One of the common routines taken after installing software, upgrading the system, or otherwise heavily modifying an OS X installation, is to run a permissions fix on the boot drive. This is generally done with Disk Utility or Terminal commands. However, if you have installed El Capitan, you will notice permissions fix routines are now missing. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Disk Utility
Fix OS X hanging at bootup after installing 10.10.3
After installing OS X 10.10.3, you will find your Mac undergo the standard restart that is part of the update process, but then see it hang up as OS X loads, leaving you with a gray screen. This is likely happening because because of some changes made to Apple’s FileVault full disk encryption routine.
Along with the 10.10.3 update, Apple issued an update for the OS X Recovery system in Yosemite, which will adjust some of the contents of the hidden recovery partition. This partition is used for unlocking your boot drive at startup, and it appears a problem with the update for some people has caused the drive to improperly unlock the drive. Continue reading
How to handle multiple disks simultaneously with Disk Utility
Regardless of the number of storage devices you have attached or built into your Mac, you will likely use Disk Utility for formatting them when necessary, to partition and resize them for various purposes, and otherwise managing them. However, one limitation you might find when using Disk Utility is that it will only act on one drive or volume at a time. Continue reading
Prevent OS X requesting permission to delete files on external drives
If you have an external drive that you use with your Mac, and provided it is in a format that your Mac can read, then you by default should be able to access all of the files on it. However, there may be times when you are either barred from opening or accessing files or folders, or performing actions like deleting files may result in errors.
These error can include simple confirmation requests such as “Are you sure you want to delete the item“, or be full Continue reading
Fix your Mac stuck on encrypting with FileVault
Apple’s FileVault disk encryption option in OS X is a security feature that is highly recommended, especially for portable systems that can be easily stolen. The feature is easy to set up in the Security system preferences, after which the system should take up to a few hours to encrypt the drive, depending on the size and type of drive being used. This should be relatively straightforward; however, in some cases the encryption may get stuck and show a progress bar that will not advance, even after days of waiting. Continue reading
How to secure individual private files in OS X
Your account in OS X should be relatively secure, and provided you store your files within the structure of your account (ie, the Documents, Music, Movies, and Photos folders in your home directory), then other users on your system will not be able to access your documents. However, this security has its limits, and may break down for several reasons, especially if you transfer documents from your Mac to other systems, or to online services which you access from other systems: Continue reading
How to hide a hard drive partition on your Mac
Generally when you either partition your Mac’s boot drive, or attach a secondary drive to your Mac, then provided the partition’s formatting is compatible with OS X, you should see it mount and be available in the Finder. However, there may be times when you might wish to keep a partition hidden, either because you do not use it, or because it is not intended to be shown in the first place. Continue reading
The only ‘required’ maintenance for your Mac
You may have heard that in order to keep your Mac running in tip top shape, you need to perform regular maintenance routines on it to clear out caches and other temporary items. These can be useful at times, especially if your system is showing problems with specific applications or services; however, clearing caches, log files, and other so-called “maintenance” routines regularly will often have no effect on the system and may sometimes be entirely unnecessary steps to take. Continue reading
How to prepare a drive for use in OS X
When you purchase a thumb drive or hard drive and attach or install it in your Mac, you likely will be able to use it right away; however, depending on the uses you intend for the drive, its default setup may not be the most optimal.
In most cases, manufacturers ship drives formatted to the FAT32 filesystem, since this format is universally supported Continue reading
How to fix deep formatting problems with OS X drives
Even though formatting advances like Journaling in Apple’s filesystem formats help prevent data corruption, problems can still happen that result in a drive not only being unreadable, but also unable to be reformatted.
If this happens, the drive may show up in the Finder sidebar but not show data when clicked, Continue reading