Wow, some awesome advice here.

Does SL or Leopard need de-fragmenting or does it do it automatically? I have always wondered that.

Performance wise data partitions run so much quicker when files are contiguous - at least that is what I've found with clunky Windows.

Where can I get a copy of CCC?

SD,
I am not familiar with GPT/EFT issues. The GUID requirement I only found out about when I tried to install an OS update.
I got a message telling me that it could not be done. The initial cause of this whole thing was due to the "Authorized Apple Service' installing a larger drive in my MBP without partitioning it GUID.
I would have understood partitioning to be dividing the drive into, well, partitions however it can remain one single partition, but for Apple OS it is necessary to install either the OS or updates.

I doubt that drives from most of the manufacturers would be partitioned for this Apple requirement, my WD 320GB was not.

CCC and I believe Super Duper, will copy over verbatim all your old drive including the OS, to a new one and all will appear normal until you try to install/re-install the OS or an update.

Disk utility has the tools to do the partition.

In my case I copied the entire new drive contents, (it had been in use for some time), to an external. I had the original that had been replaced in another external housing with the all original content intact.
I used it as the boot drive then formatted and partitioned the "new" disk and copied the cloned content from the external. Bit of a chore but I did the copying overnight.

As a matter of interest, the first clone I did I connected using an Express card via E-SATA and it took 3 hours. The final copy back to the "New" drive would not work by E-SATA for some reason, it took about eleven hours by USB.
Sorry for the rambling but some of the techs that work both Apple and PCs may not be aware of the partition requirements.

Hmmmm...... Interesting.....

My partition scheme does appear to be APS rather than GUID so firmware updates probably won't work.

On the other hand, current firmware is the latest - MM11.0055B08 (EFI 1.1) and 13f4 (SMC 1.0) and Apple probably won't update for this older Mac Mini.

Software updates and the machine work fine so I don't think I'm going to worry about it. If I ever need to reinstall OSX on this drive I'll just image the Data partition, repartition as GUID, install OSX on the primary partition and restore the image to the secondary one.

A most interesting little detour around the Mac ecosystem!

Thanks innuendo and the rest of you!

:ok:

Mac

PS: Linux (and my long-time fave is MEPIS - https://www.mepis.org/ ) is easier to manage and has fewer odd little surprises like this)

Son wants a apple imac or mac mini
 

Help

My son wants a apple thingy mainly for use for music tech studies and gaming
mainly wants to run a program called LOGIC PRO. Does not what spec apple to get

I want him to go for a Windoze but he uses apple at school and he wants to take his work home ( dedication ) is there a program for windows that will run LOGIC PRO for apple ?

Suggestions

Cheers

Well you'll only be able to run Logic Pro on a Mac (Logic 5 was the last for Windows native executables), but if you get a decent Mac you can use bootcamp to boot it into Windows to play games. Otherwise persuade him to use Reason 4 ;)

Many games are now coming out on the Mac natively, however it depends what sort of game he wants to play. For example FSX won't run nice, but X-Plane will, you can get Football Manager for both Windows and Mac.

I use Windows at home (for FSX) and work, but most of my home stuff is on Linux and Mac - I find programming easier on a 'nix platform for some reason. My gaming machine (the Windows one) is a reasonably serious rig and I'd recommend Windows over Mac for that area. For everything else (music, video, programming, document writing, website building, anything else...) I'd recommend the easier, 'cleaner' Mac OSx or Fedora, but then I've not yet put my Windows7 CD in to have a go...

Games wise I think he is into just mass murder shooting and blood baths :ugh:

That'll be the windows route then!

I'd suggest a compromise - a cheapish 'Mac (I know, that doesn't really exist) for the work and music, a console for games... I'm sure plenty of hack'n'slash exist on the 360 and the ps3.

Get him a top-of-the range Mac Mini

:ok:

Mac

Apple don't like you using apple operating systems/programs on anything except an apple system. There is no direct program you can install.

However, apple sell their operating system seperately, as they do with logic pro....

Bit of tinkering required, google has the answers.

The downside is that Apple won't support you if you cock things up.

hi again, my son says he wouldn't actually use it much for gaming and if he did it would be for games that don't require much power. Mainly used for Logic Pro.

He also asks is it worth even more money to get snow leopard on it as well?

You need Snow Leopard and a Core Duo processor if you want to run LogicPro 9.1 in 64-bit mode. Otherwise you need OS X v10.5.7 or higher. You also need a 1280-pixel -wide screen. This is assuming we're talking about LP9.1 with all the extras.

A friend of his has bought logic pro do you know if it can be loaded onto 2 machines ?

Defragment a Mac?

Apple says not really, OSX does it for you, read on........

About disk optimization with Mac OS X

Log in screen gone - old iMac
 

All,

I'm actually posting this for my son who has a problem with his old iMac G4. (The older one which looks like a lamp!)

Seems he had accounts on the iMac for himself, my other son and their mother. According to my son, one evening they had a power failure at their home and the next morning instead of being greeted by the "normal" log in screen on the iMac he was surprised to see a generic-looking one. This may well be the Administrator account he's looking at but I don't know as I have no access to his iMac. He's tried all passwords he can think of and nothing works.

The iMac in question is running OS X (10.2?). So, anyone have an idea on what happened to the login screen and, if so, had to get it back?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks aviate1138 - many, many years ago I worked on pre-historic removable 300MB disk drives larger than washing machines and we had to de-frag all the time - that's probably scarred me into thinking drives have to be de-fragmented.

Mac OS X is based on the Mach Kernel. Other parts of the OS come from NextStep, FreeBSD and NetBSD. All of which are mainly Unix-based. Thus Mac OS X has gained, since OS X 10.5 Unix 03 certification.

The point being? Unix/Linux desktops and servers do not really experience file fragmentation. And certainly not on the order of Windows-based systems.

You may very well defrag. a Mac OS X file system but it is not a necessity.

Save Link Target As....
 

I use a PC, herself uses a Mac.

To save a file from a link (say an article in .pdf format from a link quoted here in the forum), I just right-click and select "Save Link Target As...." in the drop-down menu.
Elementary.

Except... on the Mac there IS no right mouse button....
So she regularly gets stuck.... when there is no "Download" somewhere on the page or in the application she's using.
Since I'm pretty well Mac-illiterate, I'm stuck too...
Any help greatly appreciated.

BTW, she uses Firefox and Safari, and OS X.

CJ

The Wise SWMBO!
 

First off, of course, you CAN use a mouse on the Mac -- there is a lovely 5-button mouse available, if you must!

And then, just remember: On a Mac, Control-Click = Mouse Right-Click on Doze!

Why don't you get wiser, considering that Mrs C-J is so much smarter, huh? :O

Apologies for not taking in all the pages here, but can I install and run the Mac OS on a bare-bones PC to reduce costs, and what spec would I need and hurdles to jump?