3 replies to this topic

[Aika]

So I was trying to retrieve data from a slightly corrupt SD card and of course whenever it came across a file or folder it didn't like the Finder would just hang the system (I could still move the pointer but it was like a perma-beachball but without the beachball). Other times the copy file box and Finder would just hang and even trying to restart the computer or log out via the menu would fail. Whatever the flavour of Finder suckiness I had no choice but to turn my computer off with the button. This happened a few times until I gave up, satisfied that I'd salvaged all I could. Problem is now my external backup drive isn't detected by neither Finder nor Disk Utility! I know I should have ejected and turned it off before I started fiddling... but that shouldn't make it invisible. It's a Western Digital Mybook if anyone has any experience with those and as expected the manufacturer manuals and website are completely useless. Any pointers would be great.

As an aside when I took the SD card to a Windows computer it just said "no fraking way am I touching this, format it then come see me again" or words to that effect. I guess Explorer knew better than to try to read it.

Oh and I've tried using both USB and Firewire connections. System Profiler says it's an unknown device. I've also tried turning it off and on again for all you IT Crowd fans.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

Just my 2 cents but it sounds like more than just the finder if disk utility can't even work with it.... so I doubt even a third party file manager like Path Finder or Forklift could do much with it.

But yeah, the finder probably should be programmed to detect that sort of thing and refuse the disk like explorer apparently does.... although the problem to me seems like it goes deeper in the OS because there's software beneath the finder that handles that sort of thing before the finder touches it.

I have a WD Mybook (a regular and a world edition and mine are external hard drives not SD cards) but haven't had anything like that happen to me yet.... although the world edition is hooked up to my router since it's a NAS Anyway, almost sounds like a defective drive to me.

Could be some mount point that stayed stuck when you improperly removed the drive.. when that sort of thing happens it seems to me that they tend to be hidden.

Could try some terminal magic if that's the case doing a

Mount -v

To maybe find it..

then try

umount -f /Volumes/FooBar

(replacing /Volumes/FooBar with the ghost mount if there is one.. more info here)

But of course that's just a shot in the dark by me and it doesn't actually fix the drive it'll still have problems with things like disk utility and system profiler.

[Aika]

So after hours of fruitless fiddling I finally got the chance to try the HDD on somebody else's Mac... and it instantly discovered and mounted it (matron). I plugged it back into mine and it's working again, like all this never happened.  

Go figure.

[The Liberator]

Aika, on 23 December 2010 - 06:50 PM, said:

So after hours of fruitless fiddling I finally got the chance to try the HDD on somebody else's Mac... and it instantly discovered and mounted it (matron). I plugged it back into mine and it's working again, like all this never happened.  

Go figure.

...the mysteries of digital technology.

Liberator.