Why does Finder show my external hard as a broken alias?

The answer was found by electrosonic:

I finally found the answer in another thread. I downloaded Pathfinder a substitute program for Finder. In that program I could highlight the drive and then “Get Info’. A window opened which allowed me to uncheck a box entitled “alias bit”, which solved the problem.

via Apple – Support – Discussions – Why does Finder show my external hard ….