Virtualize Mac OS X Client on VMware Fusion
VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta2 supports virtualizing Mac OS X Server as a guest OS. If you try to install a Leopard Client guest, however, you get an error: "The guest operating system is not Mac OS X Server." However, if you create an ISO/CDR image from your Leopard install DVD, mount it, then do this in Terminal... touch "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist" After running that command, unmount the image. You can now use that image to install Leopard Client into VMware Fusion with no complaints. After you install, reboot VMware Fusion from the install DVD ISO again, launch Terminal, and run this command: touch "/Volumes/Macintosh H...
published on Friday, the 8. August 2008, macosxhints
One way to migrate an iTunes collection to another drive
I use iTunes for not only my extensive music and audio library, but my vast video library as well. The collection had become so large that I needed to copy all the files to a new, larger drive. My troubles began with iTunes unintuitive linking. Library consolidation scared me, in that it would mess up my hierarchal structure. If I reimported my videos, all my meticulous metadata would be lost. Naming the new drive the same as the old worked, but would break the link if anything within the link structure moved or changed due to the inode reference database. In other words, I must reimport from the new drive (and thus lose all my metadata). After days of experimenting, I came up with a solution that did the trick. With iTunes off, I copied all my music and video files to the new drive. I also copied my iTunes Library folder to the new drive as well (I prefer keeping all on one drive). I then unmounted my old drive and launched iTunes. Of course, iTunes could not loca...
published on Wednesday, the 18. June 2008, macosxhints
Prosoft ships Leopard Boot DVDs for HDD apps
Prosoft has updated two of its programs, which now have the option of free Leopard Boot DVDs. The discs should allow users to run the applications when a hard drive is otherwise unaccessible. The first of the programs, Data Rescue II, is intended for emergency file recovery, and can copy information from corrupt or unmountable hard drives, and re...
published on Tuesday, the 3. June 2008, macintosh-news-network
DISMount 1.0
DISMount is a tiny and simple application that, when run, will unmount all external drives, DMG files, iPods (if enabled for Disk Use), networks and servers from your system. It even ejects all inserted disks from your system. ALL IN ONE CLICK. DISMount is convenient especially for users who have multiple drives mounted on their system at any given time, or laptop users with external drives. DISMount will quickly unmount all drives with a single click-- much easier than having to drag and drop drives into the trash bin! Simply copy the DISMount application to your Applications folder. Then, place it on your dock for easy, one-click DISMounting! Included in the downloadable DMG file is a custom-made icon set that allows you to choose from 11 color variations of the DISMount icon-- even CLEAR!
published on Friday, the 23. May 2008, scriptbuilders
10.5: Eject drives and run iSync before sleep via script
This is a little AppleScript that I wrote to check and ask if the machine should unmount peripheral disks, and optionally perform an iSync, before sleeping. I was motivated to write this after about the fifteenth time I woke my laptop up after taking it home from work only to be greeted with a warning that I did not properly disconnect my Time Machine Disk. Additionally, since I use iSync to sync my date book and address book with my Nokia cell phone, I thought it would be a good idea to have it auto-sync before I put the machine to sleep. If you are capable with AppleScript, you can go in and make modifications for your system (e.g. turn off iSync, or the options to unmount). One caveat: if your home disk is not the same as the startup disk (unlikely on a laptop), the script will ask if you would like to unmount that disk before sleeping.I packed the script as an application bundle (with a 10.5-sized icon) for optional placement directly into the dock -- download ...
published on Friday, the 25. April 2008, macosxhints
Fix path to home folder after external drive mount failure
In Leopard, if you've changed your home path from your Mac's internal hard disk to an external hard disk, as in this hint, and maybe you turned off your drive or maybe it unmounted for no specific reason, you'll see that it isn't sufficient to turn it back on to see all your preferences back to normal. Why? As an example, let's assume you had moved your home folder here: /Volumes/HD300GB/users/yourname. When Leopard realizes the drive is missing, it automatically creates a folder named /Volumes/HD300GB (in this example). Then when you logout/login or restart your Mac, Leopard will remount your original drive with a different name; in this example /Volumes/HD300GB 1. Consequence: You'll not have access to your home directory and your desktop, preferences, etc. will be (falsely) lost. Here's how to fix it: Login as a different user (with admin rights) ...
published on Friday, the 11. April 2008, macosxhints
iRemove .DS_Store files 1.0
Deletes the invisible .DS_Store files on all mounted Disks from all folders and application packages. For those of you who want to delete the .DS_Store files quickly without resorting to the Terminal, this AppleScript does the trick. TechTool Pro users can choose to mount the eDrive and clean the .DS_Store files from it. At the end of the run, the eDrive will be unmounted. PPC/Intel
published on Monday, the 7. April 2008, scriptbuilders
10.5: Speed up initial AirPort - Time Machine backups
I found the initial Time Machine backup to a disk hooked up to my AirPort Extreme to be painfully slow. This procedure sped the process up enormously. The only tricky part about this is that you don't have to tell Time Machine you're moving the drive. I'm using an external disk with one partition formatted with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)," and sharing it with a disk password. First hook your USB drive up to your AirPort Extreme and configure the disks for Time Machine. Add the disk to your time machine and start the initial backup. Once Time Machine is past the "preparing" stage and is actually copying data, cancel the backup. This step creates the sparsebundle image that will contain the backup on the drive. Unmount the disk. You'll probably also want to disconnect all users using the AirPort Utility. Disconnect the drive from the Airport Extreme and connect it direc...
published on Monday, the 31. March 2008, macosxhints
Simulating an encrypted physical disk in OS X
I've always wanted to have a fully encrypted memory stick which when plugged in, OS X would automatically ask me for a password before mounting it. As far as I know (and from what tests I carried out), it's not possible to create an encrypted disk image and overwrite the entire device with it. My solution involves placing a hidden encrypted disk image on a device, hiding the volume itself so it doesn't show up in the desktop, and applying a Folder Action to the /Volumes folder which takes care of mounting the encrypted image when the device is plugged in, and unmounting the device when the encrypted image is ejected. No Terminal access necessary: an AppleScript droplet for preparing the device, the Folder Action AppleScript, and an AppleScript for restoring the device are provided here. The scripts are tested in 10.5.1, but they really should work in ...
published on Thursday, the 7. February 2008, macosxhints
One way to avoid keeping DMG files after installation
I often find my downloads directory filling with disk images I've downloaded off the internet, installed, and forgotten to delete after unmounting (and possibly rebooting). I'm not sure this qualifies as a hint, but I find the following trick effective to avoid the problem: While you can't mount an image from the trash using the Finder, you can trash an image once it is already mounted. I won't go into the technical details of why this is true, but the system has no problem keeping track of the actual image's location. So after you open an image to mount it, you can immediately trash it. You can then install and unmount (or reboot) like normal, and forget about the image file altogether, since it's already trashed. As an alternative, you can mount an image from the trash from the command line. For example: open ~/.Trash/MyTrashedImage.dmg And although the Finder will not empty the image from the trash while it is mounted, you can use the c...
published on Friday, the 11. January 2008, macosxhints