Desktop confusion

Hi,

This is my first post here and I am not sure where to put it. So here it is.

I need a little advice from other mac users. I have recently installed a new (slave) internal HD with two partitions on it. It appears on my deskop with my original internal HD (similarly partitioned) and my two firewire drives. With the folders that I customarily keep on my desktop (not many but a few) it now looks very untidy. I have my stuff running in a column down the right hand side of my screen and it now goes into two columns. I find that annoying. And I wondered if anyone had any good ideas for tidying up my desktop.

For the moment I have unmounted two partitions and one of the remote disks and that looks better but this is obviously not the best solution. So any ideas.

Thank you for reading this.

David

I believe there is a way to remove some disks from the desktop, but I'm not sure of how to do it. I know someone else on theboard will know, and they should give you the know-how.

And Welcome to M-F!

You could always just reduce the size of your desktop icons.

Use Command (the apple-key) + J

Then shrink the icons!

Here ya go: CLICK!

Credit to dtravis7

Welcome to the Forums DubeDude! <---Is that similar to (BudBud or PotPal or FryFriend??)

If you want to show some HDDs and not others, you can rename the ones you don't want on your desktop to begin with a period. So "Windows" shows up as a drive, but ".Windows" won't.

ToddG said:

If you want to show some HDDs and not others, you can rename the ones you don't want on your desktop to begin with a period. So "Windows" shows up as a drive, but ".Windows" won't.

Click to expand...

To expand on what ToddG stated.... the . in front of a name makes the file "Hidden"... to show the file again using the terminal type (better yet.. copy/paste) the following:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES;killall Finder


Then to HIDE the "Hidden Files" Type (again, might want to just copy/paste) the following in the Terminal:

defaults delete com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles;killall Finder

You can also use the ONYX Parameters to "Show Hidden Files"

If your desktop is getting to cluttered you can always open a Folder on the desktop and drag the icons into it. That way you only have the 1 folder on the desktop. Then just open the folder and use the icons.

A drive with a "." at the beginning of its name still shows up in the Finder window, as well.

Woe, thank you everyone. I am almost overwhelmed by suggestions.

Let me run through them from the top.

Firstly, quicksilver. I did play around with my icon size but I didn't particularly like it. No doubt, however, I could get used to it. So it is still an option.

Ride, I read the thread you sent me. I have tried Finder Prefs but I couldn't do anything with it. Also I am not sure where 'the right corner' is that I am supposed click. But I got caught up on an IMS while I was trying to work it out. So I shall go back when I have finished chatting and take another look. But any clarification you can offer would be appreciated.

ToddG, that is an good idea and I will give it a try. Except that Ride's follow-up is a bit frightening. I really don't want to mess with the Terminal. I will, however, explore this to see if I can set up aliases or something. I will also explore the Onyx link. Thank you.

And, finally, James. Putting everything in folder was my first thought, James. But I found that I couldn't remove the HD icon from the desktop. When I tried to move a HD icon I got an alias in the destination folder. Shame that didn't work bec it would have been an easy solution.

So far as unmounting the disk goes, that is okay but they just appear again everytime I restart. I don't mind unmounting the volumes each time I start-up but if I can I would rather go for something more permanent.

Okay so keep those suggestions coming and for my part I will report back on what I finally do.

Thanks again guys.

David

Just wanted to say welcome to Mac-Forums, DubeDude! :girl:

HI Everyone,

I am back with the promised report. So I finally decided that the best option was to unmount the disks and partitions that I was not going to be actually using. That certainly cleared up the mess. It was a bit of a drag going into Disk Utility each time after starting-up but it wasn't that big a deal. So I thought I had got that one solved.

But I was wrong. I have found that if the partitions are unmounted it screws up some of my most used apple apps. In particular my address book goes into a state of almost total confusion. It is unresponsive and there are no addresses there.

At first I thought this was a font problem. I am sure you know that the most common reason why apple apps don't work properly is bum font in your font book. If Safari or your mail client don't start up and you have just installed fonts, that is usually the reason. When I opened my font book, that was also lacking most of the fonts. I did actually install a couple of fonts yesterday do I disenabled them first. But there was no change.

It was only when I restarted with everything on my desktop that everything returned to normal.

So my tidiness fetish remains unappeased. I am still searching for a solution to this and if I find one I will let everyone know. But if anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.

David

PS: I am afraid, Ride, that I really can't comment on my id. You must form your own conclusions. He said lighting another one.

DubeDude said:

PS: I am afraid, Ride, that I really can't comment on my id. You must form your own conclusions. He said lighting another one.

Click to expand...

LOL


Also to comment on what ToddG said about the "." files showing up in the finder... I'm not sure what you mean... If you have files that begin with ".", then you have somehow "turned on" the "Show Hidden Files".... If you attempt to make a hidden file/folder using the "." you will get the OS X pop-up saying something to the extent of "You can't use a "." for this folder, this is reserved for system files/folders only... to which you must click "OK". EDIT: ToddG was referring to DRIVES...

For anyone interested... To make a hidden Folder that can not be seen do the following:

Make a new folder somewhere easy for you to remember... To do this:
1) Open the finder window go into the "Home" Folder (will place it there).
2) Right click on an empty part of the finder Window.. select "New Folder".
3) Name the folder.. Let's use "p0rn"... Just for fun
4) Now go into the Terminal and type (best to copy/paste) the following:


Press enter after pasting the command
Note the "." in front of the second folder name

5) The folder and any/all of the contents within it are HIDDEN.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that the the folder is hidden the easiest way to get back into the contents it open the the Finder window go the the "HOME" folder (see.. No "p0rn" folder)... Now press APPLE+SHIFT+G
A Window will roll out of the top of the finder window that Says: "Go To Folder:" Type the following (don't forget the ".") .p0rn
press ENTER

Viola... you are in your "hidden" folder, and can now access your... um... stuff.

Hi Ride,

Thank you for that. To tell you the truth I have avoided anything that might change the status of my HD. I discovered the problems with using special characters in the names.

My problem here has been that I need access to my main disk and my work disk but none of the other volumes. The way finally I solved this was fairly basic. I used Finder prefs to turn off the HDs (Finder-->Prefs-->General.) I thought that would turn off all the hd icons but I found that it only got rid of the internal disk icons (not my firewire work drives.) However, one of the volumes it removed was the main disk to which I needed access. I solved that problem by putting that disk in the dock. I now have complete access to the disk and a very tide desktop.

Thank you to everyone for their advice and kind words.

David