Why not change the Macintosh HD to a shorter name.

Question

I have a friend that picked up a Mac mini with OS X 10.5.8 and one for the first things
I noticed was the previous owner had changed the name of the single drive from Macintosh HD
to a shorter name
I recall reading somewhere that it is not a good idea to change the name of the primary
hard drive from Macintosh HD and I cannot remember why.
Can someone point me to a document that describes why the primary hard drive should not be renamed?

Answer 1

{Usually the problem occurs when a user changes the Short Name of the
computer where it affects how it is then seen in a network, and does this
improperly so the computer can't be networked until this issue is fixed.}
• Mac OS X: How to change user short name or home directory name:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428
• Mac OS X (10.4) Help: What's my computer's name and address?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh632.html
• How do I change the Owner's Name on my Mac?
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/howto_change_owners_name_applemac.html
And if you change the Short Name (account user, etc) then KeyChain
access and other items may well be a real problem to weed out & fix.
Note the comments, after the basic info in this thread:
• Changing Names - Root - Mac Gems - MacWorld:
http://www.macworld.com/article/41481/2004/12/changeshortname.html
Or, if a user changes the name of their User Account, improperly, then the
account won't match the password and other issues will result; unless it
is fixed or the problem of changing the name incorrectly in the first place
is avoided; since there is a proper way to change the short name of the
computer (not that on the icon of the hard disk drive, btw) and a correct
way, a process, to change the user account name.
It is not advised to change the User name on an account or that of the
Computer's name where it is seen on a network. That aside, the name
change of the computer's Hard Disk Drive, at the icon on the desktop,
can be avoided by using Dock preferences to Hide the HDD so it will
not appear on the desktop at all. (Kids in schools change the HDD icon's
name frequently, when it is available and the computer not set up to
work under the Parental Controls or lower user account privilege access.)
+You can change the name of the Hard Disk Drive and that won't make+
+much difference; except in those cases where you have an Alias of the+
+original name, since it would no longer activate access to the Mac HD.+
I got over the urge to change the HDD name some time ago. However
if you partition the original hard disk drive so you have two icons on the
Desktop, you could have fair reason to change the names if you like.
(Just remember, if you make a clone, or do any complete computer drive
backup to some external device, the name change could affect the result.)
If you have an Intel-based Mac running Windows, you may have a different
matter in re-naming the hard disk drive; since Windows may require another
avenue into the means to rename that drive. And then, that may be a problem.
*You can change the Mac HD to any name.* In previous Mac OS (pre-x) versions
it was also common for users to change the hard drive icon to some other one,
and if they'd named the computer (a monster name, for example) a new image
for the icon could easily be applied through a copy-paste. In fact, that may still
be something one may be able to do, through a different agency in OS X.
And, when installing an all-new OS X, you can also change the name of the Mac HD
in Disk Utility, since the name is blank after choosing a partition scheme & reformat.
The real issue revolve around changing the computer's short name, and changing
the user's account name(s) since this is where problems begin that are harder to fix.
If the rules are followed in regard to these two, going into the situation, problems
are more readily avoided. I just don't change those things, since I'm too busy.
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited 2x }