Mac, Photoshop, and "HFS+ Private" folder

[ho_co]

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I've been living with this for a while, but tonight it finally caught me and manged two hours of work.

 

For no reason I can explain, Photoshop sometimes decides to save to a user-inaccessible folder on my regular network drive. The folder isn't visible even when "show hidden folders" is set. Apple is rather non-committal; yes, they've heard of this, no they don't know what causes it, probably a problem with the software. I haven't contacted Adobe. Any pointers appreciated.

 

 

Here the file hadn't gone back to where I had been working, but I was able to find it:

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Here's an attempt at first-time storage of a Web JPG downloaded during a Photoshop session:

 

 

 

Here's a better view of the 'non-existent' folder. It shows four full PSDs that didn't get stored to where I was working with them, in addition to its "temp" files.

 

 

 

My normal data storage from Photoshop is to an Airport network drive, the same drive on which this "HFS+ Private" folder is located.

 

The "HFS+ Private" folder is seldom visible in Photoshop, but occasionally I'm lucky and discover that a file has just been stored there and can retrieve it.

 

Mac OS X ver 10.5.8; Photoshop CS4 ver 11.0.1.

 

 

Thanks.

Edited November 30, 2009 by ho_co

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[ericperlberg]

You can also try the Apple discussion forum on OS X Leopard or the Adobe Photoshop Mac forum at Adobe.

 

Just realised you're on Leopard so I changed the link from Snow Leopard to Leopard on the Apple Discussion Forums

Edited November 30, 2009 by ericperlberg
change apple link to os x leopard

[ho_co]

Thanks for the links, Eric.

 

Haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard yet.

 

 

Looks as if this isn't a common problem with responders coming out of the walls, so I'll carry it forward!

Edited December 1, 2009 by ho_co

[proenca]

to be honest, I use PS less and less these days : to the point that only on very tough images, panoramas and final sharpening before printing; everything else is done in Lightroom which suits my needs perfectly.

 

Now, in all my years of Photoshop ( I come from version 2.0 ) I never saw anything like that and I use mac's for over 15 years.

 

Sorry your "on your own" on that one Let us know how to solve , in case we get that problem as well

[ceflynn]

The HFS+ Private Data folder stores the contents of files having more than one hard link pointing to them. It is by design the most heavily protected folder in the HFS+ volume format. See this thread:

 

Apple - Support - Discussions - Time machine does not back up files ...

 

From http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn/tn1150.html :

 

Hard links are a feature that allows multiple directory entries to refer to a single file's content. They are a way to give a single file multiple names, possibly in multiple directories. This section describes how Mac OS X implements hard links on HFS Plus volumes.

 

The Mac OS X implementation of hard links on HFS Plus volumes was done using the existing metadata fields of the catalog records. This makes it possible to back up and restore a volume using hard links, by backing up and restoring individual files, without having to understand or interpret the hard links. An HFS Plus implementation may choose to automatically follow hard links, or not.

 

Hard links in HFS Plus are represented by a set of several files. The actual file content (which is shared by each of the hard links) is stored in a special indirect node file. This indirect node file is the equivalent of an inode in a traditional UNIX file system.

 

HFS Plus uses special hard link files (or links) to refer (or point) to an indirect node file. There is one hard link file for each directory entry or name that refers to the file content.

 

Indirect node files exist in a special directory called the metadata directory. This directory exists in the volume's root directory. The name of the metadata directory is four null characters followed by the string "HFS+ Private Data". The directory's creation date is set to the creation date of the volume's root directory. The kIsInvisible and kNameLocked bits are set in the directory's Finder information. The icon location in the Finder info is set to the point (22460, 22460). These Finder info settings are not mandatory, but they tend to reduce accidental changes to the metadata directory. An implementation that automatically follows hard links should make the metadata directory inaccessable from its normal file system interface.

Edited December 3, 2009 by ceflynn