Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Ask TUAW: Finder annoyances, backing up a MacBook, recovering data from an iPod on Windows and more
This week in Ask TUAW we've got questions about installing Boot Camp, using 1Password data on Windows, backing up a MacBook Pro, extracting data from an iPod touch and more.As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
Alex asks In the finder window (specifically in column view) all the items are sorted alphabetically. Is it possible to sort the items in another way (specifically the folders first)?
Unfortunately, there is no way to do this with the Finder in column view. You can, however, accomplish this with the third-party Finder replacement Path Finder ($39.95), which also has a large number of other handy features.
Vincent asks
I have a new Macbook pro unibody and I have created two users. In the login screen is there a way to use "tap" on the trackpad instead of using the enter key or the hidden button of the trackpad?
Check out this hint; you may have to make a couple of adjustments to have it work properly in Leopard. Apparently there is a hidden setting that will enable this, though I noticed that some folks were having difficulty getting to work consistently.
Al asks
I am a rabid fan of 1Password from Agile Web Solutions. For work, I am migrating towards a Windows machine. What is the solution to integrate my Mac password manager into the Windows environment?
There is no Windows version of 1Password, sad to say, however you might have a look at their Accessing Your Data page for some suggestions. In general there's not really going to be an easy way to do this. What you might consider is using Foxmarks / Xmarks which will allow you to sync passwords between your Mac and PC versions of Firefox.
BillSaysThis asks
My dad wants to get Boot Camp running on his Mini but Boot Camp Assistant can't run to completion because it some programs can't be moved, so partitioning can't be finished. How do I help him fix this error?
We'd really need to know more about the actual errors that are occurring, but it sounds to me like a problem with permissions. The first thing to do is repair permissions with the Disk Utility. Some people have reported success by rebooting after repairing permissions. Keep in mind that you really ought to have a full backup of the mini's hard drive before trying to install Boot Camp.
Don asks
When doing a complete backup of my MBP hard drive, is it important to save large files like sleepimage?
The sleepimage file is a byproduct of Apple's Safe Sleep. OS X writes the content of RAM to the hard drive so that if the battery complete discharges and your Mac shuts off you'll be able to recover your working state when you plug it back in or put in a new battery.
So do you need to back it up? If all you want to do is back up your files, then no. However, if you want to use a disk cloning application like SuperDuper! ($27.95) or Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable image of your disk from which you can restart your computer, you should let it copy everything. Incidentally, it's always a good idea to test-boot from a clone before depending on it for backup or recovery. Holding down the option key at startup will let you select your boot volume.
buddy asks
My iMac broke down. I'm currently using a Windows XP machine. How do I transfer all my iPod Touch data (apps, music, video, photos etc) to the new machine? Syncing won't work because iTunes says that all data on the iPod will be erased. There's no way to backup apps without syncing. I've seen a couple of commercial 3rd party apps that can transfer most data (though I'm not sure if they can transfer apps). It's insane if Apple doesn't provide a simple way for me to do this.
We generally stay away from Windows questions, but since it's a sad story I've got a suggestion for you. You will have to use third-party software; this functionality is not built into iTunes (because of piracy concerns).
Before you do any of this, you might want to plug your iPod into a friend's Mac and use Senuti to back up your non-iTMS music and videos. iTunes should offer to transfer your purchased apps and music back to the machine, and you can dig out the Mobile Applications folder for backup.
MediaFour's XPlay will give you access to your entire data store on the touch as a letter drive (yep, even a Mac format touch), so you should be able to back up your data and reconstruct your library. It's not 100% clear that the apps would transfer, but once you have the device syncing with iTunes on your PC you may be able to redownload your apps from the App Store.
It is my understanding (I've never used it personally) that Winamp also includes the capacity to copy songs from an iPod to a Windows computer. However, you may also need a slightly more advanced Winamp plugin called ml_ipod. Both are free downloads.
For the record, on the Mac my go to application for this is PodWorks ($8). Good luck, and let us know what solution you eventually find!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
iMe said 11:53AM on 3-04-2009
A Question that I would like to have answered:
In iCal i would love to have the possibility to show the current day as the first day in the week-view. Today being wednesday I would hence love to have the first column being that wednesday. Tomorrow - the first column would automatically be Thursday... and so forth.
Is there a way to accomplish this? if not, is there another calender program that can do so?
thanks for helping out!!
i love tuaw!
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Zaxour said 11:41AM on 3-04-2009
I've found that if you sort the folder by "Kind," it usually puts folders first.
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Jrox said 2:23PM on 3-04-2009
in finder, go to view in menu bar and show view options, then "arrange by" and select whatever you want!
Darren said 11:43AM on 3-04-2009
> When doing a complete backup of my MBP hard drive, is it important to save large files like sleepimage?
The files in /var/vm, including sleepimage and the various swapfiles are created automatically by the system, you never need to copy them. Swapfiles in particular are deleted every time you reboot your system.
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Michael said 11:50AM on 3-04-2009
BillSaysThis asks
My dad wants to get Boot Camp running on his Mini but Boot Camp Assistant can't run to completion because it some programs can't be moved, so partitioning can't be finished. How do I help him fix this error?
I ran into this problem when attempting to use Boot Camp Assistant to partition my hard drive. It kept running into an error, stating that a file could not be moved. What solved the problem for me was to use Drive Genius to defragment the hard drive. This then moved whatever file was previously inaccessible, thus clearing up the problem.
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niknak said 12:14PM on 3-04-2009
I had the same problem, and the same solution worked for me. I used Techtool Pro though where it's called optimisation and you have to start up from another volume. Also a warning - it takes AGES. It took 10-12 hours on my 320GB 7200rpm drive.
Philip S. said 12:48PM on 3-04-2009
I just did this over the weekend. If you want to fix this but don't want to get any additional software, you can do this:
Boot from the leopard disk, and use Disk Utility to restore from your mini to an external volume. Then wipe the internal hard drive and restore from the backup volume. This essentially does a defragment but without any extra software.
Dave said 1:45PM on 3-04-2009
I've found SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to be faster for copying/cloning volumes than Apple's Disk Utility. Both are freely available (SuperDuper is a paid for app to get its extra features, but the basic cloning functionality is there for free).
Joe said 6:06PM on 6-01-2009
I have a few computers on the home network, sometimes they all automatically appear in finder, but what do I do when they don't automatically show up, I want to refresh the network so I can swap files between computers.
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John said 12:54PM on 3-04-2009
hi,
does anyone know of a mac utility (or pc... if necessary) that can restore an image (or an actual dvd) to a non-hfs partition or a usb stick?
I'm trying to get boot camp working, but my superdrive is fried and windows won't boot from my external firewire dvd drive. I have an external usb hd, though, and a usb stick thingy, so i figured i could just make an image of my xp install disk (is this legal? it's my own copy that i bought), and restore that to the usb stick or to a partition on my drive. trouble is, superduper, carbon copy cloner, and disk utility are all unable to do this (at least i can't figure out how.. after 5 frustrating hours of trying, and googling!). I've also tried a few different programs on an xp virtual machine - alcohol 120, daemon tools, and a few others - but i can't figure out how to do it. all the articles i've read describe long complicated procedures with command line tools - all way above my pay grade! i figure there MUST be a simple way to do this, no? I did the equivalent with my leopard install disk, to a bootable partition on my external, and it was ridiculously easy. i know it's windows, but it can't be THAT much more complicated to do something this simple, can it???
any help much appreciated!
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Yuusharo said 12:08PM on 3-04-2009
Of course you can sort Folders first in column mode. You just have to dig a little and modify a string in a file.
Go to /System/Library/Core Services/Finder and "show package content"
Then, go to ~/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings and open that file in TextEdit.
Find the string that says (( "Folder" = "Folder"; )) without parenthesis and add a space between the quotation mark and the 'F' in the second "Folder"
Before After
"Folder" = "Folder"; -----> "Folder" = " Folder";
Save it out. You may need to repair permissions, but I never did. Works great!
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Hawkman said 12:19PM on 3-04-2009
The Boot Camp thing could also be a matter of not enough free space to shuffle the files around in. The Assistant has to get a stretch of free space at the end of the disk to partition – and needs a good amount of "working space" to move things around.
Asking for a smaller partition size or freeing up more space will help if this is the problem. Also, you can use something like iDefrag – it's much better at clearing space in the right areas. You shouldn't run anything like that without a full backup, though.
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tves said 7:39AM on 3-05-2009
Been there, tried that.. iDefrag was a waste of money for me.. I hadn't heard of Drive Genius or th ProTools, and i passsed on "buying" another app in SuperDuper, but I'll give it a shot if the cloning is included in the free version.. Only probelm (question?) with that is does the external have to be empty and formatted for Mac to back it up or can i use a windows networked (non-empty) HDD?
Thanks
William Hook said 12:20PM on 3-04-2009
For a Windows replacement of 1Password, my dad uses a program called Code Wallet Pro. It's pretty powerful, but as far as I know it doesn't have browser plugins, so you need to do everything manually, which is an annoyance.
There's also a Windows Mobile app that, like 1Password, will sync with the desktop version.
CWP is $24 from http://www.developerone.com/codewalletpro/windowspc.htm
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Chris said 12:50PM on 3-04-2009
Question for next time:
Every time I click a mailto: link - from any program - it opens the new mail message window behind the main Mail window. I have looked online and throughly in Mail preferences but cannot find a solution. Thanks!
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Mike said 12:58PM on 3-04-2009
A note to buddy.
If you have some spare time, I would look at jailbreaking your iPod to backup your music. This provides significantly more possibilities than just backing up music. You can also backup Notes, Pictures, Application Data, etc. I wouldn't worry about applications themselves, you can re-download using your iTunes account for free if you have already purchased.
You will want to use ssh to scp your files to another machine. I would start with your Media files in /private/var/mobile/Media.
I have done this in the past to save Notes, Pics, etc and then do a selective restore after re-install. You will need to dedicate a few hours to learning how the iPod handles data, but virtually all Property Lists (.plist) and SQLite databases can be backed up and restored manually.
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Kevin said 1:12PM on 3-04-2009
Quick question:
I need to use a https site to manage my webhosting account, however each time I access that page I have to specifically tell Safari to trust the certificate. Is there any way to force it on a certain domain?
With regards
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shanestout said 4:32PM on 3-04-2009
I have a question on my macbook unibody the trash bin always appears full, no matter what I do it wont change
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GlennAC said 4:29PM on 3-05-2009
Shane,
Have you tried holding down the Option key while selecting "Empty
Trash"?
koesac said 5:03PM on 3-04-2009
i have set up google as my primary location for calendars and now use WebDAV to connect to them on my iphone and Mac. However in iCal the calendars all come up separately on the left, each in a 'folder' with the same name as the calendar. This is only an issue as I can no longer change the calendar an event belongs to. Is there any way of doing this? I used to be able to make an event in one calendar when using just iCal and then edit it to move it to another calendar.
Thanks
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