localhost diskarbitration[number]: could not create "file system unmounted" notification

June 27, 2006 3:42 PM

I have a problem with the hard disk on my iBook.

I know the answer in the medium term is "rescue everything you can using target disk mode and replace the damn thing already."
In the short term, however, I have a deadline to meet and no time for that, so if there's an easy way to regain the use of my computer I want it!

Symptoms: Computer won't start from its hard disk.
Diskwarrior says the disk is fine [although I suspect Diskwarrior may have exacerbated a previous problem to get me to this point in the first place].
In single user mode, fsck -f says everything is fine.
Then I "mount -uw /" and exit single user, and after a bit of babble about jettisoning kernel linkers, it gets thrown into a loop with thousands of copies of this scrolling off the screen:

localhost diskarbitration[number]: could not create "file system unmounted" notification.

Google gives me some Darwin source code, which helps me not one jot.

I can mount the disk and see the contents in target disk or single user mode. Is there perhaps a file I can delete somewhere that will magically fix everything?

posted by nowonmai to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

that is certainly a weird error message

when you say 'computer won't start from its hard disk', what exactly happens?

Try starting up in Verbose mode (hold down cmd-V after resetting, until text appears on screen). Tell us where it hangs.

Also try starting from the OS X boot disk and using Disk Utility to repair the disk and permissions.
posted by unSane at 3:47 PM on June 27, 2006

Or try starting from the OS X boot disk and repair the system files -- this won't screw with your docs or apps, so no worries.
posted by k8t at 4:04 PM on June 27, 2006

Response by poster: Disk Utility says there is nothing that needs repairing, but throws an error that I found uninformative (and have now forgotten) and quits when trying to repair permissions.

In verbose mode, it always gets at least as far as "Resetting IOCatalog" before that error starts appearing, and then the screen starts scrolling too fast for me to read (about 10 instances of "localhost diskarbitration[number]: could not create "file system unmounted" notification" per second) but stuff like configuring wireless connections etc is still going on.

The error message keeps looping for hours until I get bored and switch it off.
posted by nowonmai at 4:09 PM on June 27, 2006

it sounds a LOT like your hard drive is failing

I mean A LOT A LOT A LOT

You should mount it in target disk mode while you still can and get everything off it.

if you have a deadline, borrow a computer
posted by unSane at 4:27 PM on June 27, 2006

I'm with Unsane but try an archive and install AFTER getting all your important files off the machine.
posted by photoslob at 8:26 PM on June 27, 2006