If you open your Mac’s boot drive, you may find a folder called “lost+found” next to the System, Applications, Users, and other system directories at the top level of the drive. If not, then this folder may still be present, but could just be hidden, so check for its presence by pressing Shift-Command-G in the Finder, and then entering “/lost+found” (minus the quotes) in the drop-down panel. If this reveals the folder, you may find a number of files in it that begin with the name “iNode” and end with a series of numbers. Continue reading
Tag Archives: filesystem
What to do about error -36 and other I/O errors in OS X
While rare, in OS X you may run across a problem where upon copying or accessing files and folders, the system will stop and display an warning that simply states the operation could not be completed because of an error. For the most part when this occurs, you will see error code -36 displayed, but it can also include other numbers. If these happen, there may be a quick fix you can try, but generally they indicate unknown low level problems with your Mac. Continue reading
Fix OS X crashing when a particular folder is opened
Does OS X sometimes crash when you open a particular folder? While such occurrences are fairly rare, there may be instances where the Finder runs run into problems when handling a specific folder, and then either hang and display the spinning color wheel, or have the Finder crash and re-launch. If such problems are happening, then after ensuring you have a full and restorable backup of your system up to date, there are a couple of fixes you can try. Continue reading
Fix inaccessible and grayed out folders in the OS X Finder
All files and folders that you encounter when browsing the Finder in OS X should be displayed in regular font and icon color; however, there may be times when this is not the case, and one or more folders may appear grayed out and otherwise faded. When this happens, you will not be able to open the folder, and unlike other folders that may show a small entry triangle next to them in list view, these will not have options for viewing what is inside. Continue reading
How to make secondary boot partitions read-only in OS X
Do you dual-boot your Mac with at least one other installation of OS X? If so then you might benefit from setting up each installation so the other boot partition that mounts is read-only.
When you install OS X, the drive it resides on will be formatted to Mac OS Extended, a format that is fully writable by any current version of OS X. As a result, when you load 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 look up file metadata in OS X
When you save files to disk on your Mac, OS X will include a number of metadata information along with the file, which programs and services such as the Finder might use to sort and search for items. If you need to look at any of this metadata for a file, then there are several ways you can do so.
The first of these is the simple Finder information Continue reading