OSX External mounting late issue

Hey guys, first post! I've never actually posted for tech help before, in my life lol, but this is driving me nuts and I really need to fix it. Done as much research as I can but I just can't get it, I'm a native Windows guy and just recently started using OSX.

The problem, when I path stuff to external drives (databases mainly) it seems to make a fake mount point on boot. Assuming because on boot, external drives don't get mounted and if a software tries to access a missing volume, OSX lends a helping hand and makes a folder for it in place of the volume. Then when the external drive eventually mounts it gets renamed because OSX made a folder using it's name earlier.

The fix is obviously delete the fake volume and remount the drive but it's starting to get annoying.


Is there any way to actually get external volumes to mount on boot? I tried the autodiskmount.plist trick but it bricked my OS (probably because of Mavericks, the mod seems very old). Had to boot into Windows, install Paragon HFS+ trial and delete the file to get my OS back lol.


Thanks in advance!

Tastycakes said:

Is there any way to actually get external volumes to mount on boot?

Click to expand...

OS X is pretty easy. External drives should mount no problem. What Macintosh computer are you using (exact model)?

Tastycakes said:

I tried the autodiskmount.plist trick but it bricked my OS (probably because of Mavericks, the mod seems very old). Had to boot into Windows, install Paragon HFS+ trial and delete the file to get my OS back lol.

Click to expand...

Looks like you've been doing some "pretty funky stuff". Maybe you got the computer all confused.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

OS X is pretty easy. External drives should mount no problem. What Macintosh computer are you using (exact model)?



Looks like you've been doing some "pretty funky stuff". Maybe you got the computer all confused.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response. It's funny my work gave me a MacBook and I used to only use Windows on it but now I usually spend most of my time in OSX.

Had the issue on a few different computers tho. One is a brand new MacMini w/ a Pegasus 4x2tb RAID and my laptop is a 2012 MacBook Pro w/ a Toshiba USB3 basic external. Both do it with same software and by putting the database on the external. Put the database on an internal and no issues.

The problem I think is this one software we use tries to hit it's database right off the bat before externals get mounted. I can see an empty database folder that gets created in /volumes with my external's name.

Tastycakes said:

The problem I think is this one software we use tries to hit it's database right off the bat before externals get mounted. I can see an empty database folder that gets created in /volumes with my external's name.

Click to expand...

When a Macintosh computer boots...it only boots into the OS. So unless you have apps that are auto-loading immediately after the computer has booted (and before external drives can mount)...a database can't be searching for something if no apps have been launched yet.

- Nick

I'm guessing you already know this...but thought I should mention it. To get those external drives mounted as quickly as possible...they should be turned on & fully spun up...before booting the Mac.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

When a Macintosh computer boots...it only boots into the OS. So unless you have apps that are auto-loading immediately after the computer has booted (and before external drives can mount)...a database can't be searching for something if no apps have been launched yet.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Well there is a Launch Daemon for the software. It loads a .jar Java file that is the background server portion of the software that accesses the database. Being a Launch Daemon it gets loaded on boot which seems to be the issue.

Tastycakes said:

Being a Launch Daemon it gets loaded on boot which seems to be the issue.

Click to expand...

This would be my guess as well. If this app that you are auto-loading launches so quickly that the external drives haven't had a chance to mount yet...then I'm thinking you have two options:

1. Stop this app from auto loading (so the external drives with the database on it has a chance to mount).
2. Move the databases from the external drive (the ones that this app needs) to the computers internal drive (if it will fit). If it won't fit...get a larger internal drive.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

This would be my guess as well. If this app that you are auto-loading launches so quickly that the external drives haven't had a chance to mount yet...then I'm thinking you have two options:

1. Stop this app from auto loading (so the external drives with the database on it has a chance to mount).
2. Move the databases from the external drive (the ones that this app needs) to the computers internal drive (if it will fit). If it won't fit...get a larger internal drive.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Well #2 isn't possible, can't fit 2tb drives into a MacMini I think, plus wouldn't be nearly as fast as a hardware RAID which was the goal of that one and I can't add to my MacBook as it's already overloaded with 2x internal drives ;P

1 tho, if I just remove it from the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ folder will it just not load on boot? There are 2 apps that run a command that loads and unloads the LaunchDaemon, I could just move the plist and repath the load/unload apps and see what happens. Thanks I think I'm in a good direction, time to experiment

Tastycakes said:

Well #2 isn't possible, can't fit 2tb drives into a MacMini I think,

Click to expand...

I didn't say install 2tb drives internally. What I said was move the data (if it will fit)…onto the internal drive/drives. But…if the internal drives are getting full…that's understandable. Looks like you have to decide what's important. The data already on the internal drives…or the ability to access the databases on the external drives more quickly.

Tastycakes said:

plus wouldn't be nearly as fast as a hardware RAID which was the goal of that one…

Click to expand...

How is this RAID setup connected to the computer? If it's connected via USB…you're already taking a big speed hit…since external USB is going to be a bunch slower than the internal data pathway.

Tastycakes said:

1 tho, if I just remove it from the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ folder will it just not load on boot? There are 2 apps that run a command that loads and unloads the LaunchDaemon, I could just move the plist and repath the load/unload apps and see what happens. Thanks I think I'm in a good direction, time to experiment

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you have this app setup to load automatically on booting. But whatever it takes to stop it from auto-loading would certainly help with the external drive mounting issue.

Here's another idea. Move the application (that requires the database on the external drive) to the external drive. AND…install the Mac OS on this external drive. Then have the external drive be the "boot drive". This way the external drive would be:

- your boot drive
- the application would be on that drive
- the database would be on that drive

…thus everything on the same drive. Albeit on the external drive…which will be somewhat slower than the internal drive.

- Nick

Tastycakes said:

CLIP...
The problem, when I path stuff to external drives (databases mainly) it seems to make a fake mount point on boot. Assuming because on boot, external drives don't get mounted and if a software tries to access a missing volume, OSX lends a helping hand and makes a folder for it in place of the volume. Then when the external drive eventually mounts it gets renamed because OSX made a folder using it's name earlier....CLIP

Click to expand...

I suspect that what is really happening is not that OSX is "helping" but that the application accessing the database expects it to be in a certain place, but you've moved it to an external drive, which is still trying to spin up when the access takes place, so the application (not OSX) "recreates" the database where it was originally designed to be. So if you take Nick's advice and move the database back to the internal drive the problem will go away. The externals will still lag a bit spinning up, but it won't affect the application you have running at boot time.