Hi Steve, Actually, if you want to disable Spotlight indexing of all externally mounted volumes of any type, you don't need to know the name of your device. Just go to System Preferences > Spotlight, select the "Privacy" tab, then navigate to the "Add" button and press it with VO-Space. In the dialog window that appears, use the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-G. Then, in the text box of the dialog window, type: /Volumes (that's a slash symbol, immediately followed by the word "Volumes") and press the return key.
That will keep Spotlight from indexing any externally mounted devices, and you can perform this set up action at any time. Note that you may not want this all-inclusive behavior, if you mount external hard drives that you want to search for stored files. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Apr 12, 2012, at 7:00 PM, Esther wrote: > Hi Steve, > > Not sure that this helps to answer your question, but when I attach USB > memory sticks to my Mac, in order to prevent the system from trying to start > up Spotlight indexing of the drive when I connect, I go to System Preferences > > Spotlight and select the "Privacy" tab. VoiceOver will say "Prevent > Spotlight from searching these locations: Click the Add button, or drag a > folder or disk into the list below." Navigate to the "Add" button and press > it (VO-Space), then select your USB drive in the dialog window. You can use > any of the Finder keyboard shortcuts to navigate here. For example, > Command-Shift-C will set your default directory to your computer, and you can > navigate to the list of mounted drives or devices to select your USB memory > stick, and then press return to register the selection. You can also use the > Command-Shift-G "go to folder" shortcut here if you know the name of your > drive. I find that my Lexar memory stick gets mounted as: > /Volumes/Lexar > and my Crucial memory stick gets mounted as: > /Volumes/Crucial > So I could also have specified my Lexar memory stick in the dialog window > that appears after pressing the "add" button by pressing Command-Shift-G and > then typing into the text box: > /Volumes/Crucial > (that's a slash character, followed by the word "Volumes", followed by > another slash character, followed by the word "Crucial"; Finder is not case > sensitive, so you do not have to capitalize the "V" in "Volumes" and the "C" > in "Crucial" as you would if you were typing commands in Terminal.) > > I'm not sure that these settings made through the always stick, although I > haven't had problems with activity from Spotlight indexing once I've applied > this setup. I am sure that this works if you use the Terminal app instead: > 1. Command-Shift-U in Finder to go to Utilities > 2. Press "t" to navigate to "Terminal" > 3. Command-Down arrow or Command-O to open Terminal > 4. Type (exactly): > sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Crucial > and press return to execute this. You should substitute the path to your USB > drive, with it's name. It may not be named for the manufacturer, especially > if it is not a "brand" memory stick. I think you may be prompted for your > Admin password to execute this command. Steve, I think you have linux > background, and may be comfortable with this. I can usually Command-Tab to > Terminal to execute commands. > > Let us know if any of this helps. (People who are not familiar with command > line usage might want to skip using the instructions for Terminal.) > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > On Apr 12, 2012, at 4:26 AM, Scott Howell wrote: > >> Bill, >> >> Command-w closes the window. I am not sure that it would be fair to say >> APple is not interested in fixing the issue. There is a good chance that >> they are working the issue on their end and has not said anything or they >> simply do not have sufficient information to determine the underlying cause. >> I am experiencing an issue with my iPHone that I am pretty sure is or has >> affected others and I have been working with APple on/off in regards to the >> problem. THey have not resolved the problem yet, but I do not believe this >> is because they are not interested in resolving the problem. I can >> appreciate that at times it seems as though you are being ignored, but on >> the other hand I do not think this is always the case. >> >> On Apr 12, 2012, at 8:49 AM, Bill Holton wrote: >> >>> Here's the workaround I use. First, turn off VO and then press command q to >>> close that finder window. Then press command 2 to get into list mode. For >>> me this problem seems to mostly happen in column view. Now that you're in >>> list mode, try again. Let me know if this works. Apple has shown very >>> little interest in solving this problem. >>> You can also go to the drive on the main finder window. First, find a file, >>> any file, and copy it to the clipboard. At the main finder window use the >>> right click menu to call up the paste command. If you can get any file onto >>> that drive it will then work fine and you canego from there. >>> Let me know if either of these works. >>> Bill >>> >>> >>> >>> BILL HOLTON >>> Email: b...@bholton.com >>> Direct: 386-624-6309 >>> Homepage: www.bholton.com >>> Home Office: 1520 Loughton ST >>> DeLand, FL 32720 >>> >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>> [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Steve Holmes >>> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:25 PM >>> To: macvisionaries >>> Subject: Finder Busy Finder Busy with Empty USB Drives! >>> >>> I think this is similar to Bill's empty DVD problems but I'm actually >>> wondering what the solution is when I get into these situations. If I plug >>> in a USB drive which happens to have no files yet, the finder goes into that >>> damn busy stuff and I can't get out of it any way, any how. I always end up >>> turning off the computer and power back up. Is there any other way to get >>> out of those busy loops? Unplugging the drive did not help the situation. As >>> soon as I copy a file on to that empty partition, then all is fine. What I >>> do is go into the terminal and use the cp command to do this. I read Bill's >>> message about deleting finder settings and then it straitens out for a bit >>> but obviously, that doesn't sound like a good solution as his problem kept >>> coming back. If I use Command O to open the drive, I also get the dreaded >>> "finder busy" crap so How does one get out of this loop when you get caught >>> in it? I could see this happening every time you stick in a blank USB stick >>> or SD card or something. >>> >>> I sure hope Apple gets this serious bug fixed soon. >>> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. 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