To mount local disks - partitions of the internal drive or partitions of external (SCSI) drives - I use either QuicKeys or the LaCie (non-scriptable) CP. No problem - all tickety-boo - but now I want to mount these drives using plain vanilla AS - without even a call to QK Toolbox. I thought it would be a one minute job, but I can’t for the life of me see how to do it. Could someone please unglue my eyes? (OS 8.6)
Andreas
: To mount local disks - partitions of the internal drive or
: partitions of external (SCSI) drives - I use either QuicKeys
: or the LaCie (non-scriptable) CP. No problem - all tickety-boo
: - but now I want to mount these drives using plain vanilla AS
: - without even a call to QK Toolbox. I thought it would be a
: one minute job, but I can’t for the life of me see how to do
: it. Could someone please unglue my eyes? (OS 8.6)
: Andreas
I’m not sure about partitions, but what about
mount volume “afp://username:password@location/Disk_Name”?
This is what I do to log on to our fileserver at work. If it works, great. If not, count me an overly enthusiastic newbie.
For anyone still following this agony column I have a sort of a solution. It does meet the criterion of not needing any foreign gizmo - but it’s so awful I would prefer not to admit to authoring it.
I created a Finder alias for each of the disks that I periodically mount and unmount. For the sake of neatness I made them invisible on the desktop. Then just one line (from Jon’s) does it…
alias information "(startup disk):Desktop Folder:(disk to mount) alias"
By not negating resolving it needs to mount the disk, but that’s all - it doesn’t open the disk which would not be acceptable.
Horrible, eh? Jon’s osax doing it proves that unaided AS can do it - but what’s the code? Is there really no-one out there who uses AS to mount a local hard drive, e.g. a backup disk?
Andreas
: For anyone still following this agony column I have a sort of a
: solution. It does meet the criterion of not needing any
: foreign gizmo - but it’s so awful I would prefer not to admit
: to authoring it.
: I created a Finder alias for each of the disks that I
: periodically mount and unmount. For the sake of neatness I
: made them invisible on the desktop. Then just one line (from
: Jon’s) does it… alias information
: “(startup disk):Desktop Folder:(disk to mount)
: alias”
: By not negating resolving it needs to mount
: the disk, but that’s all - it doesn’t open the disk which
: would not be acceptable.
: Horrible, eh? Jon’s osax doing it proves that unaided AS can do
: it - but what’s the code? Is there really no-one out there who
: uses AS to mount a local hard drive, e.g. a backup disk?
: Andreas
I could not get Jon’s commands to solve your problem, but your idea regarding (invisible) aliases of your volumes on the desktop started my brain in motion. So I created an AS that simply opens the alias which the mounts the volume and followed it with a close front window command. Seems to work just fine, if you don’t mind the window opening and then closing.
: How, say in the Finder, do I remount one of those disks?
I’m not sure you can. Perhaps killing the Finder and allowing it to re-launch.
It seems that Akua Sweets has a command that un-mounts (and strangely enough, re-mounts) called ‘expel.’ I know you’d like plain-vanilla AppleScript, but if someone bothered to write an OSAX, it may not be possible without one.
Also, as for terminology, I think the proper terms are as follows:
Drive (or disk) is the physical object.
Partition is a portion of a physical disk that has been segmented into separate volumes.
Volume is what appears on the desktop. (ie. can be either an entire hard disk, a partition of a disk, network disk, floppy, etc)
Hope that helps the discussion. I’m not sure if un-mounted internal disks can be re-mounted.
: if you don’t mind the window opening and then closing.
Sorry, but I meant it when I wrote “it doesn’t open the disk which would not be acceptable”. How would you, or most Macthusiasts, like to see a window opening unasked and immediately closing - just beause you mounted a disk? I think it would look ghastly.
I have a suspicion that the absence of a simple opposite to “put away” might be a relic of the early days when Apple was, understandably but excessively, security conscious. You may remember the kerfuffle over releasing “mount volume” which led to someone (Lloyd was it?) pre-empting Apple by producing the osax “mountVolume”. Daring and dangerous stuff in those days!
Anyway, local disks can be mounted by alias, by Disk First Aid, by Norton, by driver software, by QuicKeys, by…a huge list. All I ask is that I find out how to do it in my favourite language!
Thanks for the thought.
Andreas
Krioni - I’ve just found your posting and am about to scurry off to investigate what Akua’s “expel” has to offer. Yes, I could re-boot but I wouldn’t contemplate it - all I need to do is use a QuicKey (or an AS call to QK Toolbox) or use the LaCie CP. I’m just irked I suppose by not being able to fathom out how to do something in AS that QK can do and that I would have thought to be something pretty basic and simple.
I don’t, by the way, have the slightest objection to using an osax - rather than “vanilla” I should have said “entirely within AS and the System without use of external gizmos”.
Thank you very much for the suggestion.
Andreas
Sadly, Krioni, no joy. “expel” seems aimed specifically for removable media. I hoped it might return some data which could potentially be used - but it returns nothing Ð at least not for a hard disk.
Near “expel” in the dictionary I did spot “disk volume info”. As you would expect from Akua, that returns a mass of info. I’ll see if any of it might be of use. Why does such an apparently simple task prove to be so difficult to implement? I still say, though, that if QuicKeys can do it without recourse to any external gizmo then AS must be able to do it.
Anyway, thanks again for the suggestion
Andreas