Error Message Drive not recognized

[Jaclyn Lee]

Hi,

We have received this error when trying to run the app.  We have two drives hooked up to a docking station.  One is running fine fine.  The other gives us this error message.  We can read/write to the drive but it’s causing pauses when we playback video.

Error Message: System Events got an error: Can't get disk "SCT_E02 1".

Diagnosstic:  -cat: "Volumes/SCT_e02/.keepThisDriveSpinning": No such file or directory

[Process completed].

The drive is actually called “SCT_E02”, but in the diagnostics, it calls the drive “SCT_E02 1”.  

Does this help pinpoint any problems?  We’re running OS 10.11.6.  

[Jon Stovell]

Hi Jaclyn,

This sort of thing can happen because of Finder trying to do some things to make things appear simple for the user. It is easily resolved. I'll give you some instructions for a quick fix, and then a fuller explanation to help you avoid it in the future:

Quick fix:

1. Run Keep Drive Spinning and use the "Let a drive sleep" option for the drive that is giving you problems.
2. In Finder, eject the drive. Then physically unplug it from the docking station and plug it back in.
3. Run Keep Drive Spinning again and tell it to keep the drive awake.

Explanation:

Every disk connected to your Mac at any given time needs to have a unique name. If you try to connect a disk whose name is already taken by another disk, your Mac will silently append a number to the end of the new disk's name in order to avoid a naming conflict. In an effort to reduce confusion for the average user, the Finder doesn't show you this appended number when displaying the name of the disk.

Unfortunately, some of the situations that can trigger this situation are not as obvious as others. Possible ways it could happen include:

• Plugging in two different disks that happen to have the same name. This one is pretty obvious.
• Connecting to the same disk using two different methods at once. (For example, if you have an NAS device and you decide to connect your Mac to it both via a direct USB connection and via network sharing.) This one is not as obvious.
• In some cases, when two different users are logged in on the same Mac, and both connect to the drive at the same time, your Mac might treat this as two completely separate connections. This one is usually not at all obvious.
• This can sometimes happen if two real (i.e. human) users are logged in and their permissions are configured in a certain way. 
• It can also happen if certain virtual "users" (e.g. the invisible Time Machine "user" that runs the Time Machine backup process) are connected to a disk at the moment when a real user decides to connect to that same disk.

If you run the Keep Drive Spinning setup while one of these situations is in effect, you may find yourself telling the app to keep "MyDisk 1" awake when you really wanted to tell it to keep "MyDisk" awake.

Once a disk is connected to your Mac, its name will not change until you disconnect and reconnect it. So if "MyDisk" and "MyDisk 1" are both connected, and then you disconnect "MyDisk", "MyDisk 1" will continue to be named "MyDisk 1" even though there is no longer a "MyDisk". If you disconnect "MyDisk 1" and reconnect it, it will be assigned its normal name, "MyDisk".

I don't know exactly what the situation was that caused your "SCT_E02" disk to be treated as "SCT_E02 1" in this case, but regardless of what it was, physically disconnecting and reconnecting it will take care of the renaming issue.

[Mike Carroll]

Hello - this is the same issue I'm experiencing and your answer seems appropriate in my case as well, as I can see that the Finder is adding a "1" on the drive.  I've taken all the steps you've outlined multiple times and am not able to resolve it.  Can you provide any additional ideas on how to resolve?  It's incredibly annoying and I've had Final Cut Pro as well as Photos now shut down on me in the middle of projects because of this issue.  Is there another way to get the script running whenever the drive attached with automator, basically manually walking through it??