How to remove annoying disk mounting notifications! HELP!

I am going nuts! I am on Lion, and I am having an issue that is sure to drive me to insanity. I joined this site hoping someone out there knows what is going on, since Google has provided no help.

I am getting these pop up disk mouting, unmounting notifications in my upper right hand corner of my screen, that look like Growl, except I don't have Growl. (I don't like Growl!)

That wouldn't be so bad, EXCEPT, they deselect my current window and interrupt my typing and train of thought. Just when I re-click on my window to find what word I was on when it happened, it will happen again (unmounted now). So it usually happens twice in a row, and it happens to my Time Machine about every 10-15 minutes.

While that mounting and unmounting may be a separate issue - the immediate concern is where can I find in the OS to TURN OFF those notifications? I don't really need to be interrupted and told Time Machine is mounting and unmounting to the point that I can't type and have to move to the track pad or mouse and re-select the box or window (whether it is Word or iChat or a web browser) I was typing in.

Help me Obi-won Kenobi (or anyone else for that matter) You are my only hope! ;D

G'day and welcome to the forums.

First question got any dodgy software such as the dreaded Mackeeper installed? Personally do not like Time Machine and use SuperDuper to clone entire system to an external backup drive. The registered version allows an operation called Smart Backup that scans the internal and makes any changes to the external cloned copy.

A big advantage, IMHO, is the backup is bootable whereas TM is not.

harryb2448 said:

G'day and welcome to the forums.

First question got any dodgy software such as the dreaded Mackeeper installed?

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thanks for the welcome. cant find anything installed doing it. have looked in boot record, have looked in list of apps, in launcher, and in the user list of stuff loaded when you start the computer, I'm ready to clean the mac and start all over, but I have it all set up the way I want with so much software and customizations, that could take a whole day, but this is so interupting, it might be worth it!

Thanks for the reply.

Wouldn't you know if you'd installed something like MacKeeper??

At any rate, it can't be notification center because you're on Lion, so it must be Growl, that's all I can think it would be. Uninstall Growl properly (I suspect you had it and didn't uninstall it properly!).

A screenshot would help narrow it down too

chas_m said:

Wouldn't you know if you'd installed something like MacKeeper??

At any rate, it can't be notification center because you're on Lion, so it must be Growl.....

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Never heard of MacKeeper, so I know its not that, and I do think I'd know if I'd installed that. and I hate Growl, and haven't installed that on this Mac after hating it on a Mac years ago, so I know it's not that. Stumped.

I will try to catch a screen shot... but the thing is, it happens so fast, and it is gone, but as described above, it makes it so you can't type while the notification is there, so I don't think I could do the Command-Shift-3 anyway to get the screen shot?!?

Even a picture from a camera would help.

In the interim go into system preferences - accounts and have a look at your login items. Anything you don't recognise in there?

mrplow said:

Even a picture from a camera would help.

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Sorry, but this is something that happens and vanishes, there is no way to grab a camera - it happens and goes away, it is an interuption while working, but constant, but there is no time to grab a camera. sigh.

mrplow said:

In the interim go into system preferences - accounts and have a look at your login items. Anything you don't recognise in there?

Click to expand...

As mentioned above, this has been done. I'm usually the guy fixing other people Macs and (politely) correcting the Apple Geniuses at the genius bar when they give out incorrect information to customers... I'm know Macs inside and out, and I can't find what/where is putting up these notifications on my Macbook Pro 17, I have an Air, an iMac, an Mini, and and 15 and 13 and mulitiple other assigned to employees that dont do this... but my power machine - the only one that would be the biggest pain to wipe and start over is doing this.

But that may be my only recourse it seems.

I just HATE being stumped. I hate to not SOLVE it. To wipe the computer and reinstall everything is surrender, and if it comes back after all that... there better not be a fire arm near by or my Mac may end up with a hole in the middle of it. (j/k)

I appreciate the interaction.

If you log into the guest account do they remain?

Worth having activity monitor open to see which process peaks as the notification appears?

If you hover over the notification doesn't it stay on screen?

mrplow said:

If you log into the guest account do they remain?

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Good question, it happens every now and then while working so this would be a little hard/odd to test, but worth a shot. I'm out of town, will test this next week!

mrplow said:

IWorth having activity monitor open to see which process peaks as the notification appears?

Click to expand...

Again, it happens so fast and is gone, no time to switch to it, but perhaps if it is open and visible I might be able to catch a glimpse, great idea! Will be interesting to see if something shows there. Progress!

mrplow said:

If you hover over the notification doesn't it stay on screen?

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yes

Thanks for the ideas, some new things to try! I'm away at a conference working on my Air, I'll try these when I return home and will update here then.

Not wanting to sound pedantic but if the notification stays on screen when you hover over it can you not use that opportunity to get a screen shot?

mrplow said:

Not wanting to sound pedantic but if the notification stays on screen when you hover over it can you not use that opportunity to get a screen shot?

Click to expand...

Oops, I misread the question - I thought the question was does it vanish if you put your mouse over it. No, it does not vanish. Yes, it remains, but no longer than the few seconds it is always there, putting the mouse over it, does not hold it there in order to get a screen shot, though great idea!

And thanks for giving me an opportunity to learn a new word, I had to look up "pedantic"

screenshot

OK! I finally managed to get a screen shot, they come and go so fast, by the time I get to the keyboard command from the train of thought I was typing, to realizing what I'm typing is no longer appearing on the page (that is the real issue) and looking up to see the notification, and then control-shift-3 - it's too late.

But I was ready today, and got it:


Odd thing is, after the screen shot, it is STUCK THERE and won't go away - like it got frozen there, will probably have to reboot now to get the screen cleared. It looks like Growl, but I can't find Growl anywhere on my system, I've never installed it, and this is the only notifications I get, that my time machine has mounted and unmounted and mounted and unmounted and mounted... (you get the idea) and if it didn't interupt the flow of work (like Growl I don't believe does nor do e-mail notifications or any other that I've ever seen) I wouldn't care - but it becomes the "top" item on the screen thus making typing or whatever you were doing cease until you click back onto that window to resume working, and it happens multiple times per hour.

I about ready to buy a new mac, but there ought to be a way to get rid of this.

Thanks anyone who has any ideas.

I may have found it! Since the notification is frozen now, I opened Activity Monitor, and look what I see!


Nasty little hobbit! Er, program hiding on my computer! Now I can seek and destroy. The crash helped me find this little sucker!

Yup, Force Quit of that little "CleanFree" made the notification vanish. So.... it seems a little disk space management tool installed and forgotten long ago, running silently was the culprit. I'm CLEAN FREE of it now!

Thanks all who chimed in to help!

Doesn't look like a Growl or OSX notification to me.
The exclamation mark is odd too.

Did you try the guest account?

Glad you found it. Had to be something running on startup one way or another.

Even crashes on Macs are useful

Thanks, this works for me as well.

iKarl said:

Yup, Force Quit of that little "CleanFree" made the notification vanish. So.... it seems a little disk space management tool installed and forgotten long ago, running silently was the culprit. I'm CLEAN FREE of it now!

Thanks all who chimed in to help!

Click to expand...

Good work! I've had this annoying popup for almost a year now and I had it since I installed Mac OS 10.8 which coincided with the installation of Cleanfree.... So I had never thought that it was that tool that caused it. All happy now.

Best regards,
Douwe

Good work. Very interesting advertisement for MacKeeper and EASEUS software? Wonder if they are possibly related?

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