Why does Finder show my external hard drive as a broken alias?

Question

When I click on my external hard drive I get the message "The alias “External HD” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found" with the option to fix or delete the alias. It does not let me choose the drive to fix the alias or delete if I select an option.
Both Disk Utility and Disk Warrior show no problems with the disk, but I can't access the contents.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I had a problem with my La Cie 1TB drive, connected to my Airport Extreme. Sometimes I could view the root level (first level of folders), but clicking to the second level, all folders seemed to be empty. It was indeed the alias bit that was the culprit.
Instead of always go into Path Finder or Terminal to flip the alias bit, I made an AppleScript, compiled it into app, and put that in my Login Items (System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items). Now every time I reboot or log in again, the disk is mounted in the correct way, without alias bit.
For those who want to use it, here is the script.
tell application "Finder"
activate
if (exists disk "NETBU") then
eject "NETBU"
end if
set volumemounted to false
try
mount volume ("afp://youraccount:[email protected]/NETBU")
on error
display dialog "Error mounting NETBU." & return & return buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
set volumemounted to true
if volumemounted = "true" then
do shell script "sudo /usr/bin/SetFile -a a /Volumes/NETBU"
end if
end tell
Note : Replace "NETBU" by the name of your disk; replace youraccount:password by your account name and your password; replace 192.168.1.2 by the IP address of your Airport. If your disk is connected in another way, you need to change the mount statement accordingly.
Good luck !