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closing partition
#23942 10/27/12 05:06 PM
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jaybass Offline OP
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I backed up to a partition with superduper but when I dragged the icon to the trash, I was told it was still in use. I did this several times with the same result.
This partition is not in use and I don't want to switch off the external HD in case of losing files. Anyone know how to overcome this problem? I'm having to leave my computer on until I find an answer.
jaybass


OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: closing partition
jaybass #23943 10/27/12 07:21 PM
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Have you launched /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app and attempted to unmount your volume from there?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: closing partition
artie505 #23959 10/28/12 03:58 PM
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jaybass Offline OP
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No Artie I did not try that but I will bear it mind in case it happens again.
What happened was, I went out for couple of hours and on return sent an email.
After closing, I again dragged the icon to the trash and low and behold, it closed.
Why, I have no idea but I was relieved.
BTW, I believe I could have shut down my computer and back on again with no ill effects to the external HD. The trouble shooting info led me to that conclusion.
Thanks for your reply.
jaybass


OS 13.6.4 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD
Re: closing partition
jaybass #23960 10/28/12 06:35 PM
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Originally Posted By: jaybass
BTW, I believe I could have shut down my computer and back on again with no ill effects to the external HD. The trouble shooting info led me to that conclusion.

That's interesting, because as I understand it, the common knowledge has always been that unplugging or powering down a mounted external drive may result in data loss, and unless things changed after Snowy, OS X pops up a warning to that effect.

At any rate, I'm happy to hear that your issue has been resolved.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: closing partition
artie505 #23961 10/28/12 06:50 PM
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As far as common knowledge is concerned, see this thread and scroll down to post #23379.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: closing partition
jchuzi #23962 10/28/12 11:11 PM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
As far as common knowledge is concerned, see this thread and scroll down to post #23379.

That post is irrelevant here. Failure to properly unmount a volume may cause data corruption; the post is talking about hardware damage. Data ≠ Hardware.

If the volume in question is journaled (as most are now-a-days), the risk of data corruption is much less than it was in the old days, but it's still not zero. You really want to properly unmount disk volumes.

One way to find out who's using a volume is to enter the following Terminal command:

lsof | grep /Volumes/"Name of volume"

That will list every file that's currently in use on the volume, and which application is using it.

Some uses are benign. Finder almost always has some directory open on every volume, but will generally let go of it when it hears of an attempt to unmount the volume. Spotlight may be indexing the volume, but also will yield.

Some uses are temporary. An application may be updating something on the volume, and will let go of it once it's finished. Spotlight, as mentioned above, will stop indexing a volume that you try to unmount, but may want to finish the file it's on before doing so. In general, if you try to unmount something and are told that it's in use, wait a little bit (often as little as a few seconds), and try again.

Some uses are surprisingly persistent. If you use the cd command in Terminal to make a particular directory the working directory, Terminal will not let the volume that directory is on unmount. All it's doing with the directory is focusing its attention there, but that's enough. To make it let go, either close the window or use cd again to point to a directory on another volume. (cd by itself, with no parameters, sets your working directory back to your home directory, which won't be on any volume you would want to unmount.)

Re: closing partition
ganbustein #23963 10/28/12 11:35 PM
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I was about to post, but only your first paragraph; thanks for your excellent explanation of the failure to unmount issue, itself.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: closing partition
jaybass #23964 10/29/12 12:28 AM
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Sounds to me like there was a background process still running on your newly formed backup partition, and while that process was still running it couldn't be ejected......possibly something as simple as a Spotlight index?

Regardless of what it was, when you went away it had time to complete.


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Re: closing partition
MacManiac #23982 10/30/12 02:58 PM
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OS X seems to have had a lingering "volume is in use" issue for quite some time. So much that recent versions now offer a "force eject" option.

I often find force-quitting finder and letting it relaunch solves the issue. Maybe 90% of the time. But I deal with external volumes A LOT. Two service drives plugged in at once for syncing along with my flash drive, puts about 28 volumes on the desktop wink


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: closing partition
jaybass #24003 11/01/12 12:31 AM
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Immediately after you update a backup volume, the processes used by Spotlight have files open on that volume. You can always see what files are open on a volume and what process has them open by using the lsof command.


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Makers of TechTool
Re: closing partition
MicroMatTech3 #24050 11/04/12 12:53 PM
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when using lsof, I recommend adding -nP to the end. it will make listing a LOT faster.


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