Hidden partition

If you don't see it in a Finder window viewing the GUI "root" (like when you select your computer name under devices in the sidebar or press Cmd-Shift-C), can you see it when you press Cmd-Shift-G and go to /Volumes? If so, manually drag it to the sidebar from there. If not, it's not mounted and is only apparent to software accessing the hard drive directly (unless the name begins with a period, in which case it may be there but Finder is hiding it). If it's not mounted, you may be able to mount it using Terminal.app by typing:
sudo mkdir '/Volumes/<arbitrary volume name of your choosing>'
sudo mount /dev/<e.g., disk0s2> '/Volumes/<the same volume name>'

The "disk0s2" should be the actual partition's device name. If you don't know it, type:
ls /dev/disk*
to list drives and partitions.

Then type:
mount
to list what is mounted. The partition is likely one named "disk" + a number + "s" + a number that is not listed in the output of the mount command.

Can you see it on the Desktop if you check the appropriate boxes in Finder Preferences>General?

If not, then the partition may have acquired a "hidden" flag, which would make it invisible to Finder even if it doesn't have a leading period in its name.

If you can see the partition in the Startup Items preference pane and in MenuMeters then it's presumably still mounted, and if so then it should also show up in Disk Utility's left pane along with the other mounted partitions.

You can normally look for mounted partitions in /Volumes using the Finder's Go To Folder function, but if a partition has a "hidden" flag then Finder won't see it there unless you first enable Finder to see all invisible items.

I think the surest way to look for a "hidden" flag on a mounted volume is instead to use Terminal. To do so, open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities), copy-paste the following line into the Terminal window, and then type Return:

ls -laO /Volumes

Post back the response.

It looks as if you are currently booted from the "Leopard" partition, and that your other bootable partition is named "Snow Leopard."

Your Terminal listing includes the following:
------------------
drwxrwxr-t@ 35 root admin hidden 1258 Oct 26 22:32 Snow Leopard
--------------
That indicates that the "Snow Leopard" partition does have a "hidden" flag, which would make it invisible to Finder.

To try to make it visible, copy-paste the following line into Terminal and type Return:

sudo chflags nohidden /Volumes/"Snow Leopard"

Enter your admin password when prompted (it will not echo on the screen), and type Return.
Can you now see the Snow Leopard" partition?
.
.
There are some other items in your /Volumes folder which seem unrelated, but which are not normally present.
-----------------
-rw-rw---- 1 root wheel - 16 Oct 6 17:45 .vbt5
---------------
.vbt5 is an invisible file, which I gather from Googling gets put there by Intego's VirusBarrier X5 program. Are you running that?
.
---------------
drwxr-xr-x 3 subaga admin - 102 Nov 12 23:38 192.168.0.104
------------------------
This looks like a mounted server on a local network, which is not something I know much about. Are you connecting to some type of shared device?
.
-------------------------
drwxrwxrwx 3 subaga admin - 102 Aug 21 03:02 EspionageMounts
------------------------
EspionageMounts must be left over from an incomplete uninstall of Espionage, as you said. Before trying to delete it, I would make sure it is a folder and not a mounted volume. From Finder:
Go menu> Go to Folder
enter /Volumes and click Go
In the resulting window, does EspionageMounts look like an alias or does it look like a regular folder? Do a GetInfo on it - what does it say for Kind and Size? Try to open it - is there anything inside?

Glad the Snow Leopard partition is now visible!

With regard to the Intego .vbt5 file, from what I read there might be more of these at the root level of your various partitions. You can temporarily enable Finder to show hidden files and look for these others as well, then trash them using Finder if you find any. You could also just leave them alone - it's very unlikely that they are doing any harm.
I like to use the free utility [TinkerTool|http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html] to enable visibility of hidden files - check the first box in the TinkerTool's Finder tab, then click Relaunch Finder at the bottom right. To re-hide hidden files, just uncheck the TinkerTool box and again relaunch the Finder.

You should also be able to use the Finder to trash the EspionageMounts folder, which would be safer than using Terminal for this. Go to Folder -> /Volumes as you did before.

The /Volumes item labeled "192.168.0.104" presumably represents the networked drive - leave it alone.

Message was edited by: jsd2

HI, I'm sorry for my bad english. I'm italian and I have the same problems with my second partition.
After tried to backup on external HD I have lost my second partition,that is it seeems lost, hidden or I don't know how to say...In that partition are recovered documents and data. On the first partition life applications and all it's ok.
After trying to recover my data and my partition I cannot see also any external drive (via USB). II Partition and any external drive can be see only in Disk Utility but NOT MOUNTED.
I have tried also to run command you suggest but don't work.
what I can to do? Please could you help me?

Hello Pachi28, and welcome to Apple Discussions,

II Partition and any external drive can be see only in Disk Utility but NOT MOUNTED.

That indicates that your problem is different from the issue in this thread. The Terminal commands given here were for a situation where the involved partition is mounted and completely functional, and the only abnormality is its "visibility".

Assuming that you could not mount the partitions using Disk Utility, your situation sounds more serious, and it's not clear what is wrong. I suggest you start a new Topic so that your problem will have a wider audience.

You didn't list your OS version in your profile. If you are indeed running OS X 10.5, you could repost in this Leopard category:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1225

If you are instead running Snow Leopard, you could repost here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1339

Message was edited by: jsd2

Thank you jsd2 I will do. I think the problem may be concern any file system, that is a corruption of any file, but I don't know how to do to resolve 🙂
I post in forum now with more details.
Thank you again