# accessing volumes folder?



## headosophy (Feb 1, 2002)

ok.  i was downloading mp3s in limewire again and in the process of my friends changing the name of my external hd osx for some reason just created its own name for the device.  so now in limewire when i look in the volumes folder theres a "firewire HD" and a "firewire HD 1" which all the files are now being saved to... and i can't access it.  how do i get into the volumes folder to transfer all the new mp3's to the original firewire hd and delete the new firewire hd 1 folder?


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## edX (Feb 1, 2002)

what is this rash of friends who are changing names of harddrives in the middle of limewire downloads?????

do a site search. this question just came up recently.  

there should be a new rule. don't let friends near your computer while downloading.

better yet. don't let friends near your computer!!

better yet - realize these people are not your friends


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## headosophy (Feb 2, 2002)

disk first aid didn't work...


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## headosophy (Feb 2, 2002)

it also appears that when i download mp3's to the firewire hd 1 folder it takes up space on my regular internal.  i just need to know how to access the volumes foder.  Help please!!!


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## simX (Feb 2, 2002)

testuser: Why would it do that?  headosophy said specifically that it was saving it to a folder inside the volumes folder called "firewire HD 1".  This kind of make sense if he changed his partition name, because LimeWire is still trying to save the files to the old-named partition -- this probably only happens when you're in the middle of a LimeWire download.

So wouldn't it make sense if he opens up the Volumes folder, by pressing Command-` (the ` key is the key above the tab, to the left of the 1), by entering "/Volumes/" in the field, and then checking for a folder named "FireWire HD 1"?  That's the first thing I thought of when I saw his problem, but nobody mentioned it.


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## simX (Feb 3, 2002)

Well, yeah, but given the concept of how UNIX mounts volumes, it would make sense to check in /Volumes first.

I dunno if you know this, testuser, but I might as well post it so that everyone knows the concept.  UNIX basically assigns a folder to an external hard drive and "posts" all of the contents in there, and then the Finder presents it on the desktop as a volume.  So you're actually accessing a folder inside /Volumes when you open a volume.

To put it more simply: whenever you connect an external storage device, be it FireWire or a CD you put in your internal hard drive, UNIX creates a folder inside the /Volumes folder, and links that folder to the external storage device you just inserted.  Then you can do the changes you want or read what you want off of that, and then when you eject the device visually, UNIX deletes that link, so it's not there anymore.

So the reason that I thought to look in the /Volumes folder even while the mp3s were taking up space on the hard drive was this -- when renaming the external hard drive, LimeWire was trying to access that drive, which for some reason it actually interpreted it as the folder, and so it just created a new folder inside the /Volumes directory and dumped all of the contents into there -- now it really isn't a link to an external storage device because of this fluke; it's just an ordinary folder, and UNIX won't delete it because it was never linked to a storage device originally.  So it is actually residing on the internal hard drive, because the folder is actually there in the /Volumes directory, which is on the internal drive.

Catch my drift?

OK, by the way, I forgot to add something that would probably allow you to access the files via the Finder.  You know the third-party preference pane called TinkerTool?  If you don't, you should.   You can download it from www.versiontracker.com -- just drop it in your "PreferencePanes" folder inside your "Library" folder that's in your home folder; if that folder doesn't exist, then create it.

Now go to System Preferences, click on "TinkerTool" at the bottom in the "Other" category, and then in the "Desktop" tab (which should be the one that's shown when you click on TinkerTool for the first time), check the "Show hidden and system files" checkbox.  Ignore the little notification that you need to logout and login for changes to take effect.

Now press Cmd-Opt-Esc, and select the Finder, and press Relaunch.  Now the Finder should be showing all invisible folders, one of which is the /Volumes folder.  You should now be able to navigate manually to the ghost mount point to copy all of the files.  I'm not sure if you'll be able to delete directly via this method, but it's worth a shot -- the Terminal should always work.

To put the Finder back to normal, just go back to TinkerTool, uncheck the checkbox, and relaunch the Finder again.

Hope this helps.


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## nstancioff (Apr 5, 2009)

Dear Simex,

Mny thanks, I ended up with the same problem via a crash of Jaikoz after three days of data cleaning. figured the data was somewhere since I'd lost 60 gig at the same time as the crash. 

Found the data via Terminal but how to move quick and easy? 

thanks to your clear explanations and TinkerTool

thanks again,
Nicholas


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## g/re/p (Apr 6, 2009)

You just replied to a post from February 3rd, *2002*, 04:22 AM!    ::ha::


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## Mikuro (Apr 6, 2009)

You shouldn't even need to use Terminal. In the Finder, under the Go menu, select Go To Folder. Type in /Volumes and hit OK. Drag and drop your files as usual.


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