Volume that doesn't exist shows up in the /Volumes directory

Question

Level 1

8 points

Volume that doesn't exist shows up in the /Volumes directory

I have the following problem:

I have very slow selection dialogs, in particular when I'm running Parallels (having to wait 2' for selecting a file). The interesting thing is that the problem disappears as soon as I connect to my NAS at home.

I looked into the volumes mounted and always see the volume /Volumes/admin in the /Volumes directory. This is a partition of my NAS but it always shows up even if I start up without any network connection.

I tried to unmount the volume using

sudo diskutil umount force /Volumes/admin

and

sudo umount -f /Volumes/admin

but I get the following error messages:

Unmount failed for /Volumes/admin

and

umount: pthread_cond_timeout failed; continuing with unmount: Operation timed out

umount: unmount(/Volumes/admin): Operation not supported

I also tried to see if there I can find that the Volumes is somewhere automounted but I wasn't successful in this either.

Anyone having an idea how to resolve the problem?

Thanks

Michael

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 13, 2011 4:52 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,760 points

Jun 13, 2011 5:08 AM in response to Smikee

Sometimes that happens when the server gets "lost."

That admin directory is likely a real directory, not a mount point. If so, things you copied into it may not be on the NAS as you think and only copied locally into that folder.

If it is a real folder, you should be able to delete it like any other folder, but may have to resort to the terminal to delete it. Check for any files in it, first. Copy off what you want to recover, and then try to delete it.

I'm not sure how to tell the difference. If you use Go to Folder in the Go menu, type /Volumes and click Go.

See if it looks like a folder and not an external disk. I'm not sure this will tell you anything as it was originally created as a mount point. However, if your NAS is not connected, then it is likely just an orphaned mount point.

If you mount you NAS, do you see admin-1 mounted, also?

Reply

Answer 2

Smikee Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 13, 2011 7:50 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thank you for your help, this may point in a good direction.

If I do a ls -l in the /Volumes directory I get

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 13 Jun 13:06 admin

However, I can not enter, delete or do anything else with the "directory", even if I open a root shell. Any other ideas how I can remove this "directory"?

As I'm away from home this week I can't check if I see the admin-1.

Reply

Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,760 points

Jun 13, 2011 9:36 PM in response to Smikee

That's strange that it doesn't have write permissions for anyone.

You could chmod it to 777, and then I'd imagine you could delete it.

sudo chmod 777 /Volumes/admin

Reply