LaCie AFP Mount Fails

Error
While trying to mount a AFP file share from a LaCie disk (or other netatalk server), Mac OS X gives and error, "Failed to mount volume" with "Error code -6602".

Alternatively, while trying to mount using the shell command mount, mount_afp returns "AFPMountURL returned error -5014, errno is 89".

Cause
The cause is the same in both cases, the file system contains special files and folders, called .AppleDB .TemporaryItems .DS_Store .AppleDesktop. These folders are present on the netatalk server and contain data necessary for some older Mac files (e.g. resource forks, type and creator codes). However, the data in these folders may sometimes get corrupt and the volume will refuse to mount.

Workaround
This workaround deletes the resource fork of your data.


 * 1) If possible, mount the volume in some other way, for example using SAMBA. (If you first mounted afp://myserver.example.org/volumename, now mount smb://myserver.example.org/volumename instead).
 * 2) Backup (copy to a local disk) the hidden folders, such as .AppleDB .TemporaryItems .DS_Store .AppleDesktop
 * 3) Remove the hidden folders .AppleDB .TemporaryItems .DS_Store .AppleDesktop
 * 4) Unmount the SMB disk
 * 5) Remount it using AFP

Caveat: Check Your Data
After you followed the above workaround, the resource fork of your data is deleted. Again, part of your data is permanently gone.

Now, this may not be as bad as it sounds, as the main data is located in the data fork, not in the (deleted) resource fork. However, before overwriting anything or deleting your backups, do check the integrity of your data. Stuff like pictures, movies, text files will probably be fine. However, you should check files in older formats. In particular check things like font files or any pre-OS X stuff you may still have laying around.