disks posts

My USB dilemma, can you help?

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on May 19th, 2008

Here's my daily dilemma. Between work and family, we own 6 iPods (this includes our two iPhones), each of which has its unique playlists, podcast subscriptions and so forth. We also have a printer and scanner -- both used regularly, and an EyeTV tuner, again critical. We have an external microphone connector for Skyping and no fewer than three external disks. One is used for Time Machine, one for EyeTV recordings, one for my G4 backups.

My G4, with its ten built-in USB ports and connection to a single powered USB 4-port hub, is on the fast-past to dying. It's not right on the edge yet but all the signs are there. It's time to move on. But what is going to replace that G4 with its surfeit of USB ports?

Continue reading “My USB dilemma, can you help?”

Tags: Disks, Mac mini, Mac Pro, MacMini, MacPro, USB

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends

Put a stop to pesky hidden files with BlueHarvest

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Feb 15th, 2006

Do you see all sorts of ".ds_store" and "._" files lying around on your external drive when you plug it into a Windows machine? Like this MacOSXHints reader, did you browse your company's network with your Mac, leaving a trail of ._ds_store and .Trash files in your wake? If you're nodding your head right now, I think I've found the solution for you: BlueHarvest, a preference pane that lets you manage and easily clean up these various kinds of Mac OS X-specific hidden files.

BlueHarvest allows you to specify where these hidden files are created, offering different drive categories (startup disk, Servers, non-HFS disks, etc.) and allowing you to specify volumes and folders to leave alone. It even has a slick preference tab for drag and drop cleaning of .DS_Store files and resource forks from disks and directories.

I've been playing with this for a couple days now and I have to say: it's pretty handy. I have a little flash drive I use for school and a SonyEricsson phone that I can mount on my Mac, both of which I can *finally* say are truly devoid of pesky hidden files. BlueHarvest works on 10.3.9 and 10.4.x, offers a 30 day trial and costs a mere $10 - small price to pay to regain your hidden file sanity.

Tags: BlueHarvest, cleanup, disks, ds_store, hidden files, HiddenFiles

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