Renaming startup disk to begin with a dot

I realized that 10.6 prevents you from renaming a startup disk to begin with a dot (a period), so that you can hide the volume on the desktop/Finder. I've tried the diskutil rename command in terminal, but it gives me an error saying some like "not suitable name for drive type." It worked in 10.5, but not Snow Leopard. Well, for me at least. Anyone else have this problem? Thanks.
P.S. Not sure exactly where I should have posted this. I guess it's related to Finder.

DO NOT start the name of the drive with a dot. if you want to make it hidden from finder (not sure why you'd want to do it with the startup drive) you can add a hidden flag to the drive.
run this in terminal
sudo chflags hidden /
and it will hide the startup drive from finder. to unhide it change hidden to nohidden in the command. and of course you can just go to finder preferences->general and uncheck the box to show internal drives on the desktop. that will remove all internal drives from teh desktop.

Similar Messages

No space on startup disk? Problem with Mail?

Bought a new MacBook Pro Retina 15, 8mb ram. Recently when running Mail, it refuses to close when I quit the application. Worse, I get a window (screenshot attached) saying that I have no more space for running applications on my startup disk, even though just running Mail and Firefox. Any suggestions?

Your problem is excessive swapping of data between physical memory and virtual memory.
That can happen for two reasons:
You have a long-running process with a memory leak (i.e., a bug), or
You don't have enough memory installed for your usage pattern.
Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination.
In the Activity Monitor application, select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Click the heading of the Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select
View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory
from the menu bar.
If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more memory over time without ever releasing it.
The process named "Safari Web Content" renders web pages for Safari and other applications. It uses a lot of memory and may leak if certain Safari extensions or third-party web plugins are installed. Consider it a prime suspect.
If you don't have an obvious memory leak, your options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.
The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command:
sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total
where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details.

Firewire Drive shows in Startup Disk -- But not with Option

I just added a new firewire backup drive. It's the only ext. drive attached. I ran SuperDuper to make a bootable clone of my startup drive. The drive shows up in Startup Disk, with the proper OS, 10.4.11, same as my int. drive.
But when I restart and hold down the option key, only my int. drive shows up.
What do you think is going on?
Thanks

From Western Digital's support web page [HERE|http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1715]:
====
Power PC based Macintosh computers are unable to boot to a My Book external hard drive.
Question
Why am I unable to boot to a WD My Book external hard drive using a Power PC (PPC) Based Macintosh computer?
Answer
Problem:
Power PC based Macintosh computer systems are unable to boot to the following My Book external hard drive:
* My Book Pro II Edition
* My Book Premium II Edition
* My Book Home Edition
* My Book Studio Edition
Intel Macintosh computers are not affected by this issue and are able to be booted from My Book external hard drives if the partition on the drive has been setup as a GUID partition scheme.
Cause:
This issue is a Macintosh bug cause by the Mac ROM code of the computer and how it attempts to boot from the first SCSI LUN it detects (LUN 0). In the case of the aforementioned hard drives, the LUN 0 device is dedicated to the button board and safe removal tools of the hard drive case and not the internal hard drive, thus causing booting to be impossible.
Resolution:
There is currently no resolution to this issue. If a resolution is found by Apple, this answer will be updated with this information.
=====
Unbelievably, they blame Apple for the problem.

System Preferences Startup Disk Vs. Boot with Option key depressed.

External FW drive connected via standard 400 FW cable, is recognized by System Preferences>Startup Disk, proving that it contains a valid OS X system. But when selected, and clicking Restart, first in the System Preferences>Startup Disk window, then in the modal dialogue, the computer beeps, but does not restart. Same behavior when the computer's internal drive is selected.
The only way to select a startup disk is booting the computer (select Restart from Apple Menu) holding the Option key, clicking the required icon, and then clicking the arrow at the right end of the window.
I have run DiskWarrior, zapped the PRAM (that should take care of startup settings), no change.
Sum up: System Preferences>Startup Disk does not perform.
Powerbook PPC.

Charly,
there might be a timing problem. At the time when the Mac PRAM asks for the startup disk the firewire disk might not be "present" yet. Can you turn on the external disk manually?
Does the preference pane "remember" your selection of the startup disk or does it change it back to the internal disk?
You might want to run some system maintenance, especially clean the caches: Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System maintenance
If this answered your question please consider granting some stars: Why reward points?

Incorrect behavior in App-V Sequencer if contains filename beginning with two dots ".."

I'm trying to sequence a package that has a file named "..a". (don't ask me why they named it this way...)
When trying to save this package, the App-V sequencer will say it has encountered an error and the package was not saved.
To reproduce, simply try creating a new package, and create a new empty file and rename it to "..a" (extension included). When you try to save the package, the error should pop up.
It looks like the leading double dot might be confusing the sequencer into somehow treating it as a file in the parent directory, because under the package editor it shows the file as having an empty name, and being outside of the AppVPackageRoot folder.

It is reproduced easily - but this is the first app that I have ever heard of that does this. You could possibly open a case with Microsoft.
Steve Thomas, Senior Consultant, Microsoft
App-V/MED-V/SCVMM/Server App-V/MDOP/AppCompat
http://blogs.technet.com/gladiatormsft/
The App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
The MED-V Team Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv
The SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm/
“This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. User assumes all risks.”

Startup disk behaving strangely with os x

Hi everyone,
I've just bought this G3 power book, and it's been pretty good, but since I've upgraded the software it's been having some teething trouble...
I've installed 10.1 on this mac (by holding down c to start up from CD), and it's worked ok, but now if I remove the power supply, the next time I start up, it tries to start up from the CD. I then either have to insert my 10.1 disc and go through the OS X installer, or insert my Mac OS 9.2 disc and change the startup disc in control panel.
I've tried holding down the ctrl key when booting up, but no joy.
It only started doing it when I did the software upgrade, and it only does it when the power supply has been removed.
Anyone else had this trouble, any suggestions?

That's superb!
I've reset the power manager now. It's still having the same problem, but I suppose the backup battery hasn't charged fully yet.
It seems to have made a difference to my main battery though! It just wasn't working at all before, but now the lightning bolt is on the battery icon, and one green LED lights on the barrey when i press the button.
It's a bit odd though cos it does that for a few mins, then the plug icon appears on the battery icon, then the cross icon appears again. When I remove and replace it, it works again for a few mins. It's the same in both bays of the PBook.
I take it it's a fault with the battery?

SL Startup Disk filling up with Swap Files

I installed SL on an erased USB drive to see if all my applications are supported before installing on the internal start up disk. It ran fine, but after a few hours, SL had created about 40 swap files, filling up the drive. During the time I was testing SL, I launched each of my applications and updated those that needed it, but can't think of anything unusual -- no forced shut downs, quits, etc.
Anyone seen this or have any ideas on what's going on?

Hi again,
Yes, zillions of these files, I think they're accumulate every 3 seconds on my computer...
I have no idea which way to go...all of my data is backed up, so I'm not so worried about losing data...whichever way you think is best!
Here's about a page of those filenames from typing in ls private/var/tmp
00002090889b5 000056d032d47
00002090bf44f 000056d1742e2
0000209205d75 000056d1b55e6
000020923c8b4 000056d2f2a8c
0000209376f7b 000056d340509
00002093af4b5 000056d47d318
00002094e9b8e 000056d4c0632
000020952cb9d 000056d60c68a
0000209666d1f 000056d64ebbb
000020969d726 000056d78cd28
00002097d9121 000056d7ccf94
000020981df49 000056d917549
000020995a84b 000056d956e76
00002099928a8 000056da99f25
0000209acd0de 000056dade080
0000209b0fe58 000056dc27586
0000209c4a610 000056dc69994
0000209c80e10 000056dda71ef
0000209dbc646 000056dde9796
0000209df3790 000056df3a1e8
0000209f39542 000056df7e9b9
0000209f7111a 000056e0bda40
000020a0ab2b8 000056e11056d
000020a0e23bb 000056e24dc07
000020a2286c6 000056e28ca59
000020a25f17c 000056e3c99a2
000020a39ad3d 000056e415a3b
000020a3d18b6 000056e553fd8
000020a517bb7 000056e593e92
000020a54fe0c 000056e6daa3c
000020a689e9d 000056e72a2d2
000020a6c0c6a 000056e866fc5
000020a806fc2 000056e8a75ba
000020a83d6f9 000056e9e4123
000020a9789bf 000056ea30062
000020a9af25d 000056eb73924
000020aae9766 000056ebb3652
000020ab2c762 000056ecf0824
000020ac6baf9 000056ed3c4bf
000020aca3334 000056ee79574
000020addd22a 000056eebef4f
000020ae2172e 000056f012509
000020af5bc98 000056f0559a7
000020af92600 000056f1930dd
000020b0cdf81 000056f1d7494
000020b110b6a 000056f32bcdc
000020b24aa33 000056f36ab1b
000020b28283d 000056f4a7c7f

Startup Disk Filling up with log.smbd.old

I tried to just delete, it says permission denied. I tried changing permissions on the file and got denied. I try going to it as superuser, I enter the password and it just sits and never responds. No wrong pw, no moving forward. I got omnidisksweeper, but since the drive is full, it won't let me enter the license, so I can't delete that way. Any ideas?

Hi again,
Yes, zillions of these files, I think they're accumulate every 3 seconds on my computer...
I have no idea which way to go...all of my data is backed up, so I'm not so worried about losing data...whichever way you think is best!
Here's about a page of those filenames from typing in ls private/var/tmp
00002090889b5 000056d032d47
00002090bf44f 000056d1742e2
0000209205d75 000056d1b55e6
000020923c8b4 000056d2f2a8c
0000209376f7b 000056d340509
00002093af4b5 000056d47d318
00002094e9b8e 000056d4c0632
000020952cb9d 000056d60c68a
0000209666d1f 000056d64ebbb
000020969d726 000056d78cd28
00002097d9121 000056d7ccf94
000020981df49 000056d917549
000020995a84b 000056d956e76
00002099928a8 000056da99f25
0000209acd0de 000056dade080
0000209b0fe58 000056dc27586
0000209c4a610 000056dc69994
0000209c80e10 000056dda71ef
0000209dbc646 000056dde9796
0000209df3790 000056df3a1e8
0000209f39542 000056df7e9b9
0000209f7111a 000056e0bda40
000020a0ab2b8 000056e11056d
000020a0e23bb 000056e24dc07
000020a2286c6 000056e28ca59
000020a25f17c 000056e3c99a2
000020a39ad3d 000056e415a3b
000020a3d18b6 000056e553fd8
000020a517bb7 000056e593e92
000020a54fe0c 000056e6daa3c
000020a689e9d 000056e72a2d2
000020a6c0c6a 000056e866fc5
000020a806fc2 000056e8a75ba
000020a83d6f9 000056e9e4123
000020a9789bf 000056ea30062
000020a9af25d 000056eb73924
000020aae9766 000056ebb3652
000020ab2c762 000056ecf0824
000020ac6baf9 000056ed3c4bf
000020aca3334 000056ee79574
000020addd22a 000056eebef4f
000020ae2172e 000056f012509
000020af5bc98 000056f0559a7
000020af92600 000056f1930dd
000020b0cdf81 000056f1d7494
000020b110b6a 000056f32bcdc
000020b24aa33 000056f36ab1b
000020b28283d 000056f4a7c7f

Mac Mini 10.6 Server startup disk size increase problem.

Mac Mini 10.6 Server shows system startup disk sized 50GB with 20GB free. Disk utility shows partition sized 500GB with 470GB free. How can I increase size of startup volume without complete reinstall?

Is the disk partitioned?
Boot the operating system DVD, use Disk Utility from the Utilities menu (second screen of the installation process, just before you start the actual install) to ake a complete backup to an external disk, make a second backup (in case there's a problem with the first), wipe and repartition the internal disk (using Disk Utility), and reload.
You'll want to consider whether you want to mirror the two disks within the box, too; to set up RAID-1 across both of the 500 GB drives in the box. That mirroring can be established when you're wiping and repartitioning the disks.

"Startup Disk Full" though i have 382GB available on my hard drive?

I regularly get a pop up requesting that I force quit applications due to my startup disk being full, with no more room for application memory (or something similar).
It has been popping up more and more frequently in the last couple of days, and it has got to the point where I can't use Chrome for more than a few minutes without having to quit out of it.
I have a MacBook Pro from late 2011, and I have 382.83GB free out of a total of 499.25GB on my hard drive.
I have been told that the 'startup disk' and the hard drive are essentially the same thing so why am I being notified that it is full, and what can I do about it?
I only use my laptop for browsing the internet and uni work, and I have a few photos and some music on it but nothing I can think of that would be eating up so much memory.
If anyone can help me out or point me in the direction of a solution that would be so helpful!!!

The message has nothing to do with low disk space. There is excessive swapping of data between physical memory and virtual memory. That can happen for two reasons:
You have a long-running process with a memory leak (i.e., a bug), or
You don't have enough memory installed for your usage pattern.
Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination.
When you notice the swap activity, open the Activity Monitor application and select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Click the heading of the Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select
View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory
from the menu bar.
If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more real memory over time without ever releasing it. Here is an example of how it's done.
The process named "Safari Web Content" renders web pages for Safari and other applications. It uses a lot of memory and may leak if certain Safari extensions or third-party web plugins are installed. Consider it a prime suspect.
Another process often implicated in memory leaks is "inkjet8," which is a component of the HP printing softwre. If it's present, force-quit the process in Activity Monitor to solve the problem temporarily. If you don't use an HP printer, remove the software. Otherwise, if the problem is recurrent, update the software (which may not help) or contact HP support.
If you don't have an obvious memory leak, your options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.
The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command:
sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total
where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details.

Migration Assistant doesn't see the startup disk from the old G4

Hi,
I just got my new iMac and was about to transfer stuff from my old G4 which have two internal disks. But I stumbled into serius problems right away. Migration Assistant is not able to see the startup disk from the G4. It sees only the other disk.
I have tried to disconnect the extra disk and checked that the startup disk is forced with the jumper to be the master disk. With this configuration it won't start the G4 at all. Having he jumper in the cable select slot results to shut-up with the T-button (firewire) startup and normal startup without the T-way.
What should I do? I can't figure out what the problem is.
I enclose some System Profiler data of the problematic disk if this helps to find the solution.
Model: MAXTOR 6L060J3
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 1
OS9 Drivers: Yes
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD NAme: disk0s10

Ok. This is really simple to do.
The idea of the dual drive iMac is that the System and Apps reside on the fast SSD and that the user directories reside on the HD.
You first need to create the same accounts on your SSD as on your old iMac.
The next step is to change the path of the user accounts from the SSD to the internal HD. Duplicate or copy the Users directories on the SSD to the HD.
Change the path in System Preferences > User & Groups > Unlock to make changes > Select User account in sidebar > Right-click > Choose Advanced Options > Home Directory > Choose the Volumes/your_hd/Users/user_name.
Restart your iMac and restore from Migration Assistant.
Remember to keep the empty directories on the SSD, in case you ever have a HD failure or replacement, you will have to change the path back to the SSD.

Hard drive partitions are not showing in Startup DIsk

My hard drive is partitioned into two volumes. HD1 & HD2 (Both 500 MB)
I had Snow Leopard installed on one (HD2) and Mavericks istalled on the other.(HD1)
Both volumes were visible in the Startup Disk option in System Preferences and I could restart from either.
I upgraded the Mavericks istallation to Yosemite - worked OK.
System Disk option showed both HD1 & HD2
Restarted the Mac from HD2 in Snow Leopard mode - no probs.
Then the problem started. I wanted to restart from HD1 in Yosemite mode.
Went in System Preferences to Startup Disk option - HD1 did not show in the window - only HD2 (Snow Leopard) & Network Startup.
Any ideas anyone? (Could be a bug?)

When I restarted using Com+Opt+P+R it went into Yosemite mode with both volumes showing in Startup disk.
Restarting with HD2 (Snow Leopard) gave me the same problem again.

Renamed file beginning with dot (.)

Hello,
I created and accidentaly renamed a file "htaccess.txt" to ".htaccess".
I learned that files beginning with . are reserved for the system are thus not visible on the desktop… the file dissapeared
How can I do to view it ? I just want to rename or delete it.
Regards,
Nicolas

And just to add, you do have to be in the current directory that the hidden file is in to use those commands (Well not really, you can use an absolute path beginning from the root of the drive, but too prone to nasty mistakes.
Say the file is is your user folder in Documents.
When you first go into the shell, You will already be placed in YOUR users directory.
so if you do this command (Print working directory)
pwd
you will be returned with
/Users/username (Username is a placeholder for your users SHORTNAME)
So then you would just use the CD (Change directory) command
cd Documents
and if you do a pwd again you will get
/Users/username/Documents

Help! I renamed an existing file in Reader (Mobile) to begin with "." and it disappeared. Unable to search for it. How can I recover it? [iOS]

I was attempting to organize my files in Reader (on iPad) and I tried renaming an existing file to begin with "." in an attempt to put it at the top of my list, so that I could easily find it. It completely diappeared and if I search for it, it doesn't appear. Help!!!

Hi,
A file or folder name starting with '.' ("dot" or "period") is considered hidden on most operating systems. By naming a file starting with '.', you accidentally hid the file and made it inaccessible to all iOS apps.
I'd highly recommend using '_' ("underscore") in the future.
We have already made the change to the new Acrobat DC for iOS app (version 15.0.x) so that it disallows the rename operation with '.' as the first character. (I assume that you are using Adobe Reader for iOS on iOS 7 or older iOS version.)
To recover your hidden file, you need to use a Windows or Mac desktop/laptop computer, install a File Manager app (e.g. iExplorer free demo version, iFunBox), connect your iPad, browse the file system on your iPad, and rename the file back to something else (so that it becomes "visible" again).
The exact steps vary depending on the File Manager app you choose. You may be able to find How-To videos on the software manufacturer's web site or YouTube.
Don't worry. Your hidden file is not permanently lost. You just need to recover it. Good luck!

Bootcamp volume selectable in Startup Disk but won't boot. Bootcamp not visible with Option Key

My bootcamp volume is selectable in Startup Disk System Preference, but Windows 7 will not boot stating no bootable volume. The Bootcamp volume does not appear when option key held down during startup. Windows 7 booted fine before I booted into MacOS. When I tried to reboot in Windows 7, that's when I received the non-bootable error. All looks fine on the Windows 7 volume.
I'm working with a Macbook Pro Early 2008, 256 GB SSD, Windows 7 and the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033.
I tried to re-install Windows 7 on its 32 GB partition, however Windows reported volume is not in proper format???
I tried repairing my Windows 7 volume with my install disk, but apparentl after having to update my initial Windows 7 instalation (disk bought in 2009) about 3 or 4 times, my Windows 7 install disk reports it cannot repair the now updated version of Windows 7 on my hard drive. Lovely. Brilliant engineering.
I looked into editing my partition table, but that process appears more a hack/bandaid for the underlying problem that more than likely still exists.
Any suggestions, other than painfully starting from the beginning???
Thanks.

Well, want to rule out drive case,, as those do come up with EVERY new OS, just hit Lion 10.7 forum when it came out, or when 10.6.0 came out 3 yrs ago.
Maybe the power adapter is the weak link.
As I said, and goes back yrs, not a fan of FW/USB/eSATA case from major vendors (LaCie, WD, Seagate etc).
And you could try another case. Be sure to buy a case that lets you swap in your own hard drives though.
http://www.macsales.com/firewire - look for bare drive case "0" capacity hard drive

Renaming startup disk to begin with a dot

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