Archive for August, 2008

Macs, viruses, and anti-virus software - a thread at MacFixIt’s forums

OSX Hard Drives should have 10 to 15% of their capacity empty or available.

A Thread in the MacFixIt Forums about missing hard drive space

http://www.macfixitforums.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/353391

WhatSize - a utility for viewing files and their sizes version 4.3.1, released on August 19, 2008

Grand Perspective - a free utility for viewing filesizes

MacFixIt http://www.macfixit.com/ MacFixIt Forums

MacInTouch http://www.macintouch.com/ MacInTouch Reader Reports

Accelerate Your Mac http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

Newer Technology Universal Drive Adapter - connects ATA/IDE/SATA to USB2 *New 2008 Version* $29.99

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/

About Apple Macs & FireWire 400 for external startup/booting

All FireWire Equipped Apple Computer models since 2001 support booting this drive via FireWire when a proper, supported OS has been loaded onto this Drive.

Booting via FireWire requires Mac OS 8.6 or later or any version of Mac OS X.

About Apple Macs & USB 2.0 for external startup/booting

Apple Officially supports USB 2.0 Bootability on all Intel Processor based desktop, laptop, and tower models. Unofficial support exists for various PowerPC models.

Macintouch Reader Reports - Hard Drives

One of my favorite external harddrive enclosures. About News Release NewerTech upgrades miniStack v2.5 to SATA interface NewerTech Site NewerTech® miniStack v2.5

OWC Add your own 3.5″ SATA Hard Drive $80

AppleJack 1.43 OSX 10.2 - 10.4.11

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=2005041817191411

AppleJack is a command-line utility that makes a number of troubleshooting procedures available via single-user mode at startup. And, perhaps more importantly to the typical user, it makes these procedures easy to perform. After installing AppleJack — you should print out the ReadMe file during installation so you have a copy handy — it simply becomes part of the single-user mode interface: AppleJack FREE - donations

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

DiskWarrior 4 - OSX 10.3.9 - 10.5

http://www.macworld.com/article/131153-3/2007/12/eddyawards2007.html

DiskWarrior turns ten years old in fall of 2008, and in the past decade, no other utility has come close to challenging its prowess at repairing disk-directory problems. DiskWarrior 4 () is no exception. The long-awaited Intel-native version of the utility adds features for ferreting out corrupted preference files, repairing OS X permissions, repairing and rebuilding access control lists, and repairing more types of disk problems than previous versions could handle. DiskWarrior remains as valuable today as it ever was.—ROB GRIFFITHS Alsoft; $100 OSX 10.3.9 - 10.5

La Cie SilverKeeper OSX 10.2 to 10.4.11 FREE v1.1.4 of SilverKeeper is not compatible with OS X 10.5.x

http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/

SuperDuper! ver 2.5 FREE ($27.95 enables all features) Bootable Complete Backups

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner OSX 10.4 to 10.5 FREE (added features $10) Bootable Complete Backups

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Prosoft Data Backup 3 OSX 10.2-10.5 $60 - FREE with OWC HD’s Bootable Complete Backups

http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_backup.php

ChronoSync synchronizes files and folders from one disk location to another. OSX 10.2 - 10.5 $30

http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html

Synchronize! Pro X is a file synchronization and backup utility for Mac OS X. OSX 10.3 - 10.5 7day demo $100 Bootable Complete Backups

http://www.qdea.com/pages/pages-sprox/sprox1.html

QRecall Backup and Document Archiving for the Macintosh  $40

http://www.qrecall.com/features.jsp

This first link is a video by David Pogue, a technology columnist, about his using a Data Recovery Service to retrieve his data that was NOT backed up. The cost would have been $500 or more, not counting plane fare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA28zXo5e6I

This next link is a youtube video about harddrives operating (you may want to skip to time 6:50 to watch a strong magnet and screwdriver being used to cause hardware failure). (no audio, aside from HD noises)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK1RR7Bhd-s

This video shows what is, sometimes, the only fun thing that can be done with dead harddrives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YocnQ0NMTUA

The following are videos about what Data Recovery Services do (for the 15% to 20% of harddrives that have failed mechanically, not simple software or interface problems). (Very Techy, and Geeky). AdvHDRec1of5, AdvHDRec2of5, AdvHDRec3of5, AdvHDRec4of5, AdvHDRec5of5. (9 minutes each)

The same HD Recovery presentation at Defcon 14 Defcon 14’s Hard Drive Recovery presentation

These videos are an obvious attempt to scare you into reliable backup habits.

Acme-Help.com is getting a retro refit and this blog is part of the refit.

A bit of a hassle to get the WordPress ver 1.52 replaced with ver 2.6, was achieved yesterday with some help from an Australian member of the Powweb User’s Forum.

This blog will be a Computer Troubleshooting Diary and Information Source. Covering Mac, Windows, Backup, Repair, Networking, Email and many other topics of interest to you.

David Anders, The Computer Guy, Seattle