External Drive Settings Not Saving

[MeatSauce21]

Hello,
I have a external drive in exfat hooked up to my macbook pro retina. The settings of the drive do not save once the macbook is turned off. Settings like finder window size, folder location, item location in folders. I always have to right click sort by name.

I have tried making that "settings folder" I have read about saving the settings in one folder and it will work through your mac.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-What version of Mac OS X?
-What brand/model hard drive?
-Is the issue only happening on that drive...do they stick everywhere else?

C

 

[MeatSauce21]

Thank you for responding.

I'm on Yosemite.
It's a WD My Book for Mac external drive 2TB.
Yes, my finder windows save settings just not on my external drive.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No problem.

-Is there a reason you formatted it as ExFAT?
-Are you using it on both your Mac and some Windows machines?
-Did it ever work, or did the issue just start?

I don't think that the ExFAT formatting would cause this, but it is possible, as it is not the expected/native format for Mac OS X drives.

C

 

[MeatSauce21]

It was once also hooked up to a PC but not anymore.

I have always had this problem with the Mac.

A friend said it was due to the exfat but I didn't really want to believe it or understand it since it works with OS X. Just settings not saving.

 

[Cory Cooper]

I agree that the ExFAT formatting could cause the issue. If you aren't going to connect it to a PC in the future, it may benefit you to reformat it completely using GUID partitioning and OS X Extended (Journaled) formatting. Of course, you would need to move all files/data to another drive before doing this, as it will completely erase the drive.

-Are you using the drive for general storage or for backup purposes?
-If for general storage, do you have another drive that you are backing up it and the internal drive to?

Remember - it's not a question of if, but when a hard drive will fail. They all do at some point. A good backup routine may be the most valuable process/habit you can get into with regards to your computer.

C

 

[MeatSauce21]

Sounds good! I'll try reformatting to Journaled.

The drive is for general storage. I have a second external that I don't keep plugged in all the time and every once in a while I use Sync Folders to keep them up to date. This other external though is so old I'm surprised it's still going. I use to have a second internal drive when I was on PC. So i bought this My Book.

I went through this once where everything was on that old drive and it scared me that it would crap out during the transfer to this new external.

 

[honestone]

You should first connect the "old" external drive, and use Disk Utility to check it out. Assuming it is OK, copy the data from the ExFat drive to it. Then, you can use Disk Utility to Erase, Format, and Partition the drive. You should then be good to go.

 

[MeatSauce21]

What do I do just to check if it is okay?

 

[honestone]

At the "top" level, ie, the name of the drive itself, click on "Verify Disk" in Disk Utility. After that completes, click on any (visible) Partition, first click on Verify Disk Permissions, and then if necessary, Repair those,. When that completes, click on Verify Disk.

 

[MeatSauce21]

Thank you everyone! Reformatting to journaled worked perfect! Also, that second "old" external survived!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Awesome...glad it worked.

C