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qkslvr · Apr 25, 2008 , 12:11 PM

I have a 1 TB WD My Book Essential external hard drive. I partitioned it out into two Journaled partitions, one for Time Machine, and the other for general purpose use (Music, videos, etc.)

Up until yesterday, both my Time Machine partitions and my My Book partition showed up on the desktop, no problems. But yesterday, my My Book partition disappeared off the desktop. Disk Utility still saw it, and said everything was running fine, and I could read or write to it through applications through the recent places list. But it still wasn't showing on my desktop or in /Volumes.

This morning, I found that there is an Alias to my My Book partition within my Time Machine partition, and when I open it, it acts as if I had opened it up off my desktop in the past. But I can't seem to use the alias to get the drive to show up on my desktop.

Any suggestions?

Big Mac · Apr 25, 2008 , 12:35 PM

Have you turned off Time Machine and restarted?

qkslvr · Apr 25, 2008 , 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Have you turned off Time Machine and restarted?

I have restarted, but not turned off Time Machine. I'll try that.

qkslvr · Apr 26, 2008 , 11:32 AM

Well... I tried that, but still no dice.

Any other suggestions?

jmiddel · Apr 26, 2008 , 02:55 PM

Can you drag the alias from inside the TM partition onto the desktop?

qkslvr · Apr 26, 2008 , 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by jmiddel

Can you drag the alias from inside the TM partition onto the desktop?

It just makes another alias on the desktop, which doesn't unmount when the drive is unmounted.

jmiddel · Apr 26, 2008 , 03:17 PM

OK, unmount TM, disconnect the drive (and power down if the drive is externally powered, rather than through the USB/FW cable) and wait for a couple of minutes. Reconnect the drive and see what happens.

qkslvr · 04:28 PM

Well, I've found that running

Code:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

in Terminal gets the partition to show on my desktop. So it must be an attributes thing. But I don't have Developer Tools installed, so I can't run the SetFile command. Is there anything similar to SetFile I can use in order to reset the Volume's attributes to visible?

Chuckit · Apr 27, 2008 , 07:38 PM

Xray?

qkslvr · Apr 27, 2008 , 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Xray?

Elaborate please?

qkslvr · Apr 28, 2008 , 04:28 PM

I'm so close in finding out that that Terminal command works, I just don't know how to change the attribute on the Volume. It's frustrating.

No one else can help?

Chuckit · Apr 28, 2008 , 04:35 PM

Sorry. XRay 1.1 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

It lets you set the invisible bit just like SetFile.

qkslvr · Apr 28, 2008 , 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Sorry. XRay 1.1 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

Yeah, a quick Google search just found that. I installed it, but it doesn't seem to have any "Visibility" option that can be checked or unchecked. Am I not seeing it?

qkslvr · Apr 30, 2008 , 01:10 AM

Here's a better look at what's going on...

I can't figure out how to make it unhidden...

Art Vandelay · Apr 30, 2008 , 10:28 AM

Oh, you're talking about the sidebar. Just drag the volume to the devices section or toggle the checkbox off and on for showing external hard drives under Finder > Preferences > Sidebar.

Your problem description in your OP does not match what you're showing in the picture.

ibook_steve · Apr 30, 2008 , 10:59 AM

I think the confusion here is your definition of "Desktop." The desktop is your workspace when no windows are open. Your picture show a window with only some of your disk volumes visible in the sidebar on the left side, similar to the Windows My Computer window. Art's solution should solve your problem. You can also drag anything to the sidebar for quick access in all Finder windows.

Steve

qkslvr · Apr 30, 2008 , 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

I think the confusion here is your definition of "Desktop." The desktop is your workspace when no windows are open. Your picture show a window with only some of your disk volumes visible in the sidebar on the left side, similar to the Windows My Computer window. Art's solution should solve your problem. You can also drag anything to the sidebar for quick access in all Finder windows.

Steve

Ok. Maybe posting htat picture caused more confusion than anything. I'm talking about how the volume is greyed out since it is hidden somehow through attributes. The only reason it is showing in that folder is because I ran the defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES command in Terminal. My desktop just doesn't show the drive as greyed out like this folder does, so that's why I posted this picture.

So here's another go.

Without hidden files visible:

And with hidden files visible:

So I know what the desktop is, and I know that the drive isn't mounting to the desktop because it is hidden with all the dot files somehow. I just want to know how to make it unhidden without downloading Deveolper Tools. Or is that the only way I can go?

ibook_steve · Apr 30, 2008 , 03:11 PM

OK, just to verify, you have hard drives showing on your Desktop set in Finder preferences, right? If so, as already stated, the invisibility bit has somehow been turned on for that drive. Try a more recent program than Xray. I just found this:

JuhOS X 1.0 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

Steve

Art Vandelay · Apr 30, 2008 , 03:47 PM

sudo chflags nohidden /Volumes/My\ Book

qkslvr · Apr 30, 2008 , 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

sudo chflags nohidden /Volumes/My\ Book

That did it! Thank you Art! And thanks everyone else for the guidance. i have my drive back!

Art Vandelay · Apr 30, 2008 , 08:14 PM

You're welcome. Interesting how that would've gotten set to begin with.