Weird name change of main drive

[lclev]

This is weird. It seems the name of my 2017 Macbook Pro's main drive has changed. I did not do it and I am not sure how it happened. It seems to have occurred on May 23rd of this year. Since I don't remember when I upgraded the OS to 10.14.5, I am not sure if that caused it. I have attached two pictures with the weird name of the drive underlined. I am having no issues with the MBP but it is very curious and I am hesitant to change it to something else. Any ideas?



Lisa

 

[pm-r]

It's not normal and certainly not what you want so reset it back to what to do want and carry on.

Then you may want to check your backup schedules and preferences as well and double-check the name change doesn't change anything there.

As our home builder was in the habit of saying when odd or strange things happened: Sh*t Happens, carry on...


PS: Do you have any grandchildren that might have access to your Mac when they are over. They love to do stuff like that...

PPS: BTW that icon doesn't seem to look like a normal boot volume but then again I'm not used to using the recent Mac OS versions, so excuse my ignorance.



- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

That is the icon for my boot drive. However, looking at the name I would be a bit careful as the new name seems to start with "/" and that might be a bit tricky.

 

[lclev]

No one touches this laptop but me - which means any issues I own it!!!

Jake - The "/" gave me pause too. Not sure why or what caused the change. Running malwarebytes now but I don't think that is the issue but it never hurts.

I will let you know what I decide. Will do a CCC backup first though

Lisa

 

[lclev]

So I figured out what the drive name was. If you look at the bottom row of the keyboard -> /.,mnbvcxz <- and that was the drive name. Not sure how it happened - and at my age I know better than to ponder it for any length of time. So I changed it back to Macintosh HD and all is good with life!

Thanks Jake and Patrick for your input. ;D

Lisa

 

[IWT]

Lisa

I don't know either; but may I ask what shows up when you use Disk Utility (DU)? The "/" implies a Mount Point, (image 3 below). I don't want to waste your time, but I have a feeling that DU may help.

The attached screenshots show what I see in DU with the main drive and indents highlighted.



Ian

 

[pm-r]

I would be a bit careful as the new name seems to start with "/" and that might be a bit tricky.

I was led to believe that the "/" was an illegal file/folder name but not so it seems.

39790: Illegal Characters on Various Operating Systems
Illegal Characters on Various Operating Systems | Knowledge Base

============================
MACINTOSH OS X CONVENTIONS

Since Mac OS X is build on top of UNIX there are a few inherent conventions that OS 9 users may not expect. Because of this, migrating certain files and folders from OS 9 to OS X may cause unexpected behavior.

The only illegal character for file and folder names in Mac OS X is the colon ":"

File and folder names are not permitted to begin with a dot "."

File and folder names may be up to 255 characters in length

=================================

 

[lclev]

I ran DU first aid, Malwarebytes, and Onyx. No problems. Changed the name and it is doing fine. As for the different characters in the name - leave it to me to have happen with no issues.

As I posted I changed it back to Macintosh HD, ran DU and Onyx. All good.

Lisa

 

[IWT]

Bravo!

Ian

 

[pm-r]

As I posted I changed it back to Macintosh HD, ran DU and Onyx. All good.

FWIW: I have never left our Macs with their original "Macintosh HD" name, but use something more descriptive, ie: "iMac i5 Mav HD" or "MBPro HD" etc.

And the same goes for naming the machines for file sharing. There's nothing worse than trying to network a bunch of Macs all named the same "Macintosh HD" and actually get some work done.

That's akin to playing that button button who's got the button game!!!


- Patrick
======

 

[MacInWin]

The only way to know the "real" name of the drive is to use Terminal to show what was actually the name. The fact it was the bottom row of letters implies either accident (cat crossing the keyboard) or truly malicious. Only Lisa can know which is more likely.

 

[lclev]

Patrick - I agree with different names for drives. At work I name them differently. For example I have drives I share on my main computer named Clev-D, Clev-E, etc. On my Mac Pro it is MP-Data and MP-OWC. Since I am the only one to access these particular drives I know what the names mean and where they are. On the NAS it is SynologyStorage, SynologyShare... you get the idea.

My MBP laptop is never on my network at work as it is my home computer. I guess I could give it a unique name. I just used the name it was before the mess up.

Jake - no cats, I am a dog person (only due to really bad cat allergies, nothing against cats.) I am afraid it will be a mystery. No one gets on this computer but me.

Lisa

 

[pm-r]

Jake - no cats, I am a dog person (only due to really bad cat allergies, nothing against cats.) I am afraid it will be a mystery. No one gets on this computer but me.

Hmmm... your avatar sure looks like a young Boarder Collie to me, and having been an owner of several, they can sure get into some mischevious stuff, and mucking about on a keyboard would be a piece of cake for them.

Heck, they can even teach the cats how to do the same and then sit back and let them take the full blame... ;-)

That's why they get labeled as working dogs. They're always working... and always working at not getting caught!!!



- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

The main reason I stick with Macintosh HD is that I had one application that apparently hard coded where it expected to find certain files, and that was on Macintosh HD. When I renamed the drive, the application blew up. I needed the application, so I left the drive as it was. Now it's just become habit.

 

[Rod]

Have you seen this Lisa? Note the first 7 digits. Is your computer trying to tell you something? Could be entirely coincidental of course.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

 

[pm-r]

Have you seen this Lisa? Note the first 7 digits. Is your computer trying to tell you something? Could be entirely coincidental of course.

Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

Hmmm...??? Now we have secret invisible code apparently being posted.



- Patrick
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[lclev]

Rod - Not sure what I am supposed to see???

Patrick - must be invisible?

Lisa

 

[Rod]

Well the seemingly random letters comprising the new name of your HD are a part of this web page title.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

 

[pm-r]

Well the seemingly random letters comprising the new name of your HD are a part of this web page title.

I guess I just don't see or get it. Sorry Rod.

Time to just carry on here... methinks...


- Patrick
======

 

[lclev]

Yeah - changed name to MacbookProHD and all is good.

Lisa