USB Hard disk

Question

USB Hard disk

Hi, I have a Mac Mini with a USB 80Gb HDD attached to it. When I start the Mac with the disk plugged in it warns me that the disk is not recognised and I need to either ignore, initialise or cancel. If I boot with it unplugged and plug in when it starts all works OK and it sees the disk.

Ideally I'd like it to boot smoothly with it plugged in and simply mount the disk on startup - is there a way I can do this please (even if it means re formatting with a different setting).

Many thanks

Hope you can help with what seems like a simple problem.
Mark

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jan 9, 2007 12:46 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 23, 2007 10:46 PM in response to Mark in England

First, read page 14 of
http://www.lacie.com/support/manuals/p3usb_hden.pdf
The instructions on how to format and partition your disk will be the same.

Once you have done that, you will find that the disk will mount after you log on.

If you would like to mount the disk before you log on, add it to your startup items (in System Preferences -> Accounts). Other users can do the same.

If you would like the disk to mount at startup for all users, you can edit
/etc/fstab as follows;
First, find the Universal Unique Identifier for the disk, which is shown with the Disk Utility info button.
Then add a line to /etc/fstab with the USB disk's UUId.
You can do this with textedit; run the Terminal utility, type (or paste) the next line
sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/fstab
You will be asked for your administrator password.
Be careful not to change anything in /etc/fstab other than the line you are adding, which should look like
# UUID=140622AA-64CA-1212-A125-0FAF56113CDC none hfs rw
Next time you reboot, the disk will be mounted at startup.
To reduce the risk of accidentally ejecting it (though you can always remount it with Disk Utility), remove it from the Finder sidebar. It will still be shown if you select your computer icon at the top of the sidebar.

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 23, 2007 10:55 PM in response to Mark in England

First, read page 14 of
http://www.lacie.com/support/manuals/p3usb_hden.pdf
The instructions on how to format and partition your disk will be the same.

Once you have done that, you will find that the disk will mount after you log on.

If you would like to mount the disk before you log on, add it to your startup items (in System Preferences -> Accounts). Other users can do the same.

If you would like the disk to mount at startup for all users, you can edit
/etc/fstab as follows;
First, find the Universal Unique Identifier for the disk, which is shown with the Disk Utility info button.
Then add a line to /etc/fstab with the USB disk's UUId.
You can do this with textedit; run the Terminal utility, type (or paste) the next line
sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/fstab
You will be asked for your administrator password.
Be careful not to change anything in /etc/fstab other than the line you are adding, which should look like
# UUID=140622AA-64CA-1212-A125-0FAF56113CDC none hfs rw
Next time you reboot, the disk will be mounted at startup.
To reduce the risk of accidentally ejecting it (though you can always remount it with Disk Utility), remove it from the Finder sidebar. It will still be shown if you select your computer icon at the top of the sidebar.

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Reply