[Solved] External Hard Drive mount point in fstab crashes launch

Hi there,
I have an external hard drive that I'd like to automount when I plug it in. Sometimes it seems to work, but other times I have to manually mount it. In order to make this a little easier, I copied the mounting info into my fstab file so that I could just run:
mount /dir/to/mount
However, now I can't actually boot up my machine unless the external drive is plugged in. I get some error from systemctrl saying one of the drives couldn't be loaded.
An obvious work around would be to write a one line script that mounts the drive for me, however, I'd like to learn how to do this correctly. I think the rules have changed a bit with systemd, as I didn't have this problem a few years ago.
Thanks for the help!
Last edited by B-80 (2015-05-17 08:14:08)

B-80 wrote:
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
Add "nofail" to the options section.
EDIT: ...in /etc/fstab
Thanks for the answer, that fixed it.
You're welcome but I think Mr.Elendig's post gives the actual solution (my proposal is just a workaround -- using fstab for a filesystem that is not permanently attached is sub-optimal)

Similar Messages

After installing Mountain Lion doesn't external hard drives mount or stay mounted. Anybody else with this major problem?

After installing Mountain Lion doesn't external hard drives mount or stay mounted.
I have tried resetting my Mac's PRAM but the problem still remains.
Even USB memory sticks are unmounted efter a few seconds.
Anybody else with this major problem?

I have the same problem, although mine has not been solved by ESET update, finder settings, PRAM & SMC resets or anything else.
Don't get it, my external hard drive still works on both my housemates computers - one macbook pro (with snow leopard) and one dell, just not on mine with mountain lion.
Any ideas for me guys?

TS1550 Do external hard drives mounted on my Mac get backed up by time machine on a time capsule wireless Apple external back up disk? How can I see what folders have been actually stored in the wireless back up disk?

Do external hard drives mounted on my Mac get backed up by time machine on a time capsule wireless apple external hard disk? How can I see what folders have been actually backed up in the external wireless disk? any help would be appreciated

They can provided you remove them from the Exclude list. Normally, Time Machine does not automatically backup external drives.

How do I migrate my iphoto and itunes libraries to an external hard drive, then point the programs to read them from that location?

Hi, do you know how I can migrate my iphoto and itunes libraries from my over-filled laptop to an external hard drive then point the programs to read from that location instead? I'm trying to make some space available on this old computer

To move iTunes...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US
...and iPhoto.....
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229

External Hard Drive Mounting Issues

Hi everybody!
Problem:
My G Technologies external hard drive mounts inconsistently since the Pro Tools session I was working on today crashed. When it does manage to mount my Trash Bin on the dock fills up with trash automatically and this trash cannot be emptied.
In addition I have been unable to even open up my external hard drive on the desktop once it has mounted--I get the infinite pinwheel of death! If it does open, I'll eventually get to a folder that upon opening also brings up the pinwheel of death. Each time this happens I am forced to manually shut down my computer. Any suggestions? You help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance.
I'm using a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.4.11 and it has a Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The ports I'm using with the external hard drive is Firewire 800.

Try booting in safe mode and emptying the trash. Try doing a Finder - Secure Empty Trash deletion....
I believe your problems are related to large files that were marked for deletion not being deleted...

I had backed up my I-tunes files to an external hard drive but after my computer crashed when I try to reload from the hard drive the message comes up saying I-tunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version. Help please!

I had backed up my I-tunes files to an external hard drive but after my computer crashed and I restored it when I try to reload from the hard drive the message comes up ""I-tunes files cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of I-tunes". Help Please

Upgrade the version of itunes on the new computer
Itunes.com for free download.
Peace

External hard drive that stored music has crashed. How can I safely get my songs from my I Pod back onto computer in a new external drive?

External hard drive that stored music has crashed. How can I safely get my songs from my I Pod back onto computer into a new external drive?

See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer discussing different ways to copy content from your iPod back to your PC.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

Why won't my external hard drive mount?

Hi
I am having problems getting my new iMac to recognise an external hard drive. It is a 40gb Western Digital hard drive that I copied over photos and music from my old computer (not an Apple) on. When I plug it in to the USD port it recognises the hard drive but then drops it after about 2 minutes and then it won't recognise it again until I restart the computer at which point it recognises it again for 2 minutes.
The hard drive work's fine on my Thinkpad and my Dell desktop.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.

It doesn't make sense.
Anyway, I found the solutions. Download software for solving this problem.
Here is the link:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g

External Hard Drive mounts, but can't be selected or opened

I have a 1 TB Western Digital external hard drive. When I plug it into the Firewire 800 port of my 13" Unibody MacBook Pro (running Snow Leopard), the drive shows up on my desktop and in Finder windows, but when I try to access the drive, or "select" it, I get the message "The alias "[name of drive]" can't be opened because the original item can't be found". If I select the fix it option, it gives me a finder window to identify the item to which I want it to refer (the hard drive), but when I select the hard drive in this window I get the same message. I've used Disk Utility to verify the disk and it says that it is fine. Also, I have two other external drives, a smaller WD drive and a smaller Seagate, and they both mount and are accessible. Any thoughts?

having the same issue with a mounting a hard drive that drovers is. any solutions? funny thing as that the drive will mount on a G5 running 10.5.8. have spent several hours on the phone with apple help to no avail. final suggestion was to wipe drive and reformat. cant't do this as I do not have enough space to back-up to. Would appreciate any suggestions.

External Hard Drive Mounts & Finder Quits

Upon updating this new iMac to 10.5.2 everything went well until I plugged in a particular LaCie external hard drive. Then the finder and desktop disappeared. Using Disk Utility to unmount the hard drive restored the desktop and finder. Remounting it causes the finder again to disappear. I first updated from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 via the computer's software updater. I tried running the combo update with no improvement. Another, older, external LaCie hard drive works perfectly fine. I am able to back up files to the suspicious hard drive using Retrospect and I can view files on it from an "open" or "save" menu from an application like Word. And I can open and save files, including to the desktop. But with the drive mounted there is nothing on the desktop.
Is there an obvious way to correct this or is it something that Apple needs to fix, or LaCie?

Is that Lacie drive the one you've setup as your Time Machine backup drive? If so, go into System Preferences->Time Machine and select "Change Disk". In the sheet that appears, click the "None" entry and then click the "Stop Backing Up" button. That should fix it. You can then re-set that drive as the Time Machine volume if you want. Good luck...

External hard drive mounted as Zero KB available?

Hi, when I plug in my USB external hard drive Tiger will mount the disk as having zero kb available. Under the disk utility it shows the hard drive nave 20+ GB free space. the hard drive works well in other operating systems. I have a MAC BOOK. Any suggestion what might have caused this?

Hi, and a warm welcome to the Forums!
What size drive is it?
What format is it? DU, highlight it, then the Info button.

(SOLVED) external hard drive

when i try to delete files on my external hard drive i get error could not delete file. do i need any special permissions or what?
Please help.
Thanks!
Last edited by Rician (2011-04-02 16:16:26)

The filesystem used on the drive is NTFS. i installed ntfs-3g, its fixed. i cant belive how much time i have spent trying to figure out how to get it working... and here you come with a simple solution... Thanks

[SOLVED] external hard drive permissions

I have a seagate external hard drive (/dev/sdb1), formatted as ntfs. Whenever i try to make something in the drive, or copy something, i get a Permission Denied error. How can I give rw permissions?
I have tried searching around, but i can't find an answer that will work.
Last edited by rp181 (2010-04-10 01:59:41)

Have you installed the driver to allow you to write on ntfs filesystems? I use ntfs-3g (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NTFS-3G).
Maybe you can find something that may help you out at the thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=94863.

Itunes on external hard drive - some mp3s stalling and crashing - HELP!

Hi,
I hope somebody can help me.
I've had my itunes library on a western digital external hard drive for nearly a year now. i have upwards of 17, 000 songs. Recently after a few seconds playback of certain songs the hard drives starts to click, the songs stalls, jumps ahead then stalls.
I can't play these tracks in another player such as RealPlayer, or even playing the file through Get Info direct from the hard drive.
It's happening more frequently and I'm worried I'm going to end up losing a lot of songs. I also tried dragging the mp3 onto the desktop but it comes up with:
+The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in " " could not be read or written. (Error Code -36.)+
Is there anyway to salvage the files? Stop it happening to other ones?
I'd really appreciate a response if anybody has had a similar experience or knows what to do.
Thanks,
Tom.

Hi,
In case you haven't solved your problem yet, here are some tips.
First, the file that iTunes was indicating was "Damaged" was probably the main file it uses, iTunes Library in your "Music" folder. If this file is corrupted for any reason, iTunes will rename it with the word "Damaged" in the filename, and create a new, empty iTunes Library file. Since all the metadata, containing the definitions of the playlists, etc are stored in this file, you lose all your playlists when the "Damage" occurs. The underlying music files are untouched, as you indeed see.
I've not run into any scripts that actually repair a "Damaged" library file per se. But, if you have a copy of your files on a backup tape, CD, or another machine, you can simply copy that backup file back onto your "Music/iTunes" folder, thereby overwriting the new, empty library file, and you should have all your playlists back. I've done this a number of times without problem when I've had damaged library files.
Going forward you might want to take a look at iTunes Library Manager in Doug's Applescripts for iTunes for managing your library file.
Secondly, check iTunes/Preferences/Advanced and check to make sure the path to your iTunes library is correctly shown in the window. If not, correct it with the "Change" button. You will note that the iTunes library, xml file and a few other files will remain in your "Music/iTunes" folder, while all of your music will be located on your external drive. Don't move the remaining iTunes files in your "Music/iTunes" folder.
As you add new music to your library, you'll see the audio file be copied to your external drive, while the iTunes library file will grow slightly.
Good luck!
Ed

External Hard Drive not recognised after horrible crash and reformat.

There's yet another problem with my MBP.
First of all this happened: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=969838&tstart=0
Since I got it fixed I bought a 500GB Freecom external Hard-drive and used it to back up all my stuff. It was a case of plugging it into the USB port and it mounted on the desktop. I've had it for about a month.
I've only just got my MBP back from getting the keyboard replaced, then on Saturday night it crashed. And kept crashing. Then it wouldn't boot. Then it crashed when booting. Then it took me to a command prompt. I reset all the parameters laid out in the troubleshooting guide. I managed to boot in safe mode, but my Freecom drive wouldn't mount anymore. But it kept crashing and crashing. I finally managed to boot from the installation CD and I reformatted the drive and installed OS X (Tiger) afresh. But now my Freecom drive won't show up on the desktop at all!
I ran a Hard Ware test after the reformat, and the code 4MEM/2/40000000 came up, then again, 1FCA8574, then 41530574.
When I had the Freecom plugged in it would show in System profiler but not mounted on the desktop.
What is wrong? I am really annoyed because my Warranty ran out yesterday and I'm only after getting it back from Apple to get the keyboard replaced!
Please help!
(PS - I have Leopard on its way to me, would installing this help?)

(PS - I have Leopard on its way to me, would installing this help?)
Not likely with all the bugs and issues going on with it...

[Solved] External Hard Drive mount point in fstab crashes launch

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for