[Rob]

I'm running 10.3.9 on a 1Ghz eMac.
My backup drive is a Firewire laCie partitioned into 3 parts.

I have run the system for about a year with the Firewire drive permanently connected.
After a recent crash I found that Finder was hogging up to 90% of cpu time and that I could not open any of my Volumes by doubleclicking their icons. I can use Terminal and the ls command to see the contents of my Volumes

Activity Monitor tells me that the problem parent process is loginwindow calling Finder.
According to "Activity Monitor>Open Files" it is attempting to open 2 files on one of my Firewire drive partitions.

These files are: /Volumes/LaC3/.Trashes/501 & /Volumes/LaC3 (/dev/disk1s7).

All other open files listed are on the root drive and appear normal apart from one mysteriously shown as follows:
/dev/console
0x017a3910 file struct, ty=0x3, op=0x317820
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/Finder.rsrc

Nothing I have done with Onyx or AppleJack fixes the problem.
Disk Utility cannot Eject or UnMount the affected partition (LaC3)

Disconnecting the drive removes the problem but is not a solution

My questions are:
1) How do I stop Finder trying to open /Volumes/LaC3/.Trashes/501 & /Volumes/LaC3 (/dev/disk1s7) at startup?
2) Where does the OS keep its list of such files? can it be deleted?
3) What is the mystery item 0x017a3910 file struct, ty=0x3, op=0x317820?
4) is there a problem with the an incomplete Empty Trash process leaving an alias somewhere?

[reader50]

The Finder is trying to open a corrupted file or folder, most likely something in the Trash on the FW drive. With the FW drive disconnected, use Onyx to add the Quit command to the Finder. Open Disk Utility. Quit the Finder and plug in the FW drive. Repair the drive.

If that doesn't do it, quit the Finder again. Use Terminal to navigate to the problem folder and delete all the files inside.

cd /Volumes/LaC3/.Trashes/501/
rm -rf *

That will recursively remove everything in the 501 folder, including subfolders. The -r flag makes it recursive, the -f flag forces deletion even if one of the files is in use or locked.

Restart the Finder by clicking it's Dock icon.

[Rob]

Your advice worked

Disk Utility could not repair the Volume.

But removing the 501 folder using Terminal worked.
It contained the name of a trashed application

Thanks for the quick reply.

[cmeisenzahl]

I was curious to see how that worked out, helpful thread.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by Rob

...
Disk Utility could not repair the Volume.
...

It's good to hear it worked out. However, did Disk Utility actually say that? Or did it not find anything that needed repair?

If Disk Utility said it found problems but could not repair the drive, then the drive may still need attention. Run Disk Utility on it again, to see if it still sees any problems that it can't repair. If so, you should either pick up DiskWarrior, or copy all files off the drive and reformat (erase) it. Otherwise, unrepaired problems may cause data loss in the future.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by reader50

It's good to hear it worked out. However, did Disk Utility actually say that? Or did it not find anything that needed repair?

I cannot remember exactly what it said. I think it said it could not do a repair and reported that the number of blocks did not match. Reported a deficit of 15 blocks
which later turned out to be the size of the file (Audacity) :named in /501/ . My conclusion was that the blocks were deleted but the volume record was not updated to match.

Originally Posted by reader50

If Disk Utility said it found problems but could not repair the drive, then the drive may still need attention. Run Disk Utility on it again, to see if it still sees any problems that it can't repair. If so, you should either pick up DiskWarrior, or copy all files off the drive and reformat (erase) it. Otherwise, unrepaired problems may cause data loss in the future.

Yes that is what I did. I transferred and then erased the contents of the partition. I'm still dealing with some other problems which may be related. I'll report back in a week when I get back from a trip.
One odd thing. Disk Utility showed "Permissions enabled" = no. What does that mean and how do I change it if I need to?

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Rob

Yes that is what I did. I transferred and then erased the contents of the partition. I'm still dealing with some other problems which may be related. I'll report back in a week when I get back from a trip.:

I should'nt have spoken.I put 2 video files into LaC3 last night. All was fine.
Now I cannot get that partition to mount. Disk Utility reports it to be in good health but won't mount it and MountMe says it has mounted it when in fact it hasnt. Terminal reports back:
-bash: cd: /Volumes/LaC3: No such file or directory

I think I'll go on that trip now

[reader50]

By "erase", I meant using the Erase tab in Disk Utility, which means a reformat. Deleting all the visible drive contents doesn't necessarily fix problems in the directory structure.

For non-boot partitions, you can tell the system to ignore permissions. Select the partition (volume) icon in the Finder and Get Info. At the bottom of the Info pane, there will be a checkbox to "Ignore ownership on this volume".

Checking or not checking this box will matter only if the external drive is accessed by multiple accounts. Ignoring permissions will allow all accounts to access the stuff on the drive.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by reader50

By "erase", I meant using the Erase tab in Disk Utility, which means a reformat

Thanks for that clarification.
I've done it now and the partition is back