disk utility finds strange volume

D

doubledream

Registered
Okay, so I've been running Disk Utility to repair permissions as noted in posts
by other folks but I keep having to repair the unknown (to me) volume called
232.9 GB ST3250820AS. I don't know what this is or where it came from. Is it safe to delete since it seems to need repair constantly. I attached the info, hope I did it right. I don't have anything called Qmedia - could this be part of that infernal veoh web player?
 

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That line is the information line for your hard drive. The ST means that you have a Seagate brand hard drive. The rest tells you which specific model you have. It also tells you what the total capacity of your hard drive is - 232.9 GB...
So, that information line is about your hardware device.
It does _not_ tell you anything about the partition, or partitions on the hard drive.
In your Disk Utility, the partition is the line, or lines, under that device info. It has your familiar name of your partition (such as Macintosh HD, or My HD, or whatever you may have named your partition)
If you have only one partition, then you will have two lines. Either can be used for a Repair Permissions.
Depending on the OS X version that you have, some entries may appear each time, without having an actual issue that needs your attention. That's likely what you see each time.
Just for your info - Repair Permissions seldom fixes anything, and is an over-used method for troubleshooting. I think you can safely ignore the results.
Are you actually having any problem that you think needs repair?
 
I thought my hard drive was macintosh HD ! I have an iMac7.1 and I haven't partitioned it - wouldn't know how. According to the hardware overview it has
1GB Memory - is that the same as total capacity ? Because I don't have anything else connected to it, just a printer. And what is Qmedia?
Yes, I have had numerous issues lately, hesitations and hangs and non-responsive clicking, the little beachball my constant companion - can't
log out sometimes - also I don't seem to have an IP address anymore, just http//macintosh. I thought the major problem was the veoh web player and all its invisible files. It took a week or so of searching and I had to do the sudo thing to get rid of it. I still think it had something to do with the open ports and the whole listening thing. I downloaded a trial version of macscan and all it found was 3 tracking cookies, also a demo of macaroni but I still have the same problems.
I am sooo confused!
 
doubledream said:
I thought my hard drive was macintosh HD ! I have an iMac7.1 and I haven't partitioned it - wouldn't know how. According to the hardware overview it has
1GB Memory - is that the same as total capacity ?

I am sooo confused!
Click to expand...

I really don't know where to start without writing a book, so I'll leave the computers 101 lecture to someone who has a lot of time. But I'd suspect lack of RAM or a failing HD as the source of your issues.
 
My iMac's only 3 years old - do they fail so fast? And I think I have lots of RAM
but I'm feeling a little frazzled and don't remember where to find that info.
Also I do not have a Seagate hard drive
 
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According to the attached screen shot you supplied...

You have a 250gig drive, a Seagate 7200.10 250GB Sata2 8MB drive, P/N: ST3250820AS Q which is 232.89GB 8MB cache
The word Media is just something the manufacturer tacks on, forget it, it means nothing to you.

Now I don't suspect you have any of your critical data backed up, so here is what I suggest...
Boot from your install DVD and reinstall the operating system, making sure to select "Archive and Install" as the install method.
This will give you a clean slate to start from, while saving the old system in a Folder called "Previous System". From here, using Migration Assistant (located in the Utilities folder) you can selectively import your mail, applications and settings from this Previous System folder.Once things are where you want them you can then delete this "Previous System" folder to regain the disk space.
 
Thanks but I don't have a Seagate hard drive unless it came installed on my iMac7 - the only thing connected to my Mac is the Canon printer that I bought with it - no other hard drive or storage device. So do I have to reinstall Macosx? And you're right about no back-ups but then I don't have any 'critical' data, just a few games and bookmarked websites that I could easily find again.
 
Well, I've done the archive & install and the first thing I notice is my picture is gone from the login screen and so is the option of other user - that strange file is still there - I don't get it, does Seagate make the hard drive for Macs and how did it get partitioned? I thought the user had to do that and I'm the only user of this computer!?
Thanks for your help so far, Deltamac, djackmac and jbarley - oh yeah, I have 205 GB of RAM - that's lots, right?
 
Thank you jbarley. I found some beginner's guides on macrumours and checked RAM - the 205 number was the free space # on the activity monitor(which is constantly changing). I have some time today to look up and study and that's what I'll be doing - maybe then I can ask some intelligent questions.
Still curious how my disk got partitioned without my participation - could I have unknowingly given permission for this somehow ?
 
Very simply, a hard drive partition is used to provide the space for the file system that you would be using.
You must have at least one partition.
Your hard drive came with the operating system installed, so it came to you already partitioned.
 
I think you are misunderstanding what Disk Utility is telling you.

In the example of my system I've attached below there are 3 lines...

1: The Volume, this is the manufacturer and size of the drive. (80GB Intel Solid state drive)
In your case this line should refer to your seagate (ST3250820AS Q)

2: The Partition, in my case "Super-mini". Yours will be whatever you named it, the default will be "Macintosh HD"

3: My optical DVD drive, yours may be different.

My hard drive has only 1 partition, the top line is NOT a partition.
 

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Doubledream, Apple does not make its own hard drives. It uses standard drives from Seagate, Western Digital, etc. Your Mac has a Seagate drive in it with one partition. One partition means one part. That part is formatted for your Mac and is probably called "Macintosh HD".

If you delete the Seagate (if that's even possible), you'd lose everything on your Mac. You don't want that.

I'd suggest being very careful in Disk Utility. You wouldn't want to delete something important.
 
Thank you kindly Deltamac, jbarley and ex2bot - I apologize for what must seem like inane questions - maybe most folks know this stuff before they put their dollars down -when I decided to join the 21st century(as my kids say) I talked to a lot of people about their computers and what they liked and didn't like - everyone who had a Mac said they wouldn't have anything else and raved about how user friendly they are. So I got one and I love it - there's just a couple million things I need to learn to run it right!
So if I don't need RAM and I did the archive & install (computer seems to be running a lot smoother) things are likely OK ? Should I look for the lost other user account or forget about it? One more question only - do you guys degunk your Macs? That's how this whole trauma started, when I was deleting junk files and couldn't delete the veoh web player and my beautiful computer started acting like it had mad cow disease.
 
The other user account?
Is that the one that you would see listed as 'Other' on your login window?
That's your root user account. All you need to do to get that back is to enable your root user. I would suggest that you shouldn't enable that account - unless you have a good reason to have it available. If you log in as the root user, you have authority to do just about anything on your Mac - even if it will disable your system. You can drag your system files to the trash and empty the trash, all without the system complaining - until your system crashes out.
My suggestion - leave the 'other' user disabled....
 
Yeah, I enabled it and made a password and never used it for anything after that - I read about it in the missing manual and just did it, a tad possessive of my first non hand me down spare parts computer. Anyway, the other user choice disappeared and I can't find 'security' to click in the Netinfomanager - spotlight doesn't find it, it doesn't appear in accounts - any ideas? I will disable it if I can just find it again!
 
Doubledream, keep in mind you can do about everything you'd ever need or want to do with a regular Administrative account. You most likely will never need the root user enabled. I enabled it years ago on one of my machines just to check it out. Then I promptly forgot it.

I understand what you're saying about there being a million things to learn. I started with computers when they were much, much simpler. So I've seen the complexity layered on over the years. I can imagine when people try to use modern computers and face intimidating complexity.

I still think Macs are the best, though! And I've used about every type of computer out there.
 
Doubledream - just so you know - if the 'other' account is not showing in a login list, then your root user account is disabled. If you are just going to disable it anyway, there's no reason to enable it, just to disable it. The root account will not appear anywhere unless it is currently enabled - so you are good with it disabled.
 
A very odd thing happened a few minutes ago - when I first navigated to this page some of the words were double underlined in blue and when clicked took me to an online shopping page(Fresh Deals.com), Find Stuff.com, Infomash operating systems and SQL Server 2008-D Everybody's business. The back button wouldn't work, had to reselect macosx from bookmarks and then all was normal - very strange!
 
Maybe this should be a new thread, apologies, I'm lost again. I have made one post already about this and asked a tech. I was logged out for a while doing other stuff and then checked back and the macosx home page had those double blue underlines again. I made a screenshot and tried to ask a tech again but couldn't
 

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