Your data is the most important aspect of your computer, and unfortunately we often don’t realize this until we’re faced with the possibility of having lost exceptionally valuable (if not priceless) work. This can happen as easily as a computer suddenly shutting off on you and no longer booting, or when you attach an external hard drive containing all of your files, only to find it will not mount and cannot be repaired. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Hard Drive
Options for securing external storage in OS X
The default approach for storing files on drives other than your boot drive is to get an external storage device and then copy your files to it; however, by doing so you leave open the possibility of someone getting your drive and accessing your data. To secure the files you place on such drives, there are several approaches you can take, including encrypting files or the drive itself, and using special setups to require two or even more physical drives be attached before you can access the data on them. Continue reading
No Recovery drive? Three alternatives are available to you.
When some problems such as hard drive corruption occur on your Mac, or if you need to perform account maintenance such as resetting passwords or fixing account permissions, then you will need to use the tools that Apple includes on the hidden Recovery drive that is part of OS X. However, in some cases such as for RAID arrays, you may not have a recovery partition, in which case there are several alternatives you can use, even if you are limited by your internet connection: Continue reading
How to choose a format for an external drive in OS X
Formatting an external drive to work with your Mac can be done in several ways. While for the most part drives ship in formats that are universally recognized among operating systems so data can at least be read, there are times when you may wish to wipe a drive and set it up to be most compatible with your Mac. On the other hand, you may have a drive you have primarily used with your Mac, but now wish to use it with a Windows system. In these cases, it helps to know how best to format your drive. Continue reading
How to manage iNode files in the “lost+found” directory
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
MacBook Pro firmware update addresses flash storage data corruption
Apple has released a Flash Storage firmware update for its latest mid-2015 MacBook Pro systems, which addresses a rare bug with the hard drives on these systems that could lead to data corruption.
The update should be available through Apple’s Software Update service on relevant systems, so if you have one of these models then be sure to Continue reading
How to enable TRIM on third-party SSDs in OS X
TRIM is a service that runs in your operating system and works with SSD hardware to track what blocks on the drive are unused, and then prepares them for writing. When put in use, TRIM can optimize SSD performance, especially on drives that are relatively full or used for storing and deleting large amounts of data. Until now TRIM support in OS X was reserved for Apple-supplied hard drives, but with the release of OS X 10.10.4, Apple has included a tool that allows for TRIM on third-party SSD devices. Continue reading
Mac not booting or display not working? Here is how to get your files.
In order to access the files on your Mac you will usually need to have a functioning version of OS X, along with a working display so you can interact with your system. From here, you can either use file sharing on the local network to access your data, or copy your data to external drives. However, if your Mac will not boot, or its display is not working properly, then you still may be able to get your data off of it. Continue reading
Tackle external hard drives randomly ejecting in OS X
A fault in OS X may exist for some users, where external drives unexpectedly eject and cause the system to display a “Disk ejected improperly” warning message. This usually occurs when the system is idling, such as when it is asleep, but at times may happen in the middle of file transfers or when browsing the drive for various files. When this happens, the drive’s view will disappear and all activity from it will halt, interrupting the transfer process. Continue reading
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