I have a lot of hard drives. For example my internal disk on my MacBook Pro is split into to partitions, one for Mac OS X and one for Windows. I have an external backup disk, this is split into two, one for Time Machine and one for a bit more storage. I am soon going to get another disk to use as storage. What I am going to show you in this post is how to partition this disks so you can use them for more than one thing. It useful to have a partition. Its easier to split up files, and makes organising them easier. As well as this you can have more than one disk format on the same disk.

To format a disk, we are going to use Disk Utility. Pick the right tool for the job. You could use another app, but Disk Utility works fine. Disk Utility is found in Applications > Utilities. When the program is opened you will find a screenshot similar to the image below. Select the disk you want to alter. You will have to click on an actual disk, this is the one at the top of a tree of disks. For example in the image below I have selected and external USB disk, below the highlighted area are the partitions. You need to select a disk in a similar way to how is shown in the image.

To partition a disk you need to click on the partition tab. You will be presented with a small rectangle which is a visual representation of how your disk looks. To partition a disk select from the drop down how many partitions you want to make. Alternatively you can use the drag area in the bottom right of the rectangle. Move this up and down to a value you want to set.

The next step is to set a name and format. In the name box type in something useful. It could be your favourite TV character a family member etc. I have called my disk mini-boy, a will soon have another that will be called big-boy. The next step is to set a format. You can choose from Mac OS X Journaled, FAT or Free Space. Choose the Journaled format for the best performance. You can add case-sensitive option but you really don’t need to. Use the FAT format if you want to write from it from Windows. If you want to shrink a disk and not create a partition select free space. Although free space is wasted space in my opinion.

The preultimate step is to check what you have done. Make sure all of your paritions are the correct size, correct format and have a correct name. You can change these later but it takes extra time. Once as you are sure everything is correct press Apply. The changes will come into effect. It will take a bit of time depending on your disk to format everything. Once as the process is done you will have your new partitions.

If you make a mistake you can deselect the drive and re-select it and you can start again. You can do this process as many times as you want, although the more you do it, the more time you use. It is quicker to do it right first time and be done with it. To remove a partition, select the partition and press the minus or delete button. I am unsure at this point whether the deleted partition will be converted into free space or take up by other partitions, I think it would be the former. I haven’t tried this part because I don’t have any partitions I want to delete.

Try the program out, it is simple to use and you can’t really go wrong. But do read the warnings and error messages. Take your time I don’t want a comment saying you wiped your boot disk using this method. If in doubt don’t apply the changes.

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Every time you boot up your Mac you hear the familiar boot up sound. But it does get annoying after a while. Disabling it is quite easy, all you have to do is mute your volume. But you have to remeber to do this every time before you shutdown. This is a pain. There are methods in which you can get around this. One uses a preference pane. The other involves creating files that run on boot up and shutdown.

The best and most easiest method is to use a preference pane. If you head over to StartupSound.prefPane, you can download the preference pane. Once as you have installed it thorugh the installer. You can modify the sound value for the start up sound. To disable you just press mute. When you boot up again the sound will be gone.

The other method, which involves using a shutdown and boot up script is located at Mac OS X Hints, the post is here. By adding a file it achieves the same method. The only problem being is that you have to have the knowledge of creating files within Terminal. I prefer the Preference Pane method as it is a lot easier.

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This is quite a little interest on mine. Since I have a laptop I open and close the lid a lot when moving from one place to another. As a result some time I want to change what happens. For example keeping the Mac asleep when the lid is opened and keeping my Mac awake when the lid is closed. There isn’t any default methods of doing this within the system preferences. It needs a bit of hacking and using applications to work around this problem.

The first part of this post will be to turn off the wake on lid option. This means that when the laptop is woken by opening the lid, this command should stop that. Its very simple to complete. The first step is to open Terminal. From there type:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

You will have to enter you admin password. This will then change a system setting located in you power management preference. If you want to change it back you have to use the same command but change the 0 to a 1.

sudo pmset -a lidwake 1

Within the code about, pmset is sort for power management settings. Most of the settings within that command relate to the settings you can access within System Preferences. the -a means that the command will work with all power sources. You can use other letters to relate the command to other sources including battery and UPS if avalible. The final piece of code, lidwake, it what we want. We are changing the binary value for this command.

As mention in the summary of this post there is way of making sure that you computer keeps running when the lid is closed. This is done through and application called InsomniaX, which has one of the best looking icons I have ever seen. This application, run from the menu bar, is designed to give your computer insomnia and stop it going to sleep when the lid is closed.

It works really well. Although I wouldn’t recommend using this option if you are using CPU intensive work. Since when the lid is closed the air ports at the back, by the screen, are blocked. As a result I can heat up the internals of your computer and possibly damage them. It has also been reported in many places that this can damage your screen due to the intense heat. Use caution.

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Nearly all applications on your Mac, especially ones made by Apple, have cache files. These cache files contain data to help your application run quicker and generally faster. For example they cache data which is used often so it doesn’t have to be calculated. Thats what cache files do. But these cache files get bigger and more bloated. As a result they can actually slow down the application, since they may contain data that is not needed but is still being read. It is easy to delete a cache file and let the program make a new one.

To find you cache location open a new Finder window and navigate to /Users/James/Library/Caches/ this folder contains a lot of folder which contain your cache files. Simply located the folder of the application you want to delete the cache file. And delete the file. Make sure the application cache you are deleting is closed before you do this, to make sure you don’t corrupt anything.

I deleted my Mail cache file, since Mail was acting so slowly. When the application was restarted it opened instantly rather than waiting the couple of seconds I had to before. Instant improvement. I don’t recommend, mind you, deleting every cache file you have. This could cause problems. Only delete the cache files you are having problems with.

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