Can anyone tell me what the Speedometer-like icon associated with my USB drive partitions mean?

Question

Can anyone tell me what the Speedometer-like icon associated with my USB drive partitions mean?

This seems to be new to Yosemite. Or at least I have never seen it until recently.

In Disk Utility (and Carbon Copy Cloner - which I use to create a bootable copy of Macintosh HD to a USB HD partition) there is an icon that looks like a speedometer or perhaps a thermometer). The needle is all the way to the right in the red portion of the icon, which looks rather ominous.

It is easier to see in Carbon Copy Cloner than it is in Disk Utility, but exists in both applications.

Can anyone tell me if this icon is coming from Yosemite (or perhaps Carbon Copy Cloner) and exactly what it means?

The drive passes S.M.A.R.T and general Disk Utility testing and appears to behave normally. I do not believe the drive (a five year old 1 TB WD My Book Essentials 2.0) supports temperature monitoring so I doubt it is a thermometer. And the icon does NOT appear next to the partition used for Time Machine backups but does appear next to the other two GUID, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions.

Thanks.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), Late 2013 21"

Posted on Feb 17, 2015 4:42 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Feb 17, 2015 5:36 PM in response to ricfromkennewick

Those are not OS X icons. They're from some third-party "utility" software that you installed. If you don't like what it does, remove it according to its developer's instructions.

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Answer 2

Feb 17, 2015 5:40 PM in response to Linc Davis

It's not a question of liking or disliking. It is a question of not knowing what they mean or where they come from.

I suspect Carbon Copy Cloner. I have written to the author of CCC to see if it is where they originated and they mean.

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Answer 3

Feb 17, 2015 8:24 PM in response to ricfromkennewick

ricfromkennewick,

It comes from installing an enhancing utility made by Western Digital (WD), Its supposed to and I quote "improve the performance of the drive on a Mac Computer." It comes in a folder, possibly call extra, already on the drive when you get it. If you go to http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=1&lang=en and find your drive you can pull up the specific user guide to learn more.

Hope that helps,

westongallagher

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Answer 4

Feb 17, 2015 8:35 PM in response to westongallagher

That sure looks like it, thanks. It's funny, my documentation did not mention a word about it nor have I noticed it until very recently.

I have a Mavericks partition with all the same WD software on it, including the "WD+Turbo" driver and the icon is not present there.

Thanks!

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Answer 5

Feb 17, 2015 8:41 PM in response to ricfromkennewick

ricfromkennewick

It took me forever to figure out where I got it from when it first happened to me. Then when I came across this post I couldn't remember where I had seen it before. As to why it effects Yosemite differently then Mavericks, you got me.

Best Wishes,

westongallagher

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Answer 6

Feb 18, 2015 1:31 PM in response to ricfromkennewick

Just a footnote on this topic. The icon was added by Western Digital "WD+Turbo Installer".

I heard back from Bombich Software, the makers of Carbon Copy Cloner. One of their technical people, at first, told me that he vaguely remembered the icon. I told him that I got the answer from Apple Support Community personnel, told it what it was and where it came from.

He wrote back and suggested that if the drive is a standard hard drive (which it is) to remove the driver because the ones that come with OS X tend to be better ones than Western Digitals.

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