Duplicate volume problem

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b1hgaa88

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I am running OS 10.2.6 on a 350 MHz slot-loading iMac with a number of partitions and a new Maxtor 200 GB external drive. I have noticed recently that when I do a listing of my volumes in Terminal, the Maxtor drive is duplicated. I have tried to exorcise one of them without success, and I don't quite understand what is going on. Following is my Terminal data:

[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes] jfwoods% ls -a
. Mac OS X 10.1.4 Update Netscape 6 for MacOS X
.. Main Swap
.DS_Store Maxtor200 System922
BackUp Maxtor200 1 _DS_Store
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes] jfwoods% cd Maxtor200
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200] jfwoods% ls -a
. .. Maxtor200 1 Overflow
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200] jfwoods% cd ..
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes] jfwoods% cd "Maxtor200 1"
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200 1] jfwoods% ls -a
. Library.xml Retrospect Backup
.. NAVMac800QSFile System10
.DS_Store Norton FS Data System922
.Trashes Norton FS Index Temporary Items
Desktop DB Norton FS Volume TheVolumeSettingsFolder
Desktop DF Norton FS Volume 2 Trash
Desktop Folder Overflow iTunes 4.0.1
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200 1] jfwoods% su
Password:
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200 1] jfwoods# cd ..
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes] jfwoods# rm -R Maxtor200
override rwxrwxrwx root/staff uchg for Maxtor200/Maxtor200 1/System922/Vishnu9.2.2/Preferences/Organizer Registration?
rm: Maxtor200/Maxtor200 1/System922/Vishnu9.2.2/Preferences: Directory not empty
rm: Maxtor200/Maxtor200 1/System922/Vishnu9.2.2: Directory not empty
rm: Maxtor200/Maxtor200 1/System922: Directory not empty
rm: Maxtor200/Maxtor200 1: Directory not empty
rm: Maxtor200: Directory not empty
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes] jfwoods# cd Maxtor200
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200] jfwoods# ls -a
. .. Maxtor200 1
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/volumes/Maxtor200] jfwoods#


As you see, I have both Maxtor200 and Maxtor200 1 drives shown, but when I tried to remove Maxtor200 I get a lot of gobbledegook (at least to me). I also don't understand why I have a "Netscape 6 for MacOS X" and a "Mac OS X 10.1.4 Update" listed among my "Volumes" (even though they do not appear on my Desktop).

Can anyone tell me what's going on here, what i am doing wrong, and what I can do about it.

Many thanks
 
First question: Are you having any problems with your system?
Which volumes are good, and are you certain?
Does Disk Utility show all these volumes on your external drive also? Does Disk Utility information tab show that you have 200 GB total capacity in the drive? Have you tried a repair of the existing volumes on that external drive with the First Aid tab in Disk Utility?
My first suspicion is an anomaly caused by Retrospect (installed on your system, but misconfigured?) or a problem that may get worse due to Norton Utilities (several reports here with problems due to installing Norton Utilities, many posters have the opinion that you should NOT install Norton with OS X.) You may want to uninstall Norton.
 
The "Netscape 6 for MacOS X" and "Mac OS X 10.1.4 Update" folders are probably remnants from a botched unmount. This happens more often with disk images than drives, but one of the Maxtor200 ones could be the same.

Here's probably the easiest thing to do, though you'll probably need to reboot after doing it: unmount all your drives ('cept the root drive, of course), then for anything that is left in /Volumes, delete it. If it won't let you delete it, move it to the trash.

Like I said, you'll probably have to reboot after doing that, since it's sometimes a pain to get 'em to remount. You can try with Disk Utility, but it doesn't always work.
 
Thanks DeltaMac and Darkshadow for that. In answer to the first question?no, I have not been having any problems with my system (other than it being rather slow due to my limited MHz). However, what prompted me to look into Terminal was that when I booted into single user mode I was getting a long string of dialog saying, for each of my peripherals "Family specific matching fails". However this did not seem to have any effect on actually using the system or the peripherals (including printer, keyboard, mouse, external HD, Zip drive, scanner etc.). Everything worked O.K. but I thought I'd look into Terminal anyway to check things out, and the above was what I found.

Disk Utility shows my drive hierarchy in this fashion:

38.18 GB FUJITSU
Main
System922
Backup
Swap
System10
189.92 GB Maxtor
Maxtor200

The Maxtor is shown twice?but this is like my Fujitsu internal drive. The capacities are also correct. I have run Norton Utilities 3 (from the CD) on all drives with no problems shown anywhere other than minor modification date changes. Yes, I DID install Norton Utilities 3 on my system too so maybe I should take it off.

Darkshadow, I can only see the Netscape and the Mac OS X "drives" when I do a Terminal listing. They do NOT appear on my Desktop (and neither does "Maxtor200 1"). How would I unmount them then?

Please let me know (since I am pretty clueless in Terminal).
 
I meant, unmount your normal drives. Those other ones aren't actually anything that is mounted anymore - they should be empty folders.

When you unmount all your drives like that, there should be nothing listed in /Volumes. So if you unmount everything and there is, just delete whatever's left there.
 
O.K. Darkshadow I have gotten rid of the Netscape and the Mac OS X "drives" but even though I have unmounted my Maxtor200 drive and even unplugged my USB cable from it, my Terminal still shows the following:

[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes] jfwoods# ls -a
. BackUp Maxtor200 Swap
.. Main Maxtor200 1 System922
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes] jfwoods# cd Maxtor200
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes/Maxtor200] jfwoods# ls -a
. .. Maxtor200 1
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes/Maxtor200] jfwoods# cd ..
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes] jfwoods# cd Maxtor200/1
Maxtor200/1: No such file or directory.
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes] jfwoods# cd "Maxtor200 1"
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes/Maxtor200 1] jfwoods# ls -a
. .. .autodiskmounted
[Julian-Woodss-Computer:/Volumes/Maxtor200 1] jfwoods#

It seems that the Maxtor drives are still there and that the "Maxtor200 1" drive is (apparently) WITHIN the Maxtor200 drive. For a wild moment I thought of removing them both, but then I thought I'd better ask you (or someone) first whether it is wise to do so. Does ".autodiskmounted" simply mean that I've unmounted the drive and that I am free to ditch them both, or what?

What do you suggest?

Thanks
 
If the Maxtor drive is not attached, then anything referring to that drive in /volumes is erroneous and can be deleted. Then plug the drive back in, and you should now see what you expect to see.
200 GB on USB? isn't that really slow? Do you have the option for FireWire?
(OK. an iMac without FireWire? I guess that explains the USB.)
 
i remember having this problem once but i'm having troubles remembering exactly how i solved it. i can tell you that i didn't use the terminal. my suggestion is to use one of the apps like 'maintain your mac' or cocktail and run the 3 crons - daily, weekly and monthly. i know this has helped with other recent issues of volume info on my drives getting in conflict with each other. i would also suggest you run a good repair app afterwards like diskwarrior or techtool pro on the main drive and then on the others. but most likely the corrections need to be done on the main drive, not the ones that are coming up duplicate. and of course, always make sure your permissions are repaired whenever you experience anything a little funky.

one other thing - are you running your swap files off the one that is duplicating?
 
Thanks to all for your good info. I at last discovered that the problem was the existence of two FILES with the same name as my Maxtor drive. I did a "Go to folder..." from the Finder's Go menu and looked at /Volumes, which clearly revealed the folders. I then logged myself in as root and deleted the mothers.

How they go there is a mystery, but anyway, no harm was done and they are now GONE.

Thanks again
 
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