Unable to Access Root of Macintosh HD in finder

Question

Level 1

4 points

Unable to Access Root of Macintosh HD in finder

I can't access the root of Macintosh HD in finder. The root dir is accessible in the terminal but not in the finder. I can access other directories through shortcuts and spotlight searched but when I try to go to the through the directory tree button in the finder the HD is greyed out.

I've run disk utils, reset permissions, cleared caches and nothing helps. When I boot to target disk mode and connect the system to another computer the physical and logical drives show up, but it doesn't mount to desktop.

Dual G5 1.8, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 11, 2008 8:00 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Dec 11, 2008 7:22 PM in response to Zenmonkey

Select Preferences from the Finder's Finder menu. Click on the Sidebar icon in the toolbar. Is your hard drive checked in the list? If not then check it to display it on the Desktop. You can also check the Computer option which will display the Computer in the Finder window from which you can select the drive.

All Spotlight searches done through the Finder default to This Mac.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Dec 11, 2008 10:38 AM in response to Zenmonkey

If you select Macintosh HD (or whatever you've named your startup volume) the Finder window opens on the root directory - you should see Applications, System, Library, and Users folders. Unless you are referring to something different in which case you need to be more specific.

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Answer 3

Zenmonkey Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2008 7:16 PM in response to Kappy

The problem is that I don't have a macintosh hd icon to click on. Not on the desktop or in finder window. When I open a finder window, it opens on My Computer without the system disk present. When I click on any of the side bar icons the folder opens fine but I can't make my way back up to the root. I put path button on the tool bar and Macinosh HD is greyed out. The only way I can access the root folder is a terminal window.

The system functions fine other than that. So it makes it a pain to get to any folder I don't have a shortcut for in the sidebar. Basically I need to do a spotlight search.

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Answer 4

jsd2

Level 5

6,245 points

Dec 11, 2008 8:02 PM in response to Zenmonkey

Take a look at [Amazing Disappearing Drives, or The Invisibility Plague|http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html]. The article includes a repair script.

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Answer 5

Zenmonkey Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2008 5:57 AM in response to jsd2

Thanks, that hit the nail on the head.

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