The OFFICIAL Mac User Support Thread

[wiegeabo]

You should be able to use Disk Utility to create a partition on your external drive for Time Machine to use as backup, without damaging your existing files. Then use the other partition for doing work as normal.

You could even set up another partition on your main hard drive for Time Machine.

But there's a good reason not to do either. The point of a backup drive is to only use it for backup. In either of the above situations, if a drive fails due to wear and tear, you'll also lose all the Time Machine backups on that drive. And what's the point of backing up if its just going to a hard drive that might fail.


My advice, either get an external drive and use it only for backups or, if your Mac comes with multiple internal drives, use the spare drive only for Time Machine.

 

[StrainedEyes]

I tried using Time Machine but it was taking way to long to backup and it was making my computer slow as I did it. The description says it does hourly backups, but I was 3 hours in and it wasn't even half way through the first one.

 

[wiegeabo]

The first backup always takes the longest. Time Machine literally has to inventory and backup every file on your machine. It's usually best to do this when you don't need to use the computer, like when you're sleeping.

After that, each backup only copies the changes. Files that have been modified, moved, deleted and such. They won't take nearly as long.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Well...well...well... look who finally joined the club.

Jag would have been happy to know I now own a Early 08 model MBP 17" 2.5 Core 2 Duo.

So Wiegeabo I think I may be asking you and anyone else that can help me out conquering this baby. My goal is to own terminal like it was comic book characters getting owned by Rob Leifield on a regular basis.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

The first backup always takes the longest. Time Machine literally has to inventory and backup every file on your machine. It's usually best to do this when you don't need to use the computer, like when you're sleeping.

After that, each backup only copies the changes. Files that have been modified, moved, deleted and such. They won't take nearly as long.

Yes, Wieg is right. Depending on how much you are backing up the first time it creates an entire image. Leave over night like Weig suggested.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

How the hell do I control click on these boards with my Mac?

On my old PC I could control click B and it would [B ][ /B] for me when I typed.

 

[wiegeabo]

What?

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Edit. Lol.

 

[wiegeabo]

How the hell do I control click on these boards with my Mac?

On my old PC I could control click B and it would [B ][ /B] for me when I typed.

I'm still confused because on my PC, I don't need to control click and I still get [B ][ /B]. Just clicking on the B brings the tags up for me, or surrounds any highlighted text with the tags.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I'm still confused because on my PC, I don't need to control click and I still get [B ][ /B]. Just clicking on the B brings the tags up for me, or surrounds any highlighted text with the tags.

On my Toshiba running windows. I could press the control button then the B button and it would highlight the bold feature. But it doesn't seem to be support on my mac keyboard. Unless I should be pressing another set of command keys to trigger the same thing.

Does that make sense?

 

[wiegeabo]

Ok, I thought you meant control-click with your mouse, not control-B.

What browser are you using? With Firefox on my Mac, control-B works fine when adding the tags.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I am using Safari. OS X 10.5.6

 

[wiegeabo]

In Safari I don't think you can. You have to go into advanced editing and click the buttons on the editor.

Safari also doesn't support the editing/view button on the advanced editor that lets you see raw text and formatted text.

 

[wiegeabo]

In Safari I don't think you can. You have to go into advanced editing and click the buttons on the editor.

Safari also doesn't support the editing/view button on the advanced editor that lets you see raw text and formatted text.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

So ah ha well looks like it's back to Firefox for me.

Thanks Weig

 

[Crook]

Quick question, why is it that when I save something in TextEdit, and open it, it's wrapped in a whole bunch of code? For example:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf430
{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
\margl1440\margr1440\vieww9000\viewh8400\viewkind0
\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural

\f0\fs24 \cf0 12300425\
}

I try deleting all that stuff and saving just the text I need, but I open it and it still comes up as that. Weird thing, is quick preview in Finder displays the file correctly. I'm thinking some settings in the app got messed up. Any ideas?

 

[wiegeabo]

It looks like TextEdit is saving everything in rich text format, instead of just text.

I'm only guessing because of the first line saying rtf1. Usually a tag for rich text format.

When you do a save as, what file type does it choose by default?

 

[Crook]

RTF.

How do I revert everything back to the same settings so I don't get this weird crap? I tried going into options and changing back to default, but that didn't do anything.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Hmmm....depends on how much you want to revert?

 

[wiegeabo]

RTF.

How do I revert everything back to the same settings so I don't get this weird crap? I tried going into options and changing back to default, but that didn't do anything.

In TextEdit, open the file and click Format|Make Plain Text

This should get rid of the ruler and formatting bar, and default to saving the file to just text. Not sure if you'll have to do this with every file, or if it will change the default.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Hey Weig, what are some really good websites or books to really get me up to speed on a mac?

 

[wiegeabo]

Hey Weig, what are some really good websites or books to really get me up to speed on a mac?

No idea. Most of my Mac knowledge comes from playing around with it and watching all the old Jobs keynotes as each new version came out.

The website has a bunch of good stuff. Try starting here http://www.apple.com/macosx/

 

[empire]

Hey guys,

My sister has an IMac 20" Intel based computer. Just recently, it started to freeze up on her after login. Here's what I've done so far: 1. I took out the memory and re-seated. 2. I reset the PRAM. If anything, its made things worse. Now it stays stuck at the grey apple logo screen. But sometimes, it will get all the way to the login screen.

Anybody got suggestions. I would greatly appreciate it.

BTW, I also tried booting into safe mode (SHIFT key). Doesn't work. Only gets stuck at the grey apple logo screen.

 

[Mrh7448]

I've got a problem with an external hard drive. It was working on Friday afternoon, I had to clear a few things off. But when I came in on Monday it wasn't showing up on my Desktop like normal. I've tried doing the firmware update that is located on the lacie website and that doesn't work.

I've tried doing a reboot, tried connecting it to other systems but it doesn't show up on any of them. I've tried using the USB ports as well, and nothing.

I'm getting power, the light is flashing but it's just not mounting. In the device manager when it's plugged into the firewire it shows an Unknown device attached but that's about it.

I kinda figure either the drive got fried over the weekend (though it was plugged into a surge protected power bar) or it's some of internal problem.


Any suggestions would be appreciated. There was a hell of a lot of data we need that was on that thing.

 

[wiegeabo]

I've got a problem with an external hard drive. It was working on Friday afternoon, I had to clear a few things off. But when I came in on Monday it wasn't showing up on my Desktop like normal. I've tried doing the firmware update that is located on the lacie website and that doesn't work.

I've tried doing a reboot, tried connecting it to other systems but it doesn't show up on any of them. I've tried using the USB ports as well, and nothing.

I'm getting power, the light is flashing but it's just not mounting. In the device manager when it's plugged into the firewire it shows an Unknown device attached but that's about it.

I kinda figure either the drive got fried over the weekend (though it was plugged into a surge protected power bar) or it's some of internal problem.


Any suggestions would be appreciated. There was a hell of a lot of data we need that was on that thing.

It certainly does sound like something happened to the drive over the weekend. Probably just failed due to wear and tear (or somebody dropped it and tried to cover it up ).

Since the drive is showing up as unknown (and is presumably making normal drive sounds when something tries to access it), I wonder if the data is good, but the file allocation table was lost. Basically, everything would still be on the drive, but that data that tells the computer how to read the drive is corrupted.

I know a couple of programs for the PC that can read a drive like this so you can recover data. I'm sure there's probably some Mac programs that can do it too.