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October 8, 2009

How to open a locked Time Machine drive

The other day I had the opportunity to troubleshoot two issues on an iMac using iChat's Screen Sharing feature. While the screen sharing itself isn't new, it's been around for ages via various VNC software and was made easier in Mac OS X when Leopard came out in 2007, the actual use of it makes you feel like you're working in the future.

iMac can't boot properly
The first problem was that the iMac wouldn't boot into the system. It would display the Apple logo and just stays there for hours. This is unsolvable using screen sharing since the iMac wouldn't boot so we went via text chat.

Get the original Install DVD from the box the iMac came in. If you don't have this DVD or something similar, you're basically screwed until you can get yourself one or you go to an Apple Service Provider to fix your problem.. Don't lose this DVD. If you do, you need to have a Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard DVD that you can buy from any Apple Reseller.

Insert the DVD, follow along as if you were to install the OS but once you see the menu bar on top, select Utilities from the menu bar and choose Disk Utility. Select the hard drive of the Mac and choose Repair Permissions. Once it's done, it doesn't hurt to click on Repair Disk.

Once you do that, restart the computer.

If the hard drive is not detected by Disk Utility then your problem is more serious than that. You need to take it to an Apple Service Provider.

Locked Time Machine drive
The second problem I faced while troubleshooting that iMac was that it had a Time machine backup drive, presumably a Time Capsule, which was inaccessible. 

Once the iMac restarted successfully, the backup drive appeared with a padlock image on its icon indicating that the user account is unable to access it. It turns out none of the administrator account could access that drive.

Until I found this solution on Apple's discussion board.

1. Open Terminal
2. Enter the following lines:

sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes/"TM drive name"

followed by

sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/"TM drive name"

This command needs a password.
Note that you have to have a password set for an administrator account. When you enter the first command, you'll be prompted for a password. This is the password for the administrator account. If you set up your account without a password, go to System Preferences > Accounts > and change the password. You can replace the password with a blank one after this is done if you don't want to use one.

How do you know you use or have an administrator account? Go to the Accounts pane in System Preferences and see the label underneath your account name.

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Filed under  //   apple   backup   guide   leopard   mac os x   screen sharing   snow leopard   terminal   time capsule   time machine   tip  

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October 3, 2009

Solving the Mystery of Disk Utility's Failure to Erase USB Drives

The excerpt below is from www.tidbits.com

Sent to you via Google Reader

Solving the Mystery of Disk Utility's Failure to Erase USB Drives

…After 45 minutes of Googling and cursing, I finally realized that the Iomega enclosure had both FireWire 400 and USB 2 interfaces. I dug out a FireWire cable, plugged it in, and all was golden. I was able to erase and partition at will. (An unrelated issue also widely discussed was that you might need to change the partition type from Apple Partition Map in the Partition section's Options dialog; GUID Partition Table is generally the right choice since Tiger.)

I later found some additional background advice on this topic from other users: there's clearly some incompatibility introduced in Leopard that prevents Mac OS X from talking over certain USB drive interfaces.

Based on comments and discussions all over Mac sites dating back to the release of 10.5 Leopard, you have three choices:

  • Switch to FireWire. That only works, of course, if there's a FireWire interface.
  • Boot off a 10.4 Tiger installation disk, and use Disk Utility while booted. That's a slightly tedious but nifty option, although it won't work for machines too new to allow a Tiger book.
  • Remove the drive and put it into another enclosure, preferably one with a FireWire interface.

Sent from my iPhone

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Filed under  //   apple   bug   FireWire   leopard   mac   mac os x   snow leopard   USB  

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September 22, 2009

Mac's Snow Leopard Is One Cool Cat

Upgrading the operating system of a personal computer is something most people are afraid to do. When it comes to things they don’t fully understand, they’d rather take the conservative approach and stick with what they know will work. 

That’s why you see most computers running on software that’s eight years old instead of something released just two years ago, for example. 

New operating systems also tend to require better hardware specifications, take up more space and will generally render your old, or even not-so-old machine either obsolete or less useful than before. 

Businesses don’t like things that are out of their comfort zone either. Unless there is a significant incentive to upgrade, you’re not going to see companies adopt new technologies or systems, let alone rush in to embrace them. 

Then there’s the little matter of cost. Buying a new operating system means parting with some hard-earned cash. Paying to have possible new problems dumped on you while you haven’t even figured out how to fix the old ones, is not a terribly exciting prospect. 

With Mac OS X 10.6, which goes by the name Snow Leopard, Apple is attempting to address all of the above. 

Read more at Jakarta Globe

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Filed under  //   apple   article   jakarta globe   mac os x   review   snow leopard  

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August 26, 2009

Snow Leopard pricing in Indonesia (with a surprise)

As we all know by now Apple's next Mac OS X version, Snow Leopard, will be available from tomorrow, Friday, August 28 2009. It's available for Intel Macs only (bye bye Power PC Macs).

In the US, Snow Leopard costs $29 or for a family pack with a license for five computers $49. Mac owners who bought a new Mac since June 8, 2009 can order Snow Leopard by mail for a shipping cost of $9.95.

In Indonesia's Apple Online Store, Snow Leopard costs Rp 379,000 ($38) or Rp 679 000 ($67) for family pack. Qualified users can order it for Rp 119,000 ($11)

If your Intel Mac is running Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) Apple makes Snow Leopard available via the Mac Box Set which includes iLife '09 and iWork '09. It retails for Rp 2.1 million ($210) on the Indonesian Apple Online Store ($169 in the US). The family pack of this Mac Box Set is Rp 2.8 million ($280; $199 in the US).

A bit expensive? Possibly. Some ratios: $280/$199 is 1.41, $210/$169 is 1.24, $67/$49 is 1.367, $38/$29 is 1.310, $11/$10 is 1.1. As you can see the ratio generally increases as the price goes up. Granted, the tax component is missing from the US price because each US state has its own tax rates which is why you hardly ever see the final prices on US e-commerce sites.

As for the surprise component, we at Macworld Indonesia found out while playing around with the new cat that it turns out you can install Snow Leopard on a blank drive from the supposedly upgrade-only DVD.

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Filed under  //   apple   mac os x   pricing   retail   snow leopard  

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April 29, 2009

WWDC Sold out


For the second time in history, Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is sold out. This time however it was sold out barely four weeks after it was first announced at the end of March. Half the time it took last year.

No doubt iPhone OS 3.0, Mac OS X 10.6, and the near certainty of the unveiling of the next iPhone fueled the surge.

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Filed under  //   apple   developer   iphone   mac os x   snow leopard   wwdc  

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