Problem Ejecting External Hard Drive

Question

Problem Ejecting External Hard Drive

My computer was frozen up, so I had to restart it manually. Fortunately, all five partitions on my external hard drive still display in Disk Utility. However, one partition doesn't display an icon on my desktop.

Before messing with them, I thought I'd simply eject them, then plug my external hard drive back in and see if all five partition icons register. So I clicked on one icon and chose "Eject All." All but one ejected, and the little spinning memory wheel that says "Wait, I'm processing something!" appeared.

Disk Utility is still open, and all five external partitions are visible in it. But just one partition icon is visible on the desktop, and I can't access Finder, because it's apparently busy processing something.

How can I quit Finder? And once I get my computer under control, if any of my external partitions still don't appear on the desktop, can I highlight them in Disk Utility and choose Repair Disk, or will that erase all my data? It doesn't list Repair Disk Permissions as an option.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 23, 2008 7:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tony T1

Level 6

10,232 points

Feb 23, 2008 7:28 AM in response to David Blomstrom

Try selecting "Eject" from Disk Utility

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Answer 2

Feb 23, 2008 7:44 AM in response to Tony T1

When I try to eject a disk in Disk Utility, I get the message "The disk "MyDisk" could not be unmounted." It says I have open files or applications, but I get the same message regardless which partition I click on, and I haven't opened any files at all.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

dechamp

Level 4

3,495 points

Feb 23, 2008 7:45 AM in response to David Blomstrom

Force quit finder by using the 3 finger salute - Command + Option + Esc keys and choose the finder to quit.

I used to have to do this when unmounting some flash drives when running 10.5 and 10.5.1.

For some reason I don't have to do this any longer with 10.5.2

Don't know if it was the update or other changes that fixed this problem for me.

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Answer 4

Feb 23, 2008 8:17 AM in response to dechamp

Thanks, that's a good tip. I was indeed able to quite and relaunch Finder.

Unfortunately, I still can't eject one of my external hard drive icons. It's the same partition I tried to clone my hard drive to last night. When I woke up, my computer was frozen, so I had to manually restart it.

Anyway, I think I'll restart my computer and see if that changes things. If not, can I open Disk Utilites and choose Repair Disk, rather than Repair Disk PERMISSIONS, or will choosing Repair Disk erase all my data?

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Answer 5

dechamp

Level 4

3,495 points

Feb 23, 2008 12:56 PM in response to David Blomstrom

You can try the repair disk. It won't (or shouldn't) damage any of your data. But for me, Disk Warrior is supreme at fixing problems that MacOS can't deal with at all.

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