Andy's Un-Official Unsolicited Mac Advice Thread

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  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,961 moderator
    edited April 13, 2008
    cabbey wrote:
    Have you considered the relationship between the filesystem block size and size of the files?

    Good thinking, but the numbers don't work with 512 byte sectors. Assuming the worst case, there would be 200 mostly empty 32k clusters, one for each pic. That only consumes 6.4M. I confess I don't remember how you check the sector size of the file system. They would need to be 4k or so for this explanation to be plausible.
  • cabbeycabbey Registered Users Posts: 1,053 Major grins
    edited April 13, 2008
    DoctorIt wrote:
    edit: BTW, I just tried yet ANOTHER card w/twice the capacity, a 256. The EXACT thing happend - "not enough free space to copy image xxxx-083.jpg" then it only copied 83 of 200 images, just like with the other card. Its not the cards.

    uhm, headscratch.gifeek7.gifne_nau.gif

    I'll ponder what else it could be. You don't have long file names do you? Sticking to 8.3 will save you space.
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  • cabbeycabbey Registered Users Posts: 1,053 Major grins
    edited April 13, 2008
    Richard wrote:
    Good thinking, but the numbers don't work with 512 byte sectors. Assuming the worst case, there would be 200 mostly empty 32k clusters, one for each pic. That only consumes 6.4M.

    Ha-ha! damn good point!
    I confess I don't remember how you check the sector size of the file system. They would need to be 4k or so for this explanation to be plausible.

    None of the routes I would usually use seem to be working for me on a CF card I've got usb attached with a fat16 filesystem on it.
    SmugMug Sorcerer - Engineering Team Champion for Commerce, Finance, Security, and Data Support
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  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,961 moderator
    edited April 13, 2008
    DoctorIt wrote:
    Corrupt directory or process or something.
    nod.gif Curiouser and curiouser. It is starting to sound like something weird in the directory. Try this:

    1) Reboot the machine to rule out bit rot in running processes.
    2) Try repeating the copy you were originally trying to do, to make sure the problem is still there.
    3) Try to copy 200 different images from a different directory to the card.

    If (3) succeeds, then it is likely a problem in the directory structure. You might be able to fix it by copying the pics to a new directory on the machine and then working from the new directory.

    If (3) fails, then you must have done something to offend the digital deities. Repent now, or forever avoid anything with a microprocessor in it. rolleyes1.gif

    Seriously, this is very strange. If you have a utility that checks the integrity of your machine's file system, I would run it soon.
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited April 13, 2008
    cabbey wrote:
    I'll ponder what else it could be. You don't have long file names do you? Sticking to 8.3 will save you space.
    did at first, but thought of this and renamed them all with 3 digits: "001.jpg" up to "306.jpg"
    Richard wrote:
    Seriously, this is very strange. If you have a utility that checks the integrity of your machine's file system, I would run it soon.
    Done. No hiccups.

    Took the offending files, put them on MrsIt's Powerbook and did the Preview trick (open all in there and save selected at super low quality). Still didn't fit. The end result was the same thing - what MacOS said was only 38mb (now very small) would not fit onto a 128mb card. Magic 83. I don't have photoshop on that machine so I couldn't have a go at another batch, but I did once again grab 120mb of random other jpgs and they worked as they should (used "get info" for a bunch of files =~100mb).

    Demons, only explanation.

    Thanks for all the help.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 14, 2008
    cabbey wrote:
    That said, I recently picked up VMWare Fusion based in part on the glowing recommendations of Andy and others. So far I've not been at all impressed. The two VMs I have that I brought over from VMWare Workstation on Linux have had serious kkeyyybooaaadd sttutteerrrinngs which has meant I've been unable to login to them to reconfigure the network.

    This sounds very similar to a problem I was having using an external keyboard on a Windows laptop running VMWare Player. The solution was enabling or disabling I don't remember the HID in the config file. The support forum got me an answer pretty quickly though.

    Sorry to hear about the problems.
    -=Bradford

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  • cabbeycabbey Registered Users Posts: 1,053 Major grins
    edited April 15, 2008
    This sounds very similar to a problem I was having using an external keyboard on a Windows laptop running VMWare Player. The solution was enabling or disabling I don't remember the HID in the config file. The support forum got me an answer pretty quickly though.

    Sorry to hear about the problems.

    So far, it looks like it's an issue with importing VMs from Linux or Windows VMWare Workstation. I imported a VM that I know was created on Fusion and it just works. I created a VM fresh and booted a copy of Damn Small Linux and it just works. rolleyes1.gif
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  • cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 16, 2008
    which backup?
    Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper...and why? CCC has the potential to be cheaper..sort of.

    Its painfully hard to find recommended sw on this thread now...maybe a summary post at the top?
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited April 16, 2008
    cmason wrote:
    Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper...and why? CCC has the potential to be cheaper..sort of.

    Its painfully hard to find recommended sw on this thread now...maybe a summary post at the top?


    SuperDuper. Stays up to date and updgrades easier. Better support, IMO.
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  • W.W. WebsterW.W. Webster Registered Users Posts: 3,204 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    cmason wrote:
    Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper...and why?
    Time Machine, and it's free! thumb.gif
  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    Guys how do i make a folder in my email of safari ?
  • SloYerRollSloYerRoll Registered Users Posts: 2,788 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    folder. email. safari. headscratch.gif
  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    SloYerRoll wrote:
    folder. email. safari. headscratch.gif
    Yeah...same as outlook express. Cant be done then ?
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited April 17, 2008
    gus wrote:
    Yeah...same as outlook express. Cant be done then ?
    If this is a new Safari thing, I have no idea. But in Mac Mail, simple as cmd-click (right-click) in the folders pane and "make new folder".

    I can investigate more when I get home if you haven't figured it out.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    gus wrote:
    Guys how do i make a folder in my email of safari ?

    If you meant "email or Safari" then in Apple Mail, the key is that they're called Mailboxes, so you go under Mailbox and do New Mailbox or New Smart Mailbox. In Safari, there are folders in bookmarks so if that's what you mean, click the bookmarks icon or do Bookmarks>Show All Bookmarks and click the plus sign at the bottom left of the bookmarks window.
    cmason wrote:
    Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper...and why? CCC has the potential to be cheaper..sort of.
    Time Machine, and it's free! thumb.gif

    They solve two different problems. I would trust CCC or SuperDuper for making bootable backups. Have used both over the years. Started with CCC, then moved to SuperDuper when it pulled out ahead in features and ease-of-use. Recently CCC came out with a major upgrade and looks more on par with SD, but I'm still sticking with SD for now.

    Time Machine is better for set-and-forget incremental backups, and providing many versions to roll back to. But if your drive goes south, you can't boot from a Time Machine backup. You must wait until you reconstitute a bootable drive using your original OS DVD + your Time Machine backup (I hear Time Machine can do this automatically). With CCC or SuperDuper, you can produce a complete, immediately bootable mirror of your disk that can be updated incrementally, but you don't get multiple versions of files. I like being able to boot immediately from a backup. If the main drive fails, I can pull my SuperDuper backup out of the closet, boot, and return to work right now. I will eventually use Time Machine and SuperDuper together: SD for the immediately bootable backup that can be rotated off site, and Time Machine for access to many backup versions.
  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    Apple mail ?

    ok...k...k...k

    I had a PC with outlook express. In the left hand side when i opened outlook i could choose 'make new folder' which i would & when i got an email i wanted to keep separate i would simply right click on that email & it would ask if i wanted to move it to a folder & which folder would i like it to be destined to.

    I now have a mac which runs Safari. I want to do the same as i did on my PC.

    I am not interested in macmail & have no idea what it is other than what i assume is an email account with mac. I am quite happy with my currents ISP's email addresses & dont wish for any more.
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    gus wrote:
    Apple mail ?...

    I now have a mac which runs Safari. I want to do the same as i did on my PC.

    I am not interested in macmail & have no idea what it is other than what i assume is an email account with mac. I am quite happy with my currents ISP's email addresses & dont wish for any more.

    Apple Mail is a standalone mail client like Outlook. I don't have a .Mac account, I use Apple Mail as a standard IMAP client to retrieve mail from my ISP and Gmail.

    If you mean you are using webmail inside Safari, then the way to create folders depends on the individual mail service (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.)
  • gluwatergluwater Registered Users Posts: 3,599 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    colourbox wrote:
    If you meant "email or Safari" then in Apple Mail, the key is that they're called Mailboxes, so you go under Mailbox and do New Mailbox or New Smart Mailbox. In Safari, there are folders in bookmarks so if that's what you mean, click the bookmarks icon or do Bookmarks>Show All Bookmarks and click the plus sign at the bottom left of the bookmarks window.



    They solve two different problems. I would trust CCC or SuperDuper for making bootable backups. Have used both over the years. Started with CCC, then moved to SuperDuper when it pulled out ahead in features and ease-of-use. Recently CCC came out with a major upgrade and looks more on par with SD, but I'm still sticking with SD for now.

    Time Machine is better for set-and-forget incremental backups, and providing many versions to roll back to. But if your drive goes south, you can't boot from a Time Machine backup. You must wait until you reconstitute a bootable drive using your original OS DVD + your Time Machine backup (I hear Time Machine can do this automatically). With CCC or SuperDuper, you can produce a complete, immediately bootable mirror of your disk that can be updated incrementally, but you don't get multiple versions of files. I like being able to boot immediately from a backup. If the main drive fails, I can pull my SuperDuper backup out of the closet, boot, and return to work right now. I will eventually use Time Machine and SuperDuper together: SD for the immediately bootable backup that can be rotated off site, and Time Machine for access to many backup versions.
    I would have to agree with all you said. One plus for Super Duper is that time Machine will only back up your main hard drive. If I am wrong with that statement please correct me. But I have all my images on an external and I use Super Duper to back that up and Time Machine to back up my OS.
    Nick
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  • zweiblumenzweiblumen Registered Users Posts: 369 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    gus wrote:
    Apple mail ?

    ok...k...k...k

    I had a PC with outlook express. In the left hand side when i opened outlook i could choose 'make new folder' which i would & when i got an email i wanted to keep separate i would simply right click on that email & it would ask if i wanted to move it to a folder & which folder would i like it to be destined to.

    I now have a mac which runs Safari. I want to do the same as i did on my PC.

    I am not interested in macmail & have no idea what it is other than what i assume is an email account with mac. I am quite happy with my currents ISP's email addresses & dont wish for any more.

    Safari == Internet Explorer
    (mac)Mail == Outlook(express)

    Safari is not a mail client. Mail is just a client, you don't need to get a new email address or anything like that.

    My guess is you are currently using safari to view a webclient provided by your ISP to view your mail. As such, you'd need to use that clients tools to add different folders and "mail boxes" to sort things in. For instance, in my webclient I can right click on the "folders" tab and I get an option for "make new folder." I'm sure your webclient has the equivalent somewhere. Or, you can just set up Mail to be your mail client instead of using the browser.
    Travis
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited April 17, 2008
    gus wrote:
    Apple mail ?

    ok...k...k...k
    Yes, Apple Mail. You're already using it, I've seen you! It's the default mail application on your iMac.
    nod.gif

    Mate, I've got what you're on about... So, you're in safari, you go to my smugmug site and you click on the "email me" link on the bottom. When you do that, Apple Mail is the default program that opens up so you can send the message.

    So in that case, someone already said it, they're called "mailboxes" instead of folders. So up across the top you've got Mailbox > New Mailbox

    20080417-cd6nyc7nqre797s21mcqpdkmy7.jpg
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    Thinking about doing a reinstall of the OS
    Howdy All-

    So I went to Leopard and did it as an upgrade not a clean install. I am having some weirdness, such as Preview is called "2007 Holiday Card.pdf". And there are other things that just make me think it ain't working as well as it could. So I figure before I just jump into the pool I would ask questions. So here are my questions:
    1. How does one backup the Entourage mail data?
    2. Will I need to reinstall the Windows instance on the Boot Camp Partition?
    3. Is there a way to download all the patches and updates ahead of time; both for the OS and for Creative Suite 3?
    4. Did I miss anything that I should be aware of?

    Thanks!
    -=Bradford

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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    Brad,

    Sounds like something definitely went wrong. I think that reinstalling instead of troubleshooting is a good idea at this point. Here's what I would do:

    1) Repair the disk with Disk Warrior, or if you don't have that, Disk Utility (which you can run on the install disk before installing).

    2) Do an Archive and Install. You don't need to erase the entire drive, you lose nothing, but it reinstalls the new OS completely, archiving the old System so that you have it for long enough to know that you no longer need it, after which time you can trash it.

    I don't know about the Boot Camp or Entourage things, I never use 'em. :D
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  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    [*]Is there a way to download all the patches and updates ahead of time; both for the OS and for Creative Suite 3?

    For Mac OS X and CS3, if you have an accurate list of the patches you need, you can download them as self-contained installers from both companies' sites. It's a pain, though. For Adobe, each product and several sub-components have updates, and for OS X, there are updates for everything from Safari to Security to AirPort to OS X 10.5.2 itself. You should at least make sure you download a full .dmg of OS X 10.5.2 Combo Updater in advance because it's a very large download, and because installing that major update gets you to a fairly recent baseline for whatever incremental updates are left.

    For CS3 what I do is install the suite, activate it, then run Adobe Updater and let it collect everything it needs.

    For Mac OS X, if you start with your freshly installed baseline system and you run Software Update, there is a command Update>Download Only. This will bring you exactly the patches you need, without installing them. Obviously, you can only do this if you have a system already installed; you can't really do it "ahead of time" because you don't know the difference between the system you have on disk and the current versions of all the system components.
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 17, 2008
    Thanks.

    My plan is to copy the drive contents (both partitions) to my external hard drive and then do the install. We shall see what happens. I did some RTFM'ing for Entourage before I posted here and it tells you how to restore from a backup... but not real clear on how to create a backup. In Outlook on Windows it is a little clearer and there is even a plugin to do it.
    -=Bradford

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  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited April 18, 2008
    DoctorIt wrote:
    Yes, Apple Mail. You're already using it, I've seen you! It's the default mail application on your iMac.
    nod.gif

    Mate, I've got what you're on about... So, you're in safari, you go to my smugmug site and you click on the "email me" link on the bottom. When you do that, Apple Mail is the default program that opens up so you can send the message.

    So in that case, someone already said it, they're called "mailboxes" instead of folders. So up across the top you've got Mailbox > New Mailbox

    ta doc, looks like your on the money there. i will see how i go.
  • cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 18, 2008
    Ok, just now migrating to the mac, so far a few stumbles, but no surprises.

    But, in both Firefox and Safari, DGrin forums display in this awful, fat font. How to I change the default font for web browsers?
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited April 18, 2008
    cmason wrote:
    Ok, just now migrating to the mac, so far a few stumbles, but no surprises.

    But, in both Firefox and Safari, DGrin forums display in this awful, fat font. How to I change the default font for web browsers?
    The font is set by the page generally. For the dgrin style I use (don't remember what it's called - dark with orange accents) it is this: verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif. So if you don't have verdana you get geneva, and if you don't have that you get lucidia, etc. It's exceedingly unlikely that you don't have any of those fonts and you end up with the default sans-serif. So changing that in your browser isn't likely to do much of anything.
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  • Moogle PepperMoogle Pepper Registered Users Posts: 2,950 Major grins
    edited April 18, 2008
    I have a question.

    If I use bootcamp to load up winxp on the macbook pro, will I still be able to access the hdd? So if I process my photos via aperature or whatever is on the OSX, and then felt like fiddling with software in bootcamp's MS, would I be able to access those files?
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  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 18, 2008
    I have a question.

    If I use bootcamp to load up winxp on the macbook pro, will I still be able to access the hdd? So if I process my photos via aperature or whatever is on the OSX, and then felt like fiddling with software in bootcamp's MS, would I be able to access those files?

    Yes with some caveats. From within Leopard you can access the Win partition as long as it is Fat32 (if I remember right) and copy and paste as you want to. If you use VMWare Fusion with BootCamp you can do it from running Win XP as a virtualization. You can literally drag from one to the other.

    Does that make sense?

    Basically from Leopard (Mac) you can access the Win partition but from Windows you cannot access the Mac partition. To do it without rebooting VMWare fusion lets you run Win XP within Leopard.
    -=Bradford

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  • cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited April 18, 2008
    Mike Lane wrote:
    The font is set by the page generally. For the dgrin style I use (don't remember what it's called - dark with orange accents) it is this: verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif. So if you don't have verdana you get geneva, and if you don't have that you get lucidia, etc. It's exceedingly unlikely that you don't have any of those fonts and you end up with the default sans-serif. So changing that in your browser isn't likely to do much of anything.

    ok well it is different, and I haven't noticed in other websites so far...

    Windows
    281401635_oTSrS-M.jpg


    Mac
    281402949_JuAoH-M.jpg

    OK well that doesnt come across well, but the Mac font look fat and round...odd
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