Time Machine is a great utility, but it asks if you want to make every external disk that you inert a backup disk, which can be a little, well, a pain. Here is how to disable Leopard from asking. After entering this command in Terminal, you would have to go to the Time Machine control panel if you want to set up a disk for use by Time Machine.
defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool YES
[tags]Mac OS X, Leapard, Time Machine, Backup[/tags]
SCP or secure file copy is a great way to copy files through an encrypted tunnel, but it will take up all of the bandwidth available to it, but there is a flag to limit the bandwidth used. Try this:
scp -l 125 /Users/Myaccount/testfile remotehost:
the -l option is measured in bits rather than bytes, so adjust accordingly.
[tags]SCP, MacOSX, Bandwidth, Linux[/tags]
Mac OS 9 had a great little feature that allowed you to check a little box as you logged into a server and have your Mac automatically connect each time your computer starts up. This is still possible under OS X, but it takes an extra step.
To mount a server share as you start up the computer or login to the computer, follow these steps. Log into the server that you want to automatically mount as you normally would, but stop at the screen where you type in your user name and password. Click the check box at the bottom at the bottom that says Remember this password in my keychain and then complete the login.
Once the server is on the desktop, drag the server icon to your login items. To access your login items, go to the Accounts Control Panel in the System Preferences. You can find the System Preferences under the Apple Menu.
Once you are in the Accounts Control Panel, click on your User ID and then click on the Login Items chicklet to the right. You may have to enter an Administrator account to make these changes depending on how your Mac’s security is configured. Drag the server into the list of login items. Your server should show up the next time that you login.
If you want to remove the automatic server login, then just highlight the server in your login items and click the minus sign and it will be gone the next time that you start up.
If you need to change the password that you have stored for the server, then go to the Keychain Access Utility which is located inside the Application/Utilities folder. Click on the on the Passwords Category on the left and you should see your server in the list on the main Keychain Access Control Panel where you can change the password for your server.
Had a friend bring me his poor little Intel Mac Mini. It was making a horrible knocking noise that almost certainly indicated a dying hard drive. It wouldn’t boot up anymore. It just sat at the blue startup screen and hung there.
Trouble is that he had all of his purchased iTunes Music on that little knocking hard drive and had no backup. He didn’t have a iPod so that we could not just import the music back from the MP3 player, so we actually had to recover the data.
I used Target Disk mode to get his music back. It is a feature on every Mac that allows a Mac to boot up as a very expensive hard drive enclosure attached to another Mac with a Firewire cable connected between them.
You can tell a Mac to boot up in Target Disk mode by either going to the Startup Control Panel and clicking Target Disk mode or by simply holding the T button down on a Mac as it boots up. If you have a screen attached to it, the Mac will display a giant firewire symbol indicating that it is in Target Disk Mode. The internal hard drive(s) should show up on the desktop of the booted computer, although severely damaged drives may not.
We got lucky in this case, the iTunes Music library was not stored on the damaged part of the hard drive, so we were able to copy the whole folder (Home folder/Music/iTunes Library.) In fact, we were able to to copy the entire Users directory so that all of his data was safe.
As a note, once a Mac is in Target Disk Mode, you can run Disk Utility or any other disk repair software from the booted computer. When you are finished, just hit the power button to turn off the computer and then turn it on again to start the computer up normally.
Hopefully, my friend will backup his music next time!
[tags]iPod,MP3 Player, MacOSX, iTunes[/tags]
When you move files from one Mac to another or from one account to another, you run into problems access the files. You will see a folder with a big red minus on it and a polite message like the following one saying that you do not have sufficient privileges. And you thought it was your computer.
These type of problems come from Mac OS X’s Unix heritage and the extremely strong security. Just because you have access to a folder does not mean that you have access to all of the folders inside of it.
Caution: Do not try this tip on the System, Library, or Users folder because these folders have special permission settings to help your computer work.
Fixing this permission problem is simple. Just open the top level folder that you do have access to and select Get Info from the File Menu. Next, turn the triangle down by Ownership and Permissions and then again, turn the triangle down by Details. Click the ‘Apply to enclosed items’ button at the bottom. Accept the warning dialog box that follows and you should have access to the items inside.
