Volumes and finder window names

Not really sure how to ask the question so please bare with me.
In the finder window the side bar displays a "name" for the devices; IE "Mac HD," "Backup HD" etc. In this example the mac is the primary startup disk and Backup is an external drive.
When I open a finder window and click on the Mac HD all that is displayed at the top of the window is a " / ". That makes sense to me considering its the root drive/folder but shouldn't the Mac HD name be displayed?
Additionally, when I open Backup HD, it displays " /Volumes/Backup HD 14" where the number has changed from 1-14.
What's going on here?
Thanks

/Volumes is an 'invisible" folder at the root level of your startup drive which is supposed to contain only the "mount points" for your attached disk or network volumes. Sometimes an actual folder can mistakenly get created in /Volumes, often as a result of a failed copy operation. Such a "ghost" folder will have a name similar to a real external drive, and can contain data that was meant for the real external drive but never got there. My understanding is that when the real external volume then re-mounts, it can no longer use its own name for the mount point in /Volumes because that name is already "taken", and so an extra number gets appended to the mount point. This apparently has happened many times in your situation, such that there are pre-existing extraneous folders in /Volumes named "Backup HD" through "Backup 13'. When your "real" external drive tries to mount, its mount point becomes "Backup 14".
Ghost folders can sometimes be quite large, and waste a lot of disk space. They can be deleted after being sure they don't contain good data that never got to the real external drive.
A true mount point looks like an alias when viewed from Finder, and so the basic rule is never to touch any item in /Volumes that has an alias icon. The "ghosts" are the folders with icons that are not aliases. In your own situation, I would again eject and physically disconnect all real external drives, again go to /Volumes, and again be sure that the "Backup HD" items are actual folders that do not have alias icons. You could then move them to the Trash, but don't empty the Trash yet. Restart, and again attach the external drive. This time its "full path" after mounting should be "/Volumes/Backup HD", rather than "/Volumes/Backup HD 14".
There is a possibility that this "correction" could confuse some software that has been pre-set to access the external drive, and will continue to look for it at "/Volumes/Backup HD 14", a path which no longer exists. You should hopefully be able to re-set any such stored paths.
Once you are sure that all is well, you can empty the Trash.

Similar Messages

AutoMount Volumes and finder windows

I have a few auto mounted drives in my environment. Every time I reboot or power up a finder window associated to each drive opens. Is there away to disable it so that the finder windows don't open on a reboot or a power on?

I have a few auto mounted drives in my environment. Every time I reboot or power up a finder window associated to each drive opens. Is there away to disable it so that the finder windows don't open on a reboot or a power on?

When I connect an external hard drive to macbook pro it is very slow to appear on the desktop and Finder window, sometimes 20 mins or more, even with auto backup switched off . any clues?

when I connect an external hard drive to macbook pro it is very slow to appear on the desktop and Finder window, sometimes 20 mins or more, even with auto backup switched off . any clues?

Hi robfromkinglake west,
Try and isolate the issue. Check if it's only with this drive.
Check the drive with Disk Utility
Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782
I've never seen a drive take 20 minutes to mount.
Nubz

Mail "New Message" window retreats to background after drag and drop attachment from Finder to Mail "New Message", click, and Finder window stays in foreground even when not in focus

Hi, I'm surprised I can't quickly find if anyone else is having this issue. For me it has been going on since Lion on my 13" MacBook Pro 2011 and it's still persisting in Mavericks, and even still now that I've "downgraded" to a 15" MacBook Pro 2010 with Mavericks. The behavior is odd and difficult to explain concisely. Basically, when I want to add an attachment to Mail, I'll Cmd+Tab over to Finder click and drag and Cmd+Tab back to Mail, and drop the attachment. At first it looks fine, but when I click in the New Message window where I just dropped the attachment, to move the cursor, it retreats to the background and the Mail Main Window comes to the foreground. Then, if I click on that, the Finder window that I just used comes to the foreground. Sometimes if I switched to another app before going to Finder to select the drag and drop, that other app window will appear in the foreground instead. If I click on the other app window that is now in the foreground, then the Finder window that was last used will come to the foreground. The only thing that seems to fix this switch-a-roo effect is Cmd+Tab-ing back and forth a few times, or click on the window "frame" at the top to move the window around.
The way to prevent this is to have my Mail Message window visible in the foreground side by side with the Finder window when the drag and drop occurs (this is a tedious extra step if mulitple windows are open, or to use the add attachment command in the menu within Mail. But it sure is annoying buggy behavior.
Thanks
Daniel

Yep, I get exactly the same thing when using Thunderbird mail client on my 2011 iMac running Lion. I've been putting up with it for at least a year, maybe longer.
For me it appeared to start after a Thunderbird update, so I figured that was the cause and couldn't find a solution at the time. However I've now noticed it starting to happen in Apple Motion 4 when dragging files from Finder into a DropZone in my animations. Motion remains the active program but the Finder window sits on top until I Cmd-tab out to a third open program (ie not Finder) and back to Motion again.
This is the first indicator I've had that it's an OS X issue.
Be great to find a solution as D&D is by far my preferred way of adding attachments to emails and similar tasks.

Trying to move files to trash takes forever, and finder windows take forever to load files/apps

after recently installing Mackeeper (yes, I know..) and attempting to uninstall, my macbook pro 13" al. is taking forever to move a file to the trash, and it equally takes forever to open a finder window. running 10.6.8.

MacKeeper is an exception to the rule that system modifications should be uninstalled according to the developer's instructions. Although not generally recognized as such, MacKeeper is in fact a trojan, because the developer distributes an uninstaller that purports to delete it, but leaves behind something that causes popup ads to appear in the user’s web browser. Try following the instructions here:
how to uninstall MacKeeper « Phil Stokes
I can't personally vouch for the accuracy of those instructions, but others seem to have had success with them.

Desktops and "find window"

In Mavericks I started using different desktops for different sets of programs, and I regularly use command-tap to move from one app to the next. But I have one problem: if the other program is on a different desktop and if it has a 'Find and Replace' window open, that F&R window will migrate to the desktop I'm at, whereas the document windows of that program stay where they are, and even the usual command-` will not reveal them. I can access them through the Window menu, but then I loose the F&R window … Most annoying.
I don't think it is a problem of the particular app. I tried NisusWriter, BBEdit and Scrivener. It seems all programs that have a seperate F&R window are affected.
Anyone any idea how this can be remedied (if it can)?
best regards
Bart

Tariq,
what do you mea with default console? Is it the external window that Forms can run in, or is it the Forms MDI window itself? If you could give us an idea of what you are trying to achieve then maybe the answer is an easy one to give.
Frank

Content in browser and finder windows shaking

The browser windows shake on some sites to the left and right. The finder windows do the same. On certain websites, the radio buttons or list buttons don't work either. For instance the OS button on the bottom of this post...I can't click on it with a mouse...had to use the keyboard. I've tried three different mice, all Logitech to see what would happen.
Any ideas?

Hi,
check the 'Universal Access' preferences in the System Preferences.
Uncheck all that is checked there now and not needed. Might be that the Zoom feature is on right now.
Hope it helps
Stefan

Desktop and finder window icons missing

Some of the icons on the top of my desktop suddenly went blank. they are there since I can click where they were and still use them. The same has happened to the top of the finder window as well. Here are some screen shots. Any one have an idea how to fix this? I ran MainMenu Pro disk permissions repair, cleaned the cache, did all maintenance and restarted with the no result.

Do a backup.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist and com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by restarting and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plists to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

Spaces and Finder windows

I have set up two Spaces, one for web/internet apps, and one for music apps.
For each space I have a set of different Finder windows open.
However, when I log off and log on again, Spaces doesn't automatically open the second space, which means the two Finder windows belonging to "space 2" gets lumped into "space 1". I therefore have to manually drag the two Finder windows to "space 2" every time I log on.
Is there a way to automatically assign these windows to the space they belong? Or is this manual step required for each login?

it seems inconsistent that Finder windows (not application windows) can be assigned to a specific space one minute, while this setting is "forgotten" when I log on.
You cannot assign a window to a workspace, you can only assign an application to a workspace - and yes, the Finder is an application. Opening a window does not assign it to anything because - repeat after me - you cannot assign a window to a workspace.
And why are you mentioning programs in connection with Finder windows
A) because the Finder is an application so it behaves just as any other application does and B) because you still do not seem to understand that only an application can be assigned to a workspace, not a window
Maybe I am misunderstanding something
Yes, you are, see (A) and (B) above
Maybe this will do what you want - but I doubt it. Open the System Preferences and select the Expose & Spaces control panel. Select the Spaces tab. There's a list of all the applications to which you have assigned a workspace and at the bottom left of that window pane is a plus icon. Click on it to see a list off all the running applications that haven't been assigned to a space yet. You'll see the Finder there in that list. Select it and then look for Finder in the list of applications in the Window pane. Now you can assign the Finder to a specific workspace or to all workspaces.
Play with this for a while and if you don't like Finder assigned to a single workspace or to all workspaces, you can return to the control panel and delete it.

Printing Get Info and Finder Window

Probably something simple: I'm desperate to find out how to print the Get Info window on a Word document and to print the finder window. I need to be able to prove when a document was created. Thanks.

Try the third-party utilities Print Window or PrintFinder. You'll find them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
You can snapshot a selected portion of any screen by pressing the COMMAND-SHIFT-4 keys. The pointer will change to a cross hairs that you can use to select the portion of the screen you want to snapshot. Once the selection is made and you release the mouse button the picture will be saved by default to the Desktop. Pressing ESC after the keys selection will abort the process.
There are other screen and window printing software that you will find at the above referenced sites. Just do a little searching.

Blinking menu bar, icons on desktop and Finder windows.

This happened after I restarted the computer for installing software updates. The only thing that didn't blink was the dock. When I open an application, it blinks as well, but a little slower, so that gives me time to click around. Even shutting down/restarting is a problem, since the menu bar blinks so quickly that I couldn't click on it. I had to hold down the power button to shut down.
I tried creating a new account and logged in. Everything remains normal in the new account.
I went into Library>Preferences, deleted the file called "com.apple.finder.plist" and restarted. It didn't work.
Is there anything else I can do? I really don't want to reformat my mac and lose all the applications installed.

Have you installed any third-party utilities and/or menubar utilities, contextual menu items, preference panes, etc. These most typically are the cause of such a problem. Also corrupted cache files may cause problems. Use a utility such as TinkerTool System to clear all system, user, and font caches then immediately reboot. You should not need to erase your drive to fix the problem, but the problem is definitely caused by something you either installed that is incompatible or something corrupted in your Home folder such as a preference file.

.dmg files and Finder windows : preset window size

Sorry for this misplaced question, but I want to create a .dmg disk image similar to those that developers employ to deliver their applications. I know how to embed a custom window background image, but I don't know how to make the window open to a specific size when the .dmg file is opened.

MacKeeper is an exception to the rule that system modifications should be uninstalled according to the developer's instructions. Although not generally recognized as such, MacKeeper is in fact a trojan, because the developer distributes an uninstaller that purports to delete it, but leaves behind something that causes popup ads to appear in the user’s web browser. Try following the instructions here:
how to uninstall MacKeeper « Phil Stokes
I can't personally vouch for the accuracy of those instructions, but others seem to have had success with them.

Hello everyone i have macbook air, hello everyone i have macbook air and my startup disc is full i checked everything and and find out that all space is of OTHER and i dont know what is it and what i have to do with that

hello everyone i have macbook air, hello everyone i have macbook air and my startup disc is full i checked everything and and find out that all space is of OTHER and i dont know what is it and what i have to do with that

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the available space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as "Backups." The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders. It may take some minutes for ODS to list all the files.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Icon view in Finder windows do not autowrap

I am using 10.5.1 on a 17" MBP 2.16 ghz.
Since installing Leopard, Icon view in Finder windows do not autowrap and Finder windows do not always remember their display preferences.
The Trash auto-wraps (the icons spread to take up the entire window if it is enlarged) But Opening a Folder in my default list view and switching to Icon view and then enarging the window only shows icons in the original window width. EG, If it were 3 colums of icons, it stays 3 columns of icons unless I use Clean Up TWICE and then I get 10 columns of icons which will wrap.
Is this a Leopard BUG or a local problem. Any suggestions on fixing it?
TIA,
Bill

Yeh - though I use cmd-J which I have used since it appeared, 10.1?
But I just solved my problem. In my use as defaults selection, I had Snap to Grid selected in the arrange by pop-up rather than by Name.
Selecting Name and clicking on Use as Defaults makes things work as expected.
Thanks for making me look closely!
Cheers,
Bill

Find by Name can't be set as default?

When I hit command+F I get the Find window but it always defaults to Find By Content.
Can I make it default to Find By Name? From the search I did here in the forums there is no way but I thouht to ask again.
Thanks in advance

While there isn't a thing you can do about the toolbar default, you CAN render it irrelevant. If you bring up the Find window using the shortcut of Command-Shift-F, then you will get "Name:Contains" with the cursor blinking in the blank entry field. Type the file name you want to find, and the results will be files whose actual file name contains whatever you typed. Furthermore, if you don't want to be bothered by using the shift key, you can go to System Prefs->Keyboard&Mouse->Shortcuts and reverse the two shortcuts, so that "Find..." with the "Kind" nonsense becomes Command-Shift-F, and "Find by Name..." is a simple Command-F. Restart the Finder after you make your changes, and then whenever you do Command-F you will get a search box with "Name:Contains" and the cursor blinking in the field for you to just type your search word-- the results will be files containing your word in their NAME, not the content.
There still ain't a dang thing you can do about the default of searching "This Mac" rather than the folder you were in when you invoked the search. Which is idiotic.
You may want to take a look at the article I wrote on Spotlight:
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/Leopard/leospot.html
Be sure to click the link to see the expanded page of illustrations.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Volumes and finder window names

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for