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my HD is NOT a CD!

ump3

ump3

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2003
97
0
I am running 10.3.9 and in my Finder pref where it says 'Show these items on the desktop' I have none of the options checked. When I click 'CD's, DVDs and iPods' the partitions of my External HD appear on the desktop along with any CD's or DVDs I might have in. Even though there is a seperate checkbox for Hard Disks. Why is my Mac seeing my External HD as a CD or DVD? (Its a LaCie d2 250Gb Triple Interface)
Thanks
 
mad jew said:
Bizarre. Does it still have the regular external hard drive icon? I can't imagine there'd be significant any problems though, are there?
Click to expand...

Yes, All icons are as they should be. When I check 'Hard disks' in the Finder Prefs only the partitions from my internal HD appear. !!! some wires are crossed somewhere. Would deleting the Finder Prefs clear it up maybe?
 
musicpyrite said:
It's a permissions problem, try reparing permissions with the hard drive connected and mounted to the computer.
Click to expand...

Done that. I semi-regularly repair permissions (With the drive attached). It doesn't find any issues relating to HD's.
 
Edit: nevermind.

ump3 said:
Yes, All icons are as they should be. When I check 'Hard disks' in the Finder Prefs only the partitions from my internal HD appear. !!! some wires are crossed somewhere. Would deleting the Finder Prefs clear it up maybe?
Click to expand...


Dunno about the Finder preferences. From memory, they're pretty tricky to delete properly anyway. :(

I was kind of hoping you'd say the hard drive had a CD icon because then musicpyrite is definitely right, and it's a permissions problem. As is, you may as well repair them. If you don't know/remember how: go into the Disk Utility in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder and (while the external is connected) press "Repair Permissions". Hopefully, that'll solve the problem.
 
I don't have an external drive, nor Panther, so I can't test it for you, but are you sure it's not just a matter of how the OS handles external hard drives. Maybe the "hard drive" option in the preferences only refers to internals.

Nevertheless, is it causing any other problems? Any more info would be greatly appreciated. I've personally never been a fan of deleting Finder preferences, and an alternative remedy would be great IMO.
 
mad jew said:
I don't have an external drive, nor Panther, so I can't test it for you, but are you sure it's not just a matter of how the OS handles external hard drives. Maybe the "hard drive" option in the preferences only refers to internals.

Nevertheless, is it causing any other problems? Any more info would be greatly appreciated. I've personally never been a fan of deleting Finder preferences, and an alternative remedy would be great IMO.
Click to expand...

Calls itself the most advanced operating system in the world? and it can't even tell the difference between a HD and CD :)

No other problems surrounding this, other than the icons on the desktop.
 
ump3 said:
Calls itself the most advanced operating system in the world? and it can't even tell the difference between a HD and CD :)

No other problems surrounding this, other than the icons on the desktop.
Click to expand...


Yeah, sorry for the pretty pathetic response on my part. I can't think why this'd be happening though.

Most advanced OS? Give Tiger a whirl. ;)
 
I've found this same annoyance under both Panther and Tiger: my LaCie external drive displays under 'CDs, DVDs & iPods', rather than 'Hard disks'.

Edit: Interesting to note that the LaCie is categorised as a Hard disk in the Finder Sidebar, but not on the Desktop.
 
Same here Panther, LaCie Drive, treated as CD/DVD..



Brize said:
I've found this same annoyance under both Panther and Tiger: my LaCie external drive displays under 'CDs, DVDs & iPods', rather than 'Hard disks'.

Edit: Interesting to note that the LaCie is categorised as a Hard disk in the Finder Sidebar, but not on the Desktop.
Click to expand...
 
Bozola said:
Same here Panther, LaCie Drive, treated as CD/DVD..
Click to expand...

Sounds like our LaCie drives must be sending the wrong signals to the Mac. If its happening to everyone with the same drive it makes me feel better anyway :eek: Would it be worth email LaCie?
 
My LaCie D2 Extreme is a hard drive under Tiger (and was under Panther too) connecting using FW800.
 

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musicpyrite said:
It's a permissions problem, try reparing permissions with the hard drive connected and mounted to the computer.
Click to expand...

Sorry to intrude, but I see this quite often as a solution to many ills. How do you repair permissions? What are they, for that matter?
 
Brize said:
Edit: Interesting to note that the LaCie is categorised as a Hard disk in the Finder Sidebar, but not on the Desktop.
Click to expand...

Go to Finder > Preferences under the General tab, make sure Hard Disks are check off, then go to the Sidebar tab and make sure the Hard Disks box is also checked off. Maybe the error is there.

dops7107 said:
Sorry to intrude, but I see this quite often as a solution to many ills. How do you repair permissions? What are they, for that matter?
Click to expand...

It's easy, edesignunk wrote an easy walk through on how to repair your permissions:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/89736/
 
Brize said:
I've found this same annoyance under both Panther and Tiger: my LaCie external drive displays under 'CDs, DVDs & iPods', rather than 'Hard disks'.

Edit: Interesting to note that the LaCie is categorised as a Hard disk in the Finder Sidebar, but not on the Desktop.
Click to expand...
I've had this issue ever since I got Mac OS X (with 10.1), and thought little of it until this thread. It doesn't bother me much, since I choose to have no drives display on the desktop.
 
ump3 said:
...
'CD's, DVDs and iPods'
...
Why is my Mac seeing my External HD as a CD or DVD? (Its a LaCie d2 250Gb Triple Interface)
Thanks
Click to expand...


CD? No.
DVD? No.
iPod? Yes.

It's a firewire or usb storage device, therefore it mounts on the desktop like an iPod would (which is also a firewire or usb storage device).

The 'Hard Drives' checkbox refers to IDE or SATA devices (typical internal hard drives). Could the wording be better? Yes. Is it behaving incorrectly? No. 'Ejectable devices' would be a more correct, but less friendly/understandable term.
 
Baron58 said:
The 'Hard Drives' checkbox refers to IDE or SATA devices (typical internal hard drives). Could the wording be better? Yes. Is it behaving incorrectly? No. 'Ejectable devices' would be a more correct, but less friendly/understandable term.
Click to expand...


You're right. Thanks.
 
Baron58 said:
The 'Hard Drives' checkbox refers to IDE or SATA devices (typical internal hard drives). Could the wording be better? Yes. Is it behaving incorrectly? No.
Click to expand...

Personally, I find it frustrating that I have to show CDs and DVDs on my Desktop in order to have my external HDD visible. Further, although it's behaving correctly, it's also behaving inconsistently. As mentioned previously, external drives are categorised as Hard disks in the Sidebar, but not on the Desktop.
 
Yeah Apple should have called it "Removable Devices" instead of CDs, etc... However, for most purposes, I think its a good setup. Most of the time, you don't care about seeing your boot drive on your desktop because you can get to it through keyboard shortcuts. However, removable drives are usually used for drag-and-drop or something, so it makes more sense to have those mounted.

Just my 2c.
 
dops7107 said:
Thanks - still don't know what they are though... and it just opens up another can of worms, that of PRAM! I'll hunt around for an explanation for that!
Click to expand...

Ah, sorry about that, permissions are used to determine weather a file, say a picture can be read to, written to, deleted, renamed, exectured (like an application), etc. You wouldn't want your operating system thinking that a .jpg file can be an application, would you? :p

If you have 2 or more accounts on your Mac (or linux machine), permissions determine why you can not access your wife/husband/son/daughter's personal data, like music, movies, documents, etc in their Home folder.

A better explination can be found here:
http://www.gideonsoftworks.com/macosxprivileges.html
 
I'm kinda curious why everyone always jumps on the "repair permissions" solution. If the permissions on your drive get screwed up, all that repairing permissions will do is treat a symptom, it doesn't fix the underlying problem of what caused the permissions to break in the first place.
 
dirtymatt said:
I'm kinda curious why everyone always jumps on the "repair permissions" solution. If the permissions on your drive get screwed up, all that repairing permissions will do is treat a symptom, it doesn't fix the underlying problem of what caused the permissions to break in the first place.
Click to expand...


But eliminating the symptoms is a good thing. It's usually far too difficult to then find out what the user had done recently to get the permissions all screwed up in a forum environment. :)
 
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