The OSX/Apple support thread

[Jonnas]

Yes, I can do that actually from my old mans machine. To be honest, I only need one folder from my backup which has all my important files on it. Email isn't an issue as its hosted elsewhere and I only had a handful of apps which I can download again.

Can I upgrade my OS to mavericks and just nab that file rather than performing a full restore?

[qube_TA]

Yeah if you plug in the backup drive open it, there will be a single folder with the name of your old drive on.

Go into that and there will be a load of folders with the dates of the old backup on.

There will be one called 'latest', go in there and you'll be presented with a copy of your drive the last time the backup ran.

Navigate to the file you're after and just copy it over.

job done

[Jonnas]

Awesome, ill do that then. Just set it to reinstall OSX and oddly it's installing Mountain Lion even though I'm sure it shipped with Snow Leopard. Anyhow, with my lightening fast broadband connection, iveonly got 26 hrs to wait before I can start the Mavericks download!

How I love living in the sticks......

[qube_TA]

Well you can look forward to doing it again next month when 10.10.0 comes out

[moustachebandit]

Anyone suffering issues with web browsers hanging on their iMacs?

For some reason using any web browser on my iMac seems to give me issues where it can be super quick one second and then slow / hanging the next? Clearing the cache / history / etc doesn't seem to do anything. Getting really sick and tired of it all - the only things on this mac that have given me endless issues are Microsoft Office suite (no surprise there) and Safari / Firefox / Chrome. At times it feels that I am stuck with a dial up connection its that unreliable - and at other times its supra responsive.

Its not the internet connection as the other halfs mac book and the iPad run fine?

Anyone got any suggestions?

[LordGrover]

Sounds like DNS issues... have you checked same as other devices on network?

[moustachebandit]

Hi Grover,

Checked the DNS on mine and the OH's Mac Book and they match.

[qube_TA]

Details of the machine that's slow, model, RAM, storage, OS revision? Will help pinpoint the problem.

[MarkRSi]

My uncle is needing an email address that won't change when changing ISPs

He's got an iPhone which I know nothing about.

Does he get a free email (apple . com?) with the phone? Will it have one after its been set up? (bit like having a Google account with an android phone)

[LordGrover]

Yep, you are offered an option to create an iCloud account which provides an @me.com/@icloud.com address as well as synchronised contacts, calendars, etc.
Gmail and others work very well with OS X and iOS and pretty much every other device if he/you would prefer not to get locked into the apple way as he/you have with ISP.

[MarkRSi]

LordGrover said:

Yep, you are offered an option to create an iCloud account which provides an @me.com/@icloud.com address as well as synchronised contacts, calendars, etc.
Gmail and others work very well with OS X and iOS and pretty much every other device if he/you would prefer not to get locked into the apple way as he/you have with ISP.

Cheers I'll have a look next time I see him.

[poprock]

Hello chaps. I have a hard-drive related question. Maybe you can help.

I was using a Mac to format an external HD. The Mac crashed (froze completely) partway through formatting it with Disk Utility. I had to do a hard reset. Since then, I cannot get the HD to work. Every Mac I try connecting it to freezes up before the drive properly mounts.

I realise that I still need to format the drive, but I can’t until I get a machine to recognise it without crashing.

Maybe I could connect it to a non-Mac device and try formatting from there? A Windows machine or a games console, etc?

Any ideas or advice, before I give up and throw a perfectly good HD in the bin?

Ta.

[qube_TA]

If the formatting process was cut short then the worst that would happen is the drive would appear unformatted and prompt to use Disc Utility to wipe it.

I would suggest that the reason the Mac died in the first place and why you've had subsequent problems is due to that drive or the caddy it lives in is faulty.

Try it on a different machine and see what happens, but I suspect you'll have a similar event.

[poprock]

Cheers qube.

The drive was working fine prior to starting this ill-fated reformat.

I’ve tried it on four or five different Macs, none will mount it, or even let me see it in Disk Utility - they all freeze up before getting that far.

[qube_TA]

poprock said:

Cheers qube.

The drive was working fine prior to starting this ill-fated reformat.

I’ve tried it on four or five different Macs, none will mount it, or even let me see it in Disk Utility - they all freeze up before getting that far.

Try the drive in a different caddy, I think it probably just died at that point.

[poprock]

Fair enough, it’s got to be worth a shot. Ta.

[poprock]

Well I’ll be damned. I tried plugging that HD into my Xbox and it worked first time. I formatted it from there, unplugged, connected it back up to a Mac, and everything works. So, rem, yeah. Much easier than I expected.

[NDA]

MacBook Air monitor question....

I have connected my MacBook to an external monitor in the office - via the Thunderbolt connection. Is there another connection possible as I often prefer to use the Thunderbolt port for an ethernet connection?

Thanks

[Tonsko]

Thunderbolt splitter? This one is expensive, but there may be others.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-F4U055ukAPL-Thunder...

[NDA]

OK thanks....

I wondered if a monitor could be taken from the USB outputs?