Alias Files and Disk Utility Repairs

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Level 1

7 points

Alias Files and Disk Utility Repairs

Hey there,

I recently moved a whole lot of movie files from iTunes on to my harddrive, they are no longer on the computer, however the space that they were previously taking up has not been reduced. I found that there were " alias " files that only appeared under All My Files. These alias files for the movies I removed cannot be opened, as the original file is not there, and cannot be moved or deleted. I ran Disk Utility verification to try and fix the problem and came back with some issues:

Volume bitmap needs minor repair for orphaned blocks.

Invalid free block count.

The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.

I followed the prompts, restarting my computer and holding down command and R and opening Disk Utility and running disk verification and repair, coming abck with no problems and this restarting the computer again. However once I had done so, I found the alias files still to be stuck, and running the disk verification and repair AGAIN it's still corrupt and repair just comes back with

The disk "Macintosh HD" could not be unmounted.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Connie

I press Delete Alias and it just reappears.

I followed the repair prompts and these issues still appear.

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), AirPort

Posted on Sep 2, 2013 4:30 PM

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Answer 1

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 4:44 PM in response to Nyxaelia

Boot back into recovery mode, and open disk utility. Click on the HD. At the bottom of Disk Utility, note the SMART Status of the drive. What does it read?

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Answer 2

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 4:50 PM in response to Nyxaelia

I just saw the updated screenshots, do you have File Vault enabled? Either you drive is failing or the file system is corrupted. As a first step, I would back up your data immediately.

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Answer 3

Nyxaelia Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 2, 2013 5:01 PM in response to nbar

File Vault is enable and I have backed up my machine to external harddrive using TimeMachine.

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Answer 4

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 5:29 PM in response to Nyxaelia

Okay. Filevault encyption can prevent your system from fixing logical volume failure. Turn off filevault, let the decryption process complete, boot into recovery again and attempt to repair. Report back with the results:

OS X Lion: Turn off FileVault disk encryption - Apple - Support

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Answer 5

Nyxaelia Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 2, 2013 6:34 PM in response to nbar

Followed your instructions, and the disk appears to be repaired, thankyou!!

However the alias files are still there, and I still can't delete or move them.

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Answer 6

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 6:41 PM in response to Nyxaelia

What happens when you click "Delete Alias" in the screenshot you posted above. The alias' may be locked click on one of them in finder, press the key combination command + I. 'Get more information' window will pop up.

Post a screenshot of this:

Also, are they all contained in a single folder?

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Answer 7

Nyxaelia Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 2, 2013 6:55 PM in response to nbar

When I click Delete Alias the same dialogue box dissapeares, and then reappears again, doing nothing.

This is an example of one of the alias files:

They are not contained in a single folder, in fact they don't appear to be in any folder at all. They only appear in All My Files under their prospective categories, and there some spread through music, movies and documents.

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Answer 8

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 7:05 PM in response to Nyxaelia

These are not alias files. They are the actually MPEG-4 movie files. It appears that 1) the default application to open them is wrong and 2) The permissions on the files are not correct. Can you right click (or control click) this file > Open with > Other... > select Quicktime. What happens?

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Answer 9

Nyxaelia Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 2, 2013 7:20 PM in response to nbar

Some are movie files, some are documents, some are backups of documents, some are music files.

The only options that appear when right click are :

> Open

> Open enclosing folder

[does nothing]

> Get Info

> Quick Look

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Answer 10

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 7:30 PM in response to Nyxaelia

Can you drag them to the trash? Again, these are not aliases, but your actual files, which would explain why the space on your drive did not increase after you transferred. That being said, I don't have an answer as to how to fix all this data. I don't want to say they are hopelessly corrupted either. Can you wipe the drive and restore from a back up that you know contains your working files?

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Answer 11

Nyxaelia Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 2, 2013 8:13 PM in response to nbar

I can't drag, move or delete these files.

When you say wipe the drive, you mean the SSD in the macbook itself? How do I do that?

I'd have to do it from a previous backup that does not contain the weird files as well wouldn't I.

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Answer 12

nbar

Level 5

7,037 points

Sep 2, 2013 8:26 PM in response to Nyxaelia

Yes.

OS X Mountain Lion: Erase and reinstall OS X -

Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 14. How do I restore my ...

http://pondini.org/TM/25.html

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Answer 13

Nyxaelia Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 4, 2013 3:20 PM in response to nbar

OK so I restored my computer to an earlier date before the mystery files, but their creation date was about a month ago, and having my computer back that far was too much of an inconvenience so I set it back to today. When I set it back to today it appears that the mystery files have mysteriously dissapeared O_O 95% of my music doesn't appear under All My Files but it's still in my iTunes so I don't really mind as long as those files stay gone.

So I guess my problem is solved! Thankyou so much for all your advice and assistance, I really appreciate it.

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