OSX Lion because I have a backup to restore from the rugged disk.
Thanks in advance for any help and suggestion

Hmmm, I have an iMac that won't boot from a couple of FW800 drives, but one does boot fusing USB2, the other boots using FW400!?
ok. I'll simply report what's happening here:
a- mac mini (YM9032RA19Y early 2009) OSX Lion doesn't mount directly my LaCie Rugged FW 800 directly but with USB 2 it does.
b- LaCie Rugged works fine with my mbp OSX Mountain Lion via FW800->thunderbolt adaptor
c- mac mini with another LaCie FW800 with Rugged cascading doesn't work - but it does with FW400 while the first normal LaCie HD is mounted FW800 by mac mini
It's another issue but mac mini Superdrive (PIONEER DVD-RW DVRTS08) doesn't read any old cd/dvd burnt (>2002) by a pc, any original cd audio, any original dvd
I guess it's wise to buy an external cd/dvd drive for my mbp and mac mini.
I've read some forum around it seems OSX Lion is the cause of this cd/dvd drive problem.

External HD Lacie won't wake up

I have an external 250 Gb La Cie harddisk connected to my iMac G4 (with Firewire). When the computer has gone to sleep, it is no problem to wake it up. But when, at the same time, the HD has gone to sleep as well, there's no chance to wake it up. When I try to doubleclick on it, I am confronted with the spinning beach ball. I have to manually switch the external HD off. In the meantime, I can't do anything on the Mac.
Anyone a hint how I can fix/prevent this problem?
iMac G4 + Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.3) Tiger on the Mini, Panther on the iMac

Although there have been several cases of LaCie (and a few other brand)
FireWire external drive issues when connected to machines running Tiger
OSX 10.4.x, fewer have been the stories of outright success in curing them.
My resulting google/mac search of the words [ LaCie FW issues with Tiger
OS X ] gave a cross-section of most places online I'd read of this problem.
And since the time of day is very early in this Zone, I won't go and sift
through those findings for a few gems or nuggets of truth, at this time.
With my LaCie 250GB FW external (self powered, no USB 2.0) I was
sure to apply the last firmware update available even though I had not
any issues with it while using the unit under OSX 10.3.9; I have not
used it to make a backup of my iBookG4 1.33 running 10.4.6 so far.
Not sure if there is a drivers/firmware issue or some other upset.
I always am sure to not let my computer go to sleep with the FW
external attached; and am sure to dismount the drive after using it.
The things I do as a matter of course are done to prevent issues.
But I suspect my routines may not be adequate to counter any
ill effects should this noted problem be related to something needing
a fix from LaCie; or maybe in the OSX Tiger itself. I want to be sure
my LaCie is available for the desktop Mac running 10.3.9, so I'm
holding firm on not running it from the 10.4.6 iBook yet...!
You may be able to institute something on startup to help sort out
the mess with the attached FW and iMacG4 problems; could be
the external needs to be dragged to the trash or use the dismount
option to get it disconnected via software before shutting it down or
letting it sleep. If you are not booting from it, no point in having it on
if you let the computer sleep. I don't... Of course, I started out with
SCSI rules and other things, so I keep having to think again on FW
and USB stuff on occasion.

Disk images won't unmount/eject for admin user, DVDs & iDisk also affected

This problem started when I was on Tiger, and seemed to follow me onto Leopard.
It only affects me, the primary user on my Mac. *One other user on the computer; she also has admin level access and does not have any of these problems.*
Here's the deal:
*Once mounted, disk images won't eject/unmount.*
- Dragging to the trash can doesn't work. The eject icon appears, but nothing happens.
- Ctrl-click does not show Eject as an option when highlighting the mounted image.
- CMD-E doesn't work
- EJect doesn't appear as an option in the finder menu
- Clicking on the Eject button in the sidebar of the Finder window doesn't work.
- I've logged out, rebooted, repaired permission, and installed a new OS (clean install of 10.5, then did the import of my old user settings. Since I had the problem in Tiger, it's clear the problem followed me, but what the heck causes it?)
*The only way to unmount/eject a disk image is to use the Disk Utility Program.*
*DVDs also can only be ejected via Disk Utility*
The iDisk connection can only be killed by opening Activity Monitor and killing the webdavfs_agent process.
Would love some help. I've searched a lot and have a fair amount of folks with this problem, but no real solution.

That'll work; however, then the OP has to reset all of his preferences. Easier would be to log into the newly created admin account, backup the bad account's folder, delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. Mount the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Resolving these kinds of conflicts is a laborious process, but not as laborious as resetting preferences or even remembering what you set weeks, months, or years ago.

Lacie won't spin

greetings,
have a lacie 250 gb triple interface. it won't spin up. no audible anything.
disk utility doesn't see it.
system profiler sees it as an unknown device.
while powered up, the blue light is constant.
is it possible to take drive apart and put inside my g5? or should i look at getting another enclosure? or is my drive hosed?
thanks,
tinman

There is a known issue with the LaCie enclosures failing. You will find lots of comments (negative) about this on the web, or on the feedback section of Apple's online store.
Replacing the drive enclosure has fixed the problem for some -- the drive itself turned out to be OK.
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Daren

Lacie D2 Quadra Unmounts For No Reason

I purchased a 3tb Lacie HD which is connected via a USB 3.0 port.
It is unmounting itself for no apparent reason even when it's being accessed and data is eitherr being written to it or copied off of it.
Is anyone else having a similiar issue with this type of drive???
All of my video data for a current project is on it and because of this crashing issue i can't get the data off of it to back it up to another dirve so that I can finish the project.
Again any thoughts????

Hi Gbyejoe,
First thing that comes to mind for me is power, does the same thing happen with other USB storage devices? are there other close by USB devices that could be temporarily disconnected? Does the HD have an option for a dedicated power supply? Are the power saving options for the OS or motherboard a factor? These would be the things I would investigate
http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10030
Might contact LaCie support too?
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TM disk needs repair but won't unmount.

Hi,
I've been having problems with this TM disk since new but I can't work out what to do. The disk is a Seagate 1.5TB with my MacPro backed up to it and a sparse image on it as my MacBook backup.
The disk only has one volume on it. It has done strange things in the past like return an error on the initial backup of the MacPro after about 900GB of data and when I wiped the drive and tried backing up again it returned an error at about the same stage. Subsequent incremental backups worked so I continued to use it but I have never been able to eject the drive. I have always got the "something is using it" dialog box. I could only safely power it off by restarting the MacPro and turning it off before it booted. I checked the disk in disk utility and it said it needed repair but could not be repaired. After hearing about trouble with these drives I returned it for a replacement. I got an error on the first backup again with the new drive but subsequent incremental backups were OK so I left it. I checked it in disk utility yesterday and it said it needed repair but would not unmount for the repair. I have reset the FW800 port in the past and that didn't seem to make any difference. Other drives in this enclosure (SOHO Tank, Oxford chip) work and unmount OK. I don't know whether this is a TM issue or I've got another flakey drive. I'm tempted to send the drive back to Seagate again as I don't feel secure with this as my backup.
Also, occasionally when I go into TM via the TM icon in the dock, I only see backups up to the day before yesterday in the timeline at the side. If I cancel TM and relaunch I get the full set in the sidebar (yesterday and hourlies for today).
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Brian

Magicpony wrote:
Hi,
I've been having problems with this TM disk since new but I can't work out what to do. The disk is a Seagate 1.5TB with my MacPro backed up to it and a sparse image on it as my MacBook backup.
If possible, you should partition the drive, so the MacPro's backups are in their own, exclusive space. If you ever want or have to delete them, it will be extremely difficult and take a very long time. See #4 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Other drives in this enclosure (SOHO Tank, Oxford chip) work and unmount OK.
Try repairing it from the copy of Disk Utility on your Install disc. (Boot up from it, select your language, then on the next screen select Utilities from the menubar, then +Disk Utility.)+
Also, occasionally when I go into TM via the TM icon in the dock, I only see backups up to the day before yesterday in the timeline at the side. If I cancel TM and relaunch I get the full set in the sidebar (yesterday and hourlies for today).
Try the things in #E4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
It's rather odd, but renaming your computer may help: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/21208.html

Disk Utility won't unmount drive

When I boot to a casper image via ethernet I will open disk utility and sometimes I can erase the drive but other times it just keeps erroring out. It says can't unmount disk even though the computer is booted to netboot. Why would this happen its very random. I think all the issues are with the 2012 Macbook Pros other macbooks don't have this problem.

To partition the drive, you'll have to boot from a different one, not from the recovery partition on the same drive. Or you can boot into Internet Recovery by holding down option-R at startup.

KDEmod (KDE) device notifier won't unmount devices

I'm using KDEmod 4.4 currently, but this has been happening since 4.3 using plain KDE too. For some reason, when I use the device notifier to mount a flash drive and then try to unmount it, I sometimes get the "Could not unmount the device. One or more files on this device are open within an application" error message. However, I am able to unmount from the command line, so I think it must just be an issue with device notifier.

jlacroix wrote:
armageddon09 wrote:No. Could you please explain a little ?
On my install, whenver I save files to my desktop (KDE 4.3.2) the files don't show up until I rightclick the desktop and click "refresh". The same thing happens when I delete a file. When I delete a file, the file still shows up on my desktop until I rightclick and refresh the desktop.
Whatever KDE uses to monitor when files are deleted and whatnot is not working.
I have the same issue here. I belive it's because of the current kernel. Take a look at this http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16193?st … &closedto=
Try enabling Nepomuk.
Last edited by eldarion (2009-10-19 16:11:17)

LaCie won't mount...

I have a LaCie 160GB external drive connected to my G5 dual 2.0GHz via FW800. It mounted and stayed mounted the first time I plugged it in (haven't done anything to it as far as plugging/unplugging anything goes), and was always on my desktop. That was a month ago.
Now, it is not mounted on my G5 at all. I pressed the power button on the front to turn it off then on again, but nothing. I restarted the G5, nothing. I searched with Spotlight for some of the files I knew were on there, nothing.
Is it a driver issue? Did I "eject" it without knowing?
I repaired permissions a couple days ago 1.) as a routine and 2.) because Reason 2.5 (MIDI sequencing program) was giving me trouble. The repaired permissions fixed the Reason 2.5 problem, and I remember being able to access the LaCie after the permission repair.
Thanks.

Not sure which drive you have - but the d2 drivers haven't changed for a while
http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers/
An iSight has been known to affect firewire drives mounting.
You could try a firewire reset
from Mike Mihalik, LaCie
"Seems like the FireWire issue needs to be revisited quite often. Here is my often repeated suggestion which appears to clear up many FireWire issues: reset the FireWire ports. Panther has a Finder Preference to show mounted volumes on the Desktop. You must set this for mounted drives to be visible. Please follow these instructions to reset your FireWire port.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Here is a summary:
* shut down and disconnect all external drives and peripherals ; make sure nothing is connected to the FireWire ports
* use Apple Disk Utility to repair permissions on your internal boot drive
* shut down and disconnect the AC power from the computer as well as the drives; if laptop, also remove battery
* let sit unpowered and unconnected for 15 minutes
* reconnect AC power to only the computer (battery too if laptop)
* restart computer
* verify that FireWire ports are visible within Apple System Profiler
* reconnect FireWire drive (only one); refresh window within Apple System Profiler to rescan the FireWire bus; confirm that drive is visible
* confirm drive is OK by using Apple Disk Utility and apply First Aid
* repeat for other drives, one at a time"

Lacie won't unmount

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