Stop external disk from auto-mounting

This may sound unusual, but is there any way to suppress auto-mounting of an external hard disk?
I partitioned an external disk into three partitions, two of which just hold cloned, bootable backups of Macs before I re-installed them. I only keep these around for emergencies and in case I forgot to copy some data over, but I do not usually use them. In fact, I'd prefer to not mount them to prevent any possible tampering.
The largest part of this disk is set up for Time Machine though, so I keep it connected to my Mac. I only want the Time Machine partition to mount though. Is there a way to mark the two other partitions to not auto-mount every time the Mac starts up?

See Prevent a given partition from mounting at boot , How to prevent a drive volume from mounting , or Prevent Mac OS X from mounting a hard drive volume at boot as a start. Or do a Google search which is where the above were found.

Similar Messages

  • How do I stop a CCC partition auto mounting in Lion

    I have an external USB drive with 2 partitions. The first partition has a CCC Clone of my drive before Lion. The second is used for Time Machine. This drive auto mounts on boot which is fine but the CCC partition causes problems with the App Store as it sees Apps that I installed in the Clone backup as installed on Lion. The easy way for me to fix this is just to eject the CCC partition but I have to do this every time I boot. Is there a way of just stopping this drive from auto mounting on boot and manually mounting if need be. Any help would be appreciated. Many Thanks in advance.

    I just upgraded to the latest version of Lion--I don't know why it didn't change the info. under my Apple icon.  And I know I can uncheck the box while signing off, but you have to do it each time--I'm looking for a way to uncheck it and recheck whenever I want, the way the dock options are supposed to work (although it doesn't for me anymore with Lion).
    Checked the Users and Groups--the only login items listed are basically 4 apps that I had back when I had my PC and I no longer have them--I may have had Growl for awhile but I deleted it.  There are yellow triangles by them.  No other apps listed there.
    I guess I'll have to uncheck the box each time I sign off.  Tedious, but that's the way it is.  Wish I had Snow Leopard back!
    Thanks for your suggestions though--just wish they worked.

  • Stopping 2nd computer from auto updating

    I basically understand manual update vs. auto update and have already read how to set up a new account to prevent auto update, etc. Things are good: I'm set at auto update, and if I plug the iPod into a 'foreign' computer it does give a warning instead of auto updating. That's exactly what is wanted.
    But here's my problem. I have two computers and I do want it to update from the one, and issue the warning from the other. But somehow neither of the primary accounts on my computer and my wife's computer is recognized as 'foreign' though they are different computers, different user names, etc. Plug the iPod into mine and it updates, losing all my wife's files and vice versa. I'd like just one computer and one account to "own" this iPod, but two do. How can I remove the permission from one of them? Thanks.

    I'm not sure if this will help as it refers to iTunes 4 but you can have a look at it: Both of your computers think they "own" your iPod
    However, there is a keyboard command you can use to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on a Mac hold down the Option and Command (⌥ and ⌘) keys, (on Windows hold down the Shift + Ctrl keys). This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go.

  • How do I stop Quicktime player from auto-launching after I've exported a movie from iMovie 10?

    How do I stop Quicktime player from auto-launching after I've exported a movie from iMovie 10?
    It's really annoying for Quicktime player to auto-lauch!

    It may not be that simple David. They're using a "server" and some of the Apache software may want to launch QuickTime at boot.
    This isn't really a QuickTime question. It's a sever question best answered in those Discussion pages.

  • How do you stop iOS 7 from auto enlarging your background picture?

    How do you stop iOS 7 from auto enlarging your background picture? And before it's mentioned, no, Turing off Reduce Motion has absolutely NO effect on the auto enlarge feature that apple stupidly thought would be a good idea. The Reduce Motion ONLY stops the background from subtly shifting as you turn or angle the iDevice.

    It should be my choice, not apples.
    And I agree. But neither of us is a programming engineer at Apple, and so don't get to make those decisions. The user tip I wrote was based on the fact I didn't like it either, and was trying to figure out why it was scaling an image up in the first place, and then how to fix it as best as possible.
    Since you've locked your iPad to one orientation, you should be able to copy your custom image off to your Mac (assuming you own one) and use an image editor, such as Photoshop Elements, to add pixel area to the narrow dimension to make it the same number of pixels as the larger dimension. Increase the canvas size so the extra space leaves the original narrower dimension centered, as in this example:
    Copy it back to your iPad and select the modified image. Since it's square, it shouldn't scale.

  • How can I save the images and movies on a  external Disk from iphoto program, to protect the images when problems occur in the laptop,

    How can I save the images and movies on a  external Disk from iphoto program, to protect the images when problems occur in the laptop,

    Most Simple Back Up:
    Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
    Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
    Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store
    If you want to back up the Photos only:
    Export them using the File -> Export command.
    This User Tip
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
    has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

  • Stop email addresses from auto-adding to contacts?

    Stop email addresses from auto-adding to contacts?  This is filling my contacts making it inefficient and unsearchable.  Help.

    bill_black wrote:
    Go to Window>Previous Recipients you will find a list of email addresses you may wish to delete.
    No thanks.
    But what does this have to do with the Contacts app?

  • How to stop an app from auto starting when signing on?

    how to stop an app from auto starting when signing on?

    Several point :
    1st : do you select "auto relaunch" application when you close ML last time? don't do that next time
    2nd : in system preferences/Users and Groups look at applications that are selected for automatic opening. You can remove application. Tab called "Open At Login"
    3rd : have a look at /Library/LaunchDeamons/
    4th : buy Lingon
    Hope it can help

  • Prevent external disk from spinning up

    I am not sure this is really related to time machine, but here goes.
    I have an external firewire disk attached, and it has one partition for time machine.
    When time machine starts a backup, it wakes the disk (i.e., spins it up), which is fine.
    A while after the backup, the disk spins down again, fine, too.
    However, in-between backups, the disk spins up for no apparent reason.
    This is a bit annoying, since i'm not using the disk at all (other than for backup), and it makes a bit of a noise, so i would like to keep the waking times of the disk to a minimum.
    Any ideas?
    Best regards,
    Gabriel.
    PS:
    Yes, I have configured spotlight to exclude that external disk from indexing.
    Message was edited by: GabrielZ

    Experiencing the same thing here.
    It's a repeat of:
    Wake-up -> TM Backup -> Stays spinning for 10 minutes -> spins down -> Starts spinning 5
    minutes later -> Stays spinning for 10 minutes -> spins down......
    TM currently takes backup on :45, then the drive starts spinning up around :00, :15, :30.
    I'm worried that the excessive spindown, spinup will wear out the HD.
    This did not occur in 10.5.1. Started after upgrading to 10.5.2.
    Since the FireWire HD for TM is the only FireWire HD I have, I can't confirm whether this is related to Time Machine or not.
    By the way, using USB will prevent spindown, though backup will take a bit longer.

  • Hide an External Disk from Desktop

    Hi to all,
    i want to stay hided an external disk from viewing only, i have 2 accounts, im my (admistrator) i dont like to hide but the others accounts yes, simply when people logon the especifc drive dnot show like it not exists... it is possible??
    thanks right away
    JYbr

    My airport utility is version 6.2, so there is no "Disconnect all users".
    You can download and install AirPort Utility 5.6 on Mountain Lion if you want the ability to "Disconnect all users".
    This article will tell you how:
    http://www.macworld.com/article/1167965/mountain_lion_and_the_ancient_airport_ba se_station.html

  • Unexpected disconnection external disk and different mount points

    Dear community,
    I have an application that needs to read and write data from an external disk called "external"
    If the volume is accidentally unmounted by unproperly pluggin it off), it will remount as "external_1" in the terminal,
    and my app won't see it as the original valid destination.
    According to this documentation:
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203258
    it needs a reboot to be solved, optionally removing the wrong unused mount points before rebooting.
    Would there be a way to force OSX remounting the volume on the original mount point automatically?
    or checking the disk UUID and bypassing the different mount point name (app or os level?)
    Thanks for any clue on that.

    See DUMPFILE

  • External disks will not mount on new OS install

    Hi,
    I just had to reformat and reinstall all the OS and applications on a imac g5 for a friend of mine. I have updated all the os to 10.5.8 and have installed user software iWork, iLife, Microsoft office and Roxio's Toast 10 and a family history software called Reunion. That is all that has been done to this new install.
    I went to transfer her personal files back and I can't get any external disks to mount. They will all show in disk utility but will not mount the desktop. I have tried 2 different drives formatted in Mac OS Exteded Journalled as well as MS-Dos Fat32. I have also tried flash drives formatted in each of these formats. All of these drives are readable on several other computers I have here, including a 2008 Macbook Pro running Lion, 2010 iMac running Snow Leopard as so on.
    When inserted in the iMac G5 I can see all the drives in disk utiltiy and was able to even erase and reformat a drive to differnt format ( mac extended to Fat32) without issues to mount on the other computers.
    Cd's mount just fine.
    Anyone have any clues as to what's going on? Any thoughts are most welcome.
    Thanks
    pax

    BDAqua wrote:
    What exactly shows in System Profiler>Hardware>USB for those drives?
    Boot from the Install Disc & see if they show up, not grayed out in Disk Utility.
    1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
    2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
    *Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
    We were thinking along the same lines. While at home I dug up a firewire enclosure and put a bootable GUID formatted drive in it (that I had in one of the usb enclosures) and started her computer holding down the option key and then chose to boot from the external firewire. All usb drives are now mounting upon connection. I asume that her drive has bad sectors on it (even though the SMART status says it's OK) and is not loading all the drivers properly for USB to mount. I was suspicious from the beginning that the OS was corrupt when she first had me look at it. It was at that point that I booted it in target mode, connected to my Macbook Pro, and then CCC'd to a usb drive that I had. I then had a couple of difficulties installing the new OS. Should have known......
    I am now going to put a new drive in it for her and she'll be up and running.
    Thanks so much for your help and thoughts that got me thinking as well.
    pax

  • External drive not auto mounting (anymore)

    i have a external HDD for which I made an entry in fstab. I worked perfectly till now. After i installed udisks and wrapper 'devmon' all the other drive are now auto mounted but the one which has entry in fstab does not !
    i believe fstab mounts it during the boot up and devmon mounts it during the awesome start up since I made devmon entry in .xinitrc. is it the udisks thats conflicting with fstab ?!?! i mean its unlikely to happen right ?

    Actually that is an interesting question. I have an external drive connected to my router and I share it on the router IP address (obviously fixed) via samba. Is it still a bad idea to use fstab in such case?
    Sometimes but not always I have a re-mount problem coming back from hibernate or suspend. Will it be solved if I move mount to mtab?
    Last edited by snovik (2012-05-22 10:48:29)

  • Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 15' will not boot an external disk from a Mid-2012 MAcbook Pro. What should I do?

    In order to simplify moving all my files from the previous mid-2012 macbook pro 15' when moving to my new late-2013 macbook pro, i superdup-ed the full hard-disk to an external ssd. Unfortunatelly the new mac resuses to boot from this external disk (i get the grey disk with a line over it). The external disk works just fine so if I boot the new mac from its internal SSD I can read/write the external disk without problems.
    Old OS X is 10.9 as is the OS on the new mac.
    What I need to do is to boot the new mac from the external ssd, use the same superduper to copy the external content onto the internal ssd.
    How can I solve this issue?

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    If you made a backup of your files with SuperDuper, use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities) to transfer your files from the external drive > http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html It will create a new user account with the transferred files, so you may want to merge both user accounts > https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5472
    The Late 2013 MacBook Pro uses a special OS X Mavericks version which makes OS X compatible with it, and older OS X versions do not work with it. That's the reason why you cannot start up from the external drive created from the Mid 2012 MacBook Pro

  • Fire wire external disk fails to mount

    Hello,
    I've been trying to work out how to access my LaCie external disk on my macosx 10.4.6.
    At first it worked well on both servers. After a while, the mounted icon simply disappeared. Try as I may, neither server mounts my external LaCie or any USB device for that matter.
    I reinstalled OSX on one of them and when i connect it now it is correctly mounted, including usb device.
    But on the other identical server on which i did not reinstall OSX it still doesn't mount.
    Nevertheless, in the system information panel, fire wire, there is a line stating "la cie external drive" blah blah, but without specifiyng size and the disk is not accessible, no icon on the desktop and so on.
    I tried shutting off for 20 min, with every cable unpluged, I tried updating but still it does not mount.
    if any of you had this problem and would like to share with me the solution it would be really great !
    thanks in advance

    These are the most common reasons for one computer to work with an external drive while another does not (assuming the cable is the same), all of which are covered in my FAQ mentioned earlier, which perhaps I should outline like this:
    1. The PRAM needs zapping. Note, if a machine is 3 or more years old, PRAM zapping should only be attempted after verifying that the clock battery is fully charged at 3.6 V.
    2. The firewire ports need resetting.
    3. Dust in the firewire ports.
    4. Installed firmware on the Firewire bridge of the hard drive is not fully compatible with the operating system. Check the manufacturer's support line (in this case e-mail firewire AT lacie.com) for updated firmware.
    5. The operating system's Firewire drivers are not properly installed. This may happen if you used system specific disks for another Mac to install the operating system, or the directory is damaged, or the preferences for the firewire are not working.
    I would test in that order.

Maybe you are looking for