I know that this is technically not Apple news… but I suppose the news is that I have fixed a problem that was plaguing me for a couple of months and wanted to post the solution in case other we having the same issue. To give a little history, basically, after I installed the OS X 10.5.6 update a couple of months ago, my Mac HD icon just randomly disappeared from my Desktop and from the sidebar in Finder. Needless to say, the moment this happened, I freaked out and went into overdrive. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that it couldn’t be anything too bad because if there was a problem with the main hard drive, the computer would probably be freaking out and I wouldn’t be logged in navigating around. So I ran the usual things like Disk Warrior, repaired the permissions in Disk Utility, the update again, etc… but nothing would bring back the icon. I decided to check the /Volumes folder and lo and behold… there was the Mac HD icon, but it was semi-transparent denoting that it was hidden. This is where I just about lost my mind trying to figure out how to unhide it. I tried everything, renaming it, deleting preference files, changing permissions, etc. However, no matter what I tried, nothing worked. So basically I just gave up, created and alias, and put the alias on the Desktop. It has been sitting like that for the past few months until I finally had some downtime today and was able to figure out a solution.
I actually stumbled across the solution on accident when working with Xcode and some of the Developer tools from Apple. I was working in a preference file and found the answer… couldn’t believe it! 🙂 After pulling a GetInfo using the Developer Tools, it appeared as though there was an issue with aVbstClinmedz setting (the ‘V’ should be ‘v’). Changed it and back came the drive! w00t! Seeing as a lot of people don’t have Xcode or the Developer tools installed, here is a much quicker way to fix the problem thanks to File Buddy. (Wish I had tried this months ago… sometimes the easiest answer is right in front of your face and you don’t even know it!)
1. Go to macupdate.com and download an application called File Buddy (side note, a totally awesome and really handy application to have)
2. Install File Buddy and give it Administrative access to the computer
3. From File Buddy, click File > Get Info and then select the Mac HD
4. On the right, there should be a box labeled Invisible… uncheck the box 
5. Quit FileBuddy
6. Inside of ~/Library/Preferences/ located the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file and delete it
7. Log out and log back in
8. Dance for joy (because a little happy dance is always in order after fixing a problem!) Problem solved! Only thing you’ll have to do is reset and of the sidebar preferences you had by opening a Finder window and going to Preferences from the menu bar.
I have no idea why this happened or what in the update caused this problem to happen, but I know of at least 4 other people who have had the same issue appear. Crazy. Just goes to show that there is no perfect company and no perfect OS. Granted, I’ll take a problem like this over any stupid Windows issue. So there you have it. I hope this helps out other people who are having the same problem or know people who are. Please feel free to comment and let me know if this has helped or if you have any suggestions as to why the problem popped up in the first place!
