mounting/unmounting usb flash drive

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mounting/unmounting usb flash drive

I have a flash drive that I have used for a long time with Windows and Linux. I am a recent Mac user and I am probably missing something... Before removing the drive is it enough to eject it under DEVICES or is it necessary to eject it also under PLACES (in Finder)?

After a few tries, here is what I see from a terminal... 3 directories:
/Volumes/\ NO NAME (empty)
/Volumes/\ NO NAME\ 1 (belonging to the group admin)
/Volumes/\ NO NAME\ 2 (belonging to the group staff)

Also it looks like the Mac is refusing to shut down when there are unmounted drives...

How can I get out of this confusion?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Mar 9, 2008 11:14 AM

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Answer 1

ZaphodB

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Mar 9, 2008 11:29 AM in response to janxl

Ejecting the Device should also unmount all partitions of that device.
Having several NO NAME volumes sounds like you have several partitions on that flash drive. Does 'df' or 'mount' say anything like it?
You might also have a look at the Disk Utility.app which gives a nice overview of devices and mounted partition.

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Answer 2

Rhyd

Level 3

806 points

Mar 9, 2008 11:43 AM in response to janxl

ejecting a drive with multiple partitions in 10.5.2 should be easily done in the devices sidebar with the software eject arrow.... pressing the eject arrow for me brings up a dialog asking if I want to eject all volumes/partitions of the drive.

This behaviour is changed from earlier versions of the MacOSX which would automatically eject all partitions of a drive when you attempted to eject only one. It actually returns to OS9 behaviour which ejected only the volumes/partitions that you wanted to eject. You now have the choice to eject only one volume/partition of a drive if you wish.

Message was edited by: Rhyd

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Answer 3

janxl Author

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Mar 9, 2008 12:28 PM in response to Rhyd

Thanks for your replies. I think there is just one partition on the device.

Anyway, it looks like I have solved the problem... Here is what I have done:
- I have ejected the DEVICE, then under PLACES I still had 2 disks: Untitled and Untitled 2
- the Mac did not shut down, I had to restart it with Cmd-Ctrl-Power
- then under /Volumes I removed the directories NO NAME 1 and NO NAME 2 (the flash drive being disconnected)

Now it looks like the flash drive is correctly mapped to the the directory NO NAME and I can shut down after ejecting it.

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Answer 4

janxl Author

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Mar 10, 2008 2:41 AM in response to janxl

I think now that this problem has been caused by the sleep function while the volume is still mounted... when the Mac "wakes up" the flash drive appears in an incorrect state, the application still open using the drive (in this case Thunderbird) hangs, it is not even possible to force quit... At this point I had to force a restart, then to remove a directory NO NAME 1 (probably containing the unsaved data)... if I connect again the USB drive, I have 2 related icons on the desktop : a folder 'Untitled' and a CD 'Untitled 2'.

I will disable the Sleep action, but I consider there is a problem. Would this behavior similar if I had a HD connected to the USB?

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