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qkslvr · 09:09 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, 01:35 PM

Have you turned off Time Machine and restarted?

qkslvr · Apr 25, 2008, 01:37 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, 12:32 PM

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

Any other suggestions?

jmiddel · Apr 26, 2008, 03:55 PM

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

qkslvr · Apr 26, 2008, 03:57 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, 04:17 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 · 05:28 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, 08:38 PM

Xray?

qkslvr · Apr 27, 2008, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Xray?

Elaborate please?

qkslvr · Apr 28, 2008, 05:28 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, 05:35 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, 05:38 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, 02:10 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, 11:28 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, 11:59 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, 02:04 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, 04:11 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, 04:47 PM

sudo chflags nohidden /Volumes/My\ Book

qkslvr · Apr 30, 2008, 07:13 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, 09:14 PM

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

qkslvr · May 14, 2008, 01:11 AM

Well... Now it seems that if I run the command Art told me, it will work, but only until I unmount the drive, then I have to do it all over again. Any ideas on making hte change more permanent?

Hal Itosis · May 14, 2008, 01:27 AM

It would be neat if there were some Terminal commands that could
display useful information about this disk, which might provide a clue,
or at least give us more facts with which to ponder theoretical solutions.

[So... you're saying the 'hidden' flag automatically returns? Show me.]

Hal Itosis · May 14, 2008, 01:31 AM

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

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

It would appear that may still be the ultimate question.

qkslvr · May 14, 2008, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by Hal Itosis

It would be neat if there were some Terminal commands that could
display useful information about this disk, which might provide a clue,
or at least give us more facts with which to ponder theoretical solutions.

[So... you're saying the 'hidden' flag automatically returns? Show me.]

Alright, so running those commands here's what we got:

Originally Posted by Terminal

Tom-Cassadys-PowerBook:~ Tom$ ls -liedO /Volumes/{,"My Book"}
22411 drwxrwxrwt@ 8 root admin hidden 272 May 14 11:58 /Volumes/
2 drwxr-xr-x@ 22 Tom staff hidden 816 Apr 23 00:34 /Volumes/My Book
Tom-Cassadys-PowerBook:~ Tom$ diskutil info /Volumes/"My Book"
Device Identifier: disk2s5
Device Node: /dev/disk2s5
Part Of Whole: disk2
Device / Media Name: Untitled

Volume Name: My Book
Mount Point: /Volumes/My Book
File System: Journaled HFS+
Journal size 65536 KB at offset 0x181d000
Owners: Disabled

Partition Type: Apple_HFS
Bootable: Is bootable
Media Type: Generic
Protocol: USB
SMART Status: Not Supported
Volume UUID: 2A9DEB39-F5C7-3519-BC0C-11AEAE70DCBB

Total Size: 771.3 Gi (828137717760 B) (1617456480 512-byte blocks)
Free Space: 720.7 Gi (773809020928 B) (1511345744 512-byte blocks)

Read Only: No
Ejectable: Yes
Whole: No
Internal: No

And now after running Art's command, I get this:

Originally Posted by Terminal

Tom-Cassadys-PowerBook:~ Tom$ ls -liedO /Volumes/{,"My Book"}
22411 drwxrwxrwt@ 8 root admin hidden 272 May 14 11:58 /Volumes/
2 drwxr-xr-x@ 22 Tom staff - 816 Apr 23 00:34 /Volumes/My Book

So it appears we need to get that admin property to change from hidden.

Hal Itosis · 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by qkslvr

Alright, so running those commands here's what we got:
2 drwxr-xr-x@ 22 Tom staff hidden 816 Apr 23 00:34 /Volumes/My Book
Owners: Disabled

And now after running Art's command, I get this:
2 drwxr-xr-x@ 22 Tom staff - 816 Apr 23 00:34 /Volumes/My Book

So it appears we need to get that admin property to change from hidden.

I'm not crazy about the owner/group/perms situation on that volume.
Yeah, some will say it doesn't matter... but I believe the OS is "happier"
when ownerships are enabled, and system/admin/others are set to 775.

I don't claim this will definitely solve the world's problems, but
if that were my "My Book"... I would:

sudo vsdbutil -a /Volumes/My\ Book
sudo chmod 1775 /Volumes/My\ Book
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/My\ Book
sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/My\ Book

That can all be done using a Finder 'Get Info' window (presumably), if you prefer.
Who knows... that just might help Art's chflags command survive a reboot.

Unless perhaps there is a haxie or some other type of 3rd-party program deliberately hiding that
volume by setting that Finder invisibility flag at reboot, I have no idea what else to say about this.

--

Of course, the downside of enabling ownerships is that: all stuff not owned by you and/or not
membered to admin (or staff, or your primary gid) will suddenly become hard to access... until
their owner/group/perms are also set appropriately. If that turns out to be a headache for you,
then just open the Get Info for My Book and checkmark the "Ignore ownership..." box.

[personally, i prefer ownerships to be enabled, and all items set to what makes the most sense.]

qkslvr · May 14, 2008, 04:35 PM

Well... I think we may have done it. (Again)

I tried doing all this through the Finder Get Info window before, but couldn't find anything that seemed to change the situation.

So, for now, it's fixed! Thank you Hal for all your help, I'm still not sure what caused all of this in the first place, but I'll try my best not to do it again.

qkslvr · May 28, 2008, 09:08 PM

Bah, now it will only last a few mount/unmount cycles, then goes right back to being hidden, and I have to dig this thread up again to run the Terminal commands once more. I have no idea what's causing this. Any thing elseI can do to provide more information?

Also, can a mod change the title of this thread? It no longer really reflects the problem. Possibly to 'Partition keeps hiding itself' or something similar? Thanks.