Tbird will not accept password

[Steamer Dave]

The operating system lost track of my backup drive. I thought I would shut down and restart and see if it would pick it up. It had been turned off for a week. When I restarted it was still lost. I went to Tbird to get help and have not been able to get into Tbird. I restarted and tried again and Tbird is not accepting any of my passwords!

Dave


Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.53f13
Serial Number (system): W800828A5PE
Hardware UUID: 509C756B-4C4F-523F-9BCC-3D4E9FFEA049

 

[honestone]

It's confusing as to what product Tbird you are referring to. No matter what kind of google search I try for "Tbird", the "hits" always involve the EMail software Thunderbird, developed by Mozilla (the Firefox folks). Thus, I cannot see how Tbird can help you "find" your backup drive.

A couple of things are needed:

1. What version of the Mac OS are you using?

2. I assume your backup drive is an external one. If so, what drive mechanism (Seagate, Western Digital (WD), etc.) is inside the external enclosure?

3. You could try connecting that external drive to another port on your iMac. Often times, that resolves the issue.

 

[Steamer Dave]

I was not expecting Thunderbird to solve the problem. I was needing help getting into Tbird to ask for help finding the back up drive. Tbird is back and I am back from the airport and will work on getting os El kapitan 10.11.3 to find the backup drive.

Dave

 

[honestone]

I am not necessarily saying that by upgrading to OS 10.11.3, that will solve your problem. In fact, I'd be surprised if it did.

When did you first lose access to your backup drive? Did you do any significant upgrades just prior to that incident?

I still think you should try connecting the drive to another port on your iMac. Also, try using another port on the drive itself.

 

[Steamer Dave]

Sorry about the phrasing on the OS. I am operating with that version and was talking about using the OS to find the hard drive. I only back up once a week so the drive "disappeared" from the system recently. However It has "reappeared" and backup occurred sometime while I was away from the computer. It is still not visible on the desktop where I have been accustomed and comforted in seeing it.

Dave

 

[honestone]

To "use" the OS for finding the drive, one would launch Disk Utility, and it would show all "connected" drives. Is that what you mean by "reappeared"? If that does show the external drive/partitions, then maybe you need to reset a Finder Preference in order to see it on the desktop. To do that, go to the Finder Menu heading (right next to the black Apple Symbol), click on it, select preferences, and then click General. It will say "Show these items on the desktop:", and below that, you'll have 4 choices to check or uncheck. The first two are "Hard Disks" and "External Disks". Both of those need to be checked to see your internal drive/partitions on the desktop, and the same for any/all external drives/partitions that are turned on and connected.

If the one for External Disks is checked, but you still cannot see the drive/partitions on the desktop, then it should be one of two things:

1. The "port" on either your iMac or the drive is "defective/bad". That is why I suggested try another port on either the iMac, the drive, or both.

2. The drive itself is going "bad". For that situation, you can use Disk Utility (assuming the drive shows up there) to examine/repair the drive.

(I have read that sometimes simply restarting your Mac can resolve the issue, but I have never needed to do that).

Western Digital drives are notorious for not playing well with Macs. I have a 1 TB External drive, with a Seagate mechanism inside, connected to my Mac Mini via Firewire 800, and it shows up on the desktop (it also shows up on my MacBook Air desktop when I do my backups on Saturdays (that connection is via a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire 800 adapter/connector). I have another 1 TB External Drive, again with a Seagate mechanism, inside a recently purchased iomega enclosure, and that has two Firewire 800 and 2 USB 2.0 ports on it. I only use it when I do my backups on Saturdays, once again via a Firewire 800 connection (or the "adapter" connectivity with my MacBook Air).

I also have a slim, external case that has a 1 TB Hitachi drive inside, and it has only one USB 2.0 port on it. It does mount on the desktop for either of my machines via USB connectivity.

Finally, are you using Time Machine for your backups, just out of curiosity? I myself use SuperDuper!, but the use of either should not make a difference regarding the visibility of the device/devices.

 

[Steamer Dave]

OK. I will put the information you provided to use. I am relieved at this time that my backups are happening. Yes I do use time machine.

Thanks

 

[Steamer Dave]

I thought there was a way to mark this thread as solved. Or is that on the PC windows computer?

 

[honestone]

OK, sounds good. One question: can you see your internal drive on the iMac's desktop?

 

[Steamer Dave]

Not yet but I will work on it using the info you provided.

 

[honestone]

I hope the solution is as simple as following the directions I provided above about going to the Finder menu.

 

[honestone]

I thought there was a way to mark this thread as solved. Or is that on the PC windows computer?

Not sure what you mean by that, but you still have the issue of not being able to see any of your drives on the desktop. That is what I have been trying to help you with.

 

[Steamer Dave]

I can see my main hard drive (macintosh harddrive) and the backup drive was there, but if I think about it that may been when I left it on all the time. Now I only turn it on when I want to back up.

Dave

 

[honestone]

I can see my main hard drive (macintosh harddrive) and the backup drive was there, but if I think about it that may been when I left it on all the time. Now I only turn it on when I want to back up.

Dave

I assume you see your internal drive all the time on the desktop (the one you refer to as "macintosh hard drive" (you can actually rename it, if you want)). That si a good idea to leave the external drive both off, and also remove the connection to the iMac (as long as you need nothing on that drive during your "in between" backup tasks.

In any event, I assume you now see the external drive on your desktop. What did you do to resolve that issue?

 

[Steamer Dave]

No, I do not see the mini drive on the desktop at this time as it is not on, I assume. I tried disk utility but it will not run with this version of the OS. It is from July 2009, not sure why it would not have been updated when I went to OS 10.11.3.

Dave

 

[honestone]

First of all, the internal drive inside your iMac is on whenever you boot up the machine and use it.

Secondly, unless the original drive has been replaced (or the iMac was custom built when it was first purchased), it has a 1 TB, 7200 rpm drive inside.

Third, the "version" of Disk Utility within El Capitan could get enhanced for each update within El Capitan. On my Macs, for OS 10.11.3, the version of Disk Utility is "Version 15.0 (1511.3)".

I am perplexed how your machine could boot up, but you cannot see the internal drive with Disk Utility. Did you follow my instructions about going to the Finder Menu to enable the option of showing Hard Disks and External Disks on the desktop?

Finally, do you have another third party disk maintenance program like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior? If not, you can download the excellent freeware program called Onyx to try and "see" the internal drive. You can get Onyx from here:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Make sure you get the first version, V3.1.5, on that list.

After you install and launch Onyx, after checking for an update (there will be none), it will then offer you the opportunity to check the internal drive. (Onyx also has a number of other useful features).

 

[Steamer Dave]

First of all, the internal drive inside your iMac is on whenever you boot up the machine and use it.

I am well aware of that

Secondly, unless the original drive has been replaced (or the iMac was custom built when it was first purchased), it has a 1 TB, 7200 rpm drive inside.

The original drive was replaced by Apple in a recall.

Third, the "version" of Disk Utility within El Capitan could get enhanced for each update within El Capitan. On my Macs, for OS 10.11.3, the version of Disk Utility is "Version 15.0 (1511.3)".

I do not know why it was not replaced when I upgraded.

I am perplexed how your machine could boot up, but you cannot see the internal drive with Disk Utility. Did you follow my instructions about going to the Finder Menu to enable the option of showing Hard Disks and External Disks on the desktop?

It boots up because I was referring to the mini drive I use for back up.

Finally, do you have another third party disk maintenance program like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior? If not, you can download the excellent freeware program called Onyx to try and "see" the internal drive. You can get Onyx from here:

I do not have any other disk utilities. I will try onyx to see if it finds the mini drive.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Make sure you get the first version, V3.1.5, on that list.

After you install and launch Onyx, after checking for an update (there will be none), it will then offer you the opportunity to check the internal drive. (Onyx also has a number of other useful features).

 

[honestone]

"I do not know why it was not replaced when I upgraded."

What version of Disk Utility is on the internal drive inside the iMac? (By the way, are you trying to launch Disk Utility from the Utilities folder that is inside the Applications folder? That might be wise to try).

"It boots up because I was referring to the mini drive I use for back up."

That mini drive is external, right? Unless you used either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner for backing up, you cannot boot from that backup. Thus, you would need to be booting from the internal drive on the iMac.

Again I ask, did you follow my instructions about going to the Finder menu and enabling the "display" of all hard drives (both internal and external) on the iMac's desktop?

 

[Steamer Dave]

I have been trying to launch disk utility from the applications folder/utilities. It is out of date.

I am using time machine

re your instructions I believe that required use of disk utility and that is out of date right now.

And in the end the mini/backup drive is now showing on the desktop.

something must have jiggled the memory of the OS.

 

[honestone]

Ok, at least we have one thing straight so far. You are booting your iMac from the internal drive running OS 10.11.3. Disk Utility cannot run, but you can now see the icon for the external drive (you call it the mini/backup drive) on the desktop.

Once again, I'll ask you the following, along with something else:

1. Can you see the icon for the drive internal to the iMac on the desktop?

2. To repeat, did you follow my instructions above about going to the Finder menu and enabling the ability to see all your hard drives, both the internal one and the external one?

3. How did you originally "migrate"/get to the initial version of El Capitan (I assume that was OS 10.11)? And after you did that, did Disk Utility ever work, even before you upgraded to OS 10.11.3? Also, when you first "got" to El Capitan, could you see your drives on the iMac's desktop?

Also, did you download, install, and run Onyx? That could help. In fact, if that first check "finds" your internal drive, you should run the other "features" of Onyx. That is, via the Maintenance menu, run Repair Permissions (run that at least 2 times), Scripts, and Rebuilding, and via the Cleaning Menu, run Trash, Misc., Logs, Fonts, Internet, Users, and System. Just about all of those do some kind of cleanup, which could help with your issue. It certainly cannot hurt.