WPR Mac Help

In my last post, I talked about how to create a full and complete backup of your Mac’s hard drive. With this you can restore your computer to exactly what it looked like when you created the backup. This comes in very handy if, for example, your hard drive was replaced or you did some major software upgrade and you just didn’t like the way it went. I’ve used this procedure when I’ve upgraded to a larger hard drive in a machine.

This article is about how to use that backup you’ve made to restore some or all of your data.

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There are times when it would be nice/helpful/necessary to have an exact duplicate of our entire computer. Perhaps we’re going to get a new hard drive, or we’re about to do a major upgrade, and we’d like a little insurance policy if things go wrong. If you’re sending your machine in for repair, it’s always a good idea to have a backup.

In this article, I’ll show you how to make the most complete backup possible. It’s called making a “disk image” of your hard drive. We’ll basically be taking an X-ray of your Mac and tucking it away for safe keeping. It’s what I use as a just-in-case plan whenever I do any kind of major surgery on a machine. As Murphy’s law goes, if you have it, you won’t need it.

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Here’s a link you can use to listen to the actual radio broadcast. You’ll need RealPlayer installed for this to work. If you’d like to download and keep a copy of it as a regular MP3 (that plays nicely in iTunes), you’ll need to become a WPR memeber. But really, why wouldn’t you want to become a member?

http://wpr.org/ideas/noteslist_idcall.cfm?noteslist=69136

On the radio today, I started off by talking a little bit about Cache files in OS X. These little guys help speed your computer along, but when they get corrupt, lots of odd things can happen. Applications become slow, fonts look or print oddly, or strange artifacts can appear on your screen.

Below I talk a little bit more about Cache (pronounced “cash”) files and how you can force them to be rebuilt. Often this can clear up little odd-ball problems. And you loose nothing other than a little time trying it.

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Scott had called asking how to download huge files when his dial up connection kept “helpfully” asking if he wanted to disconnect.

I don’t have a modem on my laptop, and I couldn’t quite remember where, but I thought there was a setting in OS X that would disconnect you from the phone line if it thought you were idle.

I was able to find a support article on Apple’s web site for diagnosing this sort of thing.  You can find it here.  In the first couple of paragraphs, it deals directly with this issue.  It also has some other helpful information about dial up connection quality.

Jim had called and asked about how to get his LaCie hard drive to show up on his desktop. After some errors and a restart of his Mac, it didn’t show up any more.

On the show, I had given him a couple of suggestions. Here, I’ll go over those again, as well as offer a few more. If you have an external drive that’s misbehaving, here are some tips.

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After the show, Jane from Green Bay sent in a question.

She wants to save very large files, such as video based projects, to her external hard drives. But once the files hit about 4 Gigabytes (GB), lots of Bad Things® start to happen.

Typically, when you buy an external hard drive, it’s set up to work for the largest possible audience. So they “format” the drive using a setting called “FAT32″, which means it will work on most any PC or Mac. The problem is, when they’re set up this generically, you miss out on all the features that a platform specific setup would give you.

Here’s how you fix this.

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On todays’ show I mentioned a couple of web pages that I like to use. Here they are:

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Don had called up wondering what the best way to get video from his VHS tapes to his computer so he could burn them to DVD. I had mentioned a product called a “Digital to Analog Converter”, or a “DAC” for short. I had mentioned Sony as one possible place to check.

The fine audience of WPR has another suggestion. Charles mentioned that he uses a Canopus ADVC-110 with good results, even for converting old audio tapes. He says you can get find them on eBay for about $200. Now that he mentions it, I believe that one of my clients uses this manufacturer as well.

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First, I’d like to say thank you to all the folks that listened and called in.  And a big thanks to Larry Meiller and his producer Jim Packard.  I had a lot of fun on today’s show, and I look forward to doing it again.

I just got back to my office, and I’m downloading the recording of the program now.  I’ll be following up shortly with links to some web pages I mentioned, as well as some further tips or things I just plum forgot to mention.  (I was a weeeeeeeeee bit nervous.)

Keep an eye on my blog for more information.

On June 18th, from 11:45 to 12:30, I’ll be on WPR with Larry Meiller for a conversation about Mac help. You can join the program live by calling 1-800-642-1234 or 263-1890 in Madison. You can tune in on any of these stations in the Madison area:

• 90.7 FM
• 90.9 FM
• 107.9 FM
• 970 AM

You can also tune in on-line via iTunes. If you’re on a PC without it, you can also use Windows Media Player.

I’ll be using this space to post links, further details, and examples of things we cover on the show. Stay tuned!