Accessing external hard drives from File Explorer

[chris_todd]

I'm not sure if this is a bug, or a feature request, or a stupid newbie issue, but I have a 3TB external hard drive on which I place all my astro images.  It looks like in the file explorer will only go to the system root, and not look at all the volumes attached to the computer.  I'm using Mac OS X 10.7.5 on an early-2008 MacBookPro.  The external hard drive is a USB LaCie 3TB model.

Oh, and I'm using PI 01.08.00.1023 Ripley (x64) RC7.

Is there some way to do this that is eluding me?

[Sean]

Hi Chris,

Just checked this on my iMac running 10.8.5, and Ripley RC7. When I clicked all the way back to "/" in the File Explorer (at the top of the window) I was able to access the Volumes folder where I could access my external Hard Drives.

Hope this helps,

Sean

[NGC7789]

In Global Preferences under File I/O Settings you have to tick the "Use Native File Dialogs" option.

[chris_todd]

Interesting, the /Volumes does not show up in my FileExporer dialog.  And I have (and had) "Use Native File Dialogs" checked.

Weird, wonder if it is a 10.7.5 v 10.8.5 difference?  Or maybe some OS X setting I don't have set correctly for PixInsight?

If I go to the command line, there is definitely a /Volumes path, and in it are "LaCie" and "Macintosh HD".

[Sean]

Chris,

I just checked on my MacBook Air running Mavericks, and the '/' folder and Volumes do not appear there. I'll try to see if I can figure out why the difference.

Sean

[Sean]

Chris,

I noticed that /volumes had the Hidden attribute set on the folder on my MacBook Air. When I unchecked that, /volumes showed up in the File Explorer. I did this using PathFinder - not sure how you do it with the regular Finder.

Hope this helps,

Sean

[chris_todd]

Chris,

I noticed that /volumes had the Hidden attribute set on the folder on my MacBook Air. When I unchecked that, /volumes showed up in the File Explorer. I did this using PathFinder - not sure how you do it with the regular Finder.

Hope this helps,

Sean

OK, that must be it, because while /Volumes shows up on the command line, it does not show up in the regular Finder window.  I don't know what PathFinder is, so I'll do some research on how to change the hidden attribute.  Thanks for the help everyone!

[NGC7789]

To make the Volumes folder visible type this in Terminal:

sudo SetFile -a v /Volumes

Then enter the admin password.

This will allow access to Volumes in both File Explorer and Open dialog without needing to click "use native dialog" in preferences. This is great since the native dialog was much slower (for me).