I seem to be repairing quite a few out of warranty Mac’s over the last month. I’m not particularly adept at fixing Mac’s, i’ve never been on a course, however people I talk to never believe how simple sometimes it is to fix a Mac. They always think they have a million parts, requires a soldering iron (never needed to use one yet) or you need a PhD in fixing computers to Mac them work again. This isn’t always the case. Most of the time, with the right guide, a little bit of patience, you can fix your own Mac, even the fiddly bits. Once you have all of the parts you can have your computer working within the hour. This mini guide is a list of things I have compiled to help you get your Mac working again.

Make Sure It Is Out Of Warranty/Apple Wont Fix It

The first step is to make sure your Mac is out of warranty or Apple wont fix it for free. If you want to check that your Mac is still in warranty the best place to check is Apple’s coverage site. The last thing you want to do is take your Mac apart and find Apple could have fixed it. I’m pretty sure taking your Mac to pieces will void the warranty.

If it is out of warranty and you have a major problem, check with Apple anyway. Some times they can fix your Mac for free. Checking with them shouldn’t take too long, a trip to an Apple store, or by ringing there phone number. By checking them you also get to see how much it will cost them to fix it. It may be cheaper for them to fix it than yourself, as well as this you also get a diagnosis of what is wrong. Note that Apple Care from Amazon is usually cheaper.

Diagnose The Problem

This step is either the easiest or hardest problem. There are many ways to solve this problem and it will all depend on what problem you are having. One route to finding a solution is to use Apple’s Hardware Test, a read me is found here. This may help diagnose problems relating to specific bits of hardware, although not always perfect it can point you in the right direction.

One of the best ways to help find a solution to a hardware problem is to search for it. If you have a problem with a piece of hardware, odds are, some one else has had it before you. Combined with the Apple Hardware Test you can find exactly what is wrong. Find and ask as many people as possible to narrow it down to a single component. Having help by going into an Apple store is always a bonus.

Most problems are pretty obvious to identify. If you Mac doesn’t boot, there is a logic board or CPU problem. If it boots but doesn’t run very well, it again could be a logic board or CPU, but can also be a RAM or Graphics card. Finally if you Mac boots into the desktop, but runs slow it is usually a Hard Drive or RAM issue. If it is an obvious problem such as no sound, lack of Wi-Fi, BlueTooth or disk drive, its pretty self explanatory.

Find The Solution

If you have found the source of your problem you now need to fix it. Since I am talking about hardware problems the solutions tend to be simple. Find the part that is wrong, swap over part, and then boot your Mac hoping it will work again. The best guides are from iFixit. They have sections on Powerbook’s, iBook’s, iMac’s, MacBook’s and MacBook Pro’s and Mac Mini’s. Simply find your model (there may be different parts in each model) and then the guide for what you want to fix.

There is other guides out there and it is worth searching for them if iFixit doesn’t have the one your are looking for. However on all the repairs and replacements I have done, iFixit have been exemplary.

Find The Part and Tools

Now you now what to fix and how to fix it you need the parts and tools to get the job done. From a quick Google search providers such as Powerbook Medic, for people in the USA and VIS or TheBookYard for people in the UK. It really doesn’t matter where you get them from as long as they will fit. Make sure you are buying the right part by checking part numbers. Its always worth looking at pictures to make sure they look at least right. I don’t recommend places such as eBay although you may feel otherwise. My friend has had a couple of bad experiences, so trust who you are buying from.

At this point you have to determine if the part you are buying is worth the cost. For example an Apple repair for a screen may be $400 (I have no idea i’m just hypothesizing) or $300 by doing it yourself. You now have to take the gamble, is it worth doing it myself? if the part particularly tricky or complex? Items such as screen or parts that are fiddly may not be worth doing yourself. Have a good read of the guide that you find and see if your skill level is high enough for the job in hand. Items such as logic board and cables are pretty easy since its only involves screws. Screens, on the other hand, can be a real pain and may not be worth you undertaking them. You also have to consider the age of your computer. Is paying $300 for a component worth it when you could buy a new one. Although a new one will be more expensive, in the long run you new Mac will last a lot longer. Putting a lot of money down on a 6-7 or even older make will probably not make sense.

Once you have the parts ready its also worth buying the correct tools. There is a lot of screws of different sizes in a Mac. Read through the guides to see what size screw driver you will need (iFixit are particularly good at this). My top tip is to always have the tools ready and the correct tools. There is nothing worst than having your computer in pieces and having to rush to the shops at the speed of light to get a screw driver set (personal experience talking here). Again, Amazon comes up with the goods ith Maxtech 32-Piece Precision Bit Set and Screwdriver Set for $3, even if you use it once stretching to $3 for the correct tools isn’t that much.

Once you have the parts and pieces you are ready to insert your new hardware. One top MacTricksAndTips tip, when taking out screws tape them to the step on the guide you have printed out . Then when you put your Mac back together you know you haven’t lost a screw or wondering where it goes when you have one felt over.

Start Up

When you are all done you have to start your Mac up again. This is where you pray to the computing god and hope that you have replaced the right part and done it correctly. If it went well and you have diagnosed the problem correctly most of the time it will work. This is why you have to decide if replacing the part is worth it, you don’t want to spend lots of money only to find it is the wrong part and your Mac still doesn’t work, or there is bigger problems. If all is well you can continue using your Mac another day. If it doesn’t you may have installed it wrong or there may be a deeper problem at heart and professional help should be sought.

Conclusion

Fixing your Mac can be really simple and cheap. If you have a good grip on the problem and know what you are doing fixing a faulty component is a good way to get your Mac back up to speed. On the other hand if it doesn’t work, what you have replaced, it can be a lot of wasted money.

There is not a lot more I can write without going into massive detail on every component. This post is designed as a general guide for people who don’t no where to start. Make sure you do your research and read as much as possible. The only book I can find is Upgrading and Fixing Macs and iMacs for Dummies on Amazon, but I can’t vouch for its quality. If you have any questions or comments, please leave one using the box below.

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Today’s post is going to show you how to install Xcode. This post is for people who are new to the Mac and want to try there hand at programming. The Xcode developer tools allow anyone to create Mac applications (as well as other cool stuff). I have recently begun learning the application and how to program for Mac over the last couple of weeks, as a result it seemed a good post. Xcode isn’t normally found on your Mac, so people who don’t know how to install it may find the process a little confusing.

The first step in installing Xcode is to have the binary files. The most common (and quickest) way to do this is to pop your installation disk into the slot drive and allow it to load. The second method is to head over the the Apple developer website and download it from there. You do have to sign up on the Apple website and the download is quite large. It is quicker to find your installation disk and run it from there. When you Mac loads the disk, select Optional Installs the from list.

Throughout this tutorial I will be running it from the install disk that comes with your Mac. The download process may slightly differ in steps.

Within the Optional Installs folder select Xcode. The other package in the list allows you to reinstall apps such as iCal and Mail to name a few, it also has language files and printer drivers to select. This is useful if you ever need to reinstall anything.

As you run through the installation you will eventually be greeted with the options to install different parts of Xcode. The essential package is always needed, however system tools, UNIX support, documentation and Mac OS X 10.4 support is optional. I recommend you install the documentation and system tools, both of these are quite useful especially the system tools option. The UNIX dev support is only need if you want to play around with some high level stuff. For more information read the little description box. If you ever find your need some of the products in the list you can always insert your CD again and reinstall the missing apps.

The installation process will then run. Depending on the speed of your DVD drive this will take about 30 minutes. Unless you choose otherwise the files will be places in /Developer, the root of your drive. I recommend this spot since it is in an easy location to remember and seems to come recommend by Apple. You can chose to install it in other locations, just select the option when it appears.

When everything is done Xcode will be installed. The installation processes brings across a lot of other files, most of which you will never need. However as you develop your applications you may find they become useful. The majority of the cool stuff is in Applications (where the main programs are installed) and in Library. Take a look around to see all of the new shiny programs.

When you are done your can begin writing your applications and using cool Mac technologies such as Quartz Composer. If you need a little help I recommend searching the web, as well as visiting CocoaLab, is always a good start as they have a cool eBook you can download. If you want an actual book to read, Xcode 3 Unleashed comes recommended and one of my readers enjoys Learn Xcode. I am currently reading (and will eventually be reviewing) Beginning Mac Programming, so I stay tuned.

If you have any comments or questions please leave a comment below.

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Usenet goes back. Way back. Its one of the oldest and most popular protocols on the internet. In a nutshell, Usenet is a service which allows you to access articles post by people like you and me over the internet. Since this information is spread world wide and most importantly it is the same, you can access a bustling community of enthusiasts (of every kind) in a quick and easy manner. I wanted to bring up how to access Usenet because there is a large community of Mac users using the service, which is great for learning new things and asking your questions. I have done a post previously on this site about accessing Usenet, but I am going to updated version here with more detail, as a request from one of you guys who contacted me.

Put simply, Usenet is a way of sending and spreading information. Imaging the Usenet network as a forum, every time you make a post this information is spread world wide where everyone else can receive that post. Post are made into Newsgroups. Each Newsgroup is a on a specific topic (such as a specific forum), these vary from information about Mac (which I will post about later), to science, sci-fiction related and to the legality ambiguous alt.binaries.* where you can get the latest movies, TV shows and everything in between. The advantage of this is easy access and the ability for everyone to see the same thing. You don’t need to find the specific website as you do with modern forums. If you want to learn more about Usenet, read the wikipedia article or read a couple of books from Amazon, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Usenet Newsgroups and Managing Usenet are old books but still relevant. I use Usenet to read up on the latest news in my area, in my university field and ask and solve questions about Mac related stuff. Hopefully by the end of this guide you can do the same.

Set Up

To get access to the Usenet network you need a newsgroup provider, these are the companies which allow you to access the information. You can’t access newsgroups from a web browser. Most ISP’s offer newsgroup access of some form or another so I recommend you go searching through the help pages, beware that ISP’s can drop certain newsgroups and and not store all of the articles, so you may not be getting a of the available articles. If you have and ISP which doesn’t offer it, I recommend you buy access. It only costs a couple of dollars a month. My favourite is GigaNews, cheap price and good access as well as a free trial which I recommend you sign up with. I’m only on the cheap Bronze package since I don’t download much data. The more you download the bigger the package, stuff like binary files take up a lot of bandwidth. If you just want it for browsing articles a lower package will suffice. Note that the retention is how longer the newsgroup provider keeps the articles. The longer the retention the further back you can go and the more you can read. A short retention may mean an story or article you are reading may get cut off or deleted before you have finished reading it. Especially if its a busy newsgroup.

At this point you have your newsgroup login details and you are ready to access some articles. For this tutorial I am going to use Unison. I’ve found that it is one of the best Usenet applications. Others include Mozilla Thunderbird, Gemini or Binbot for grabbing binary files. There are plenty of apps out there, a quick Google search will probably bring up a lot more. I recommend Unison since it is the best one I have tried and has everything you will need. Its also one of those really well designed Mac apps that you expect on your Mac.

Adding your login details to Unsion (or other readers, for this tutorial I am going to use Unsion) is simple.  Go to File > Preferences > Servers and enter your details. Give it a nickname, then enter the server address, password and port. SSL is only needed if you have a restrictive ISP who likes to filter and slow traffic. The number of connections refers to how many open lines there is to the server. In theory the more connections the faster the download since the server can give you more information. However too many connections can lock up your router and give you a large overhead of extra unneeded data, especially if you have a slow connection. The “limit to” box is used to limit your connections, since newsgroup access will saturate your connection you may want to limit this value to stop you downloading to much data.

You are now ready to start accessing newsgroups and articles. In Unison either go to directory and select a category such as “Mac” and then select a newsgroup underneath. Newsgroups are organised in a funny manner, for example a Mac newsgroup may be comp.sys.mac.apps. To find a newsgroup of your liking, use the directory function and search through the various lists or use the “All Groups” function to look and search through the hierarchy. It will take you a while to figure out where everything is, exploring is usually the best way to find information. But once you have selected a newsgroup you can read through what people are saying and join in the conversation. Note, that when you select a newsgroup you have to download the “headers” this is the information such as what articles are called, who has responded and  various other bits of information. You need to download headers to view a newsgroup, however they don’t take long to download. You also only need to download the headers once and any new headers. Large groups get updated frequently so you may find you are downloading a lot of information. To limit the header download go to Preferences again and change the header load count. Anywhere between 5000 and 10000 is satisfactory.

In the screen shot above the newsgroups are on the left, i’ve subscribed to many groups on things I am interested in. Note that the large numbers is due to all the new responses and may note represent new articles. The main window shows all of the new articles and vary on topic, however they usually represent topic and conversation, depending which newsgroup you are in. You can read them like an email/forum and reply in the same way. In a couple of days I am going to post about Unison in more detail. In the mean time simply search the web on how to use newsgroups for more information.

Mac Usenet Newsgroups

If you are stuck on some things to read there plenty of groups out there. Some Mac specific ones are below. If you want to access them the quickest way is to type them into the search box in the “All Groups” section of Unison or search the “All Groups” section manually.

• uk.comp.sys.mac
• comp.sys.mac.comm
• comp.sys.mac.advocacy
• comp.sys.mac.apps
• comp.sys.mac.misc
• comp.sys.mac.portables

For readers who are in Europe and speak the specific languages:

• de.comp.sys.mac.misc
• nl.comp.sys.mac
• pl.comp.sys.macintosh
• fr.com.sys.mac

There is plenty of content out there and it is all updated very regularly by new users. Those groups are just the nutshell and you can access more from the “All Groups” or the directory in Unison. If you are into downloading binary files you will need to find the required files on sites such as NZBClub. An NZB files is used to group specific files (found in Usenet groups) so they can be easily downloaded. This is only used for binary files such as TV Shows, Music, Movies etc and you don’t need it if you only reading information. I don’t recommend it since most of the binary files are illegal. Unison does, however support binary files off the bat with no need to do anything special.

Conclusion

To conclude Usenet is a great way to access information an articles. If you have a Mac question and want a large audience to access it, Usenet is a way to go, remember to ask it in the right newsgroup. All you need is a newsgroup provider such as GigaNews and a little know how and you are ready to go. There is a lot of information out there and it will take you a while to get your head around it. But it is worth it in the end for the amount of stuff you can learn. There are hundreds, if not thousands of groups which you can access on nearly everything. Its great for hobbies, i’m into photography and there is some great groups to help you learn and discuss ideas. With Unison as your Mac app it couldn’t be simpler.

If you have questions or comments please leave a comment below.

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A few months ago I mentioned about Taking Time Lapsed Screen Shots With Terminal, it was a script which would take a screen shot every couple of seconds of your desktop. This is useful if you are taking a time lapse movie, but it is not useful if you actually want to show people videos of your desktop. I have previously written a post on iShowU which can take movies of you desktop. This post will show you how you can do this for free using QuickTime Player which comes with Snow Leopard.

To capture your desktop video open QuickTime Player in your Applications folder. Then from your File menu select “New Screen Recording”. This will open up a little widget with a record button as shown in the image below. From the down arrow you can select a couple of options, first the sound input. If you want to select your audio which your computer makes you can either use a Male to Male cable and plug it in your input and output on your Mac or you can download and install SoundFlower, which allows you to pass audio into QuickTime. Other options from the flippy down arrow include the quality and the save location.

When you are ready you can start recording. Press the little red record button and it will start recording what ever is on your screen. When you have finished recording press the stop button in your Menu Bar.

Once as you press stop QuickTime will do a little bit of processing and your video will be available to view. Note that it will record at what ever your screen resolution is set to, as a result it will more than likely produce a large HD video, which is really good for playing back but not that useful if you want to share with your friends. So its worth trimming the video before you compress it, this way you have the least amount of video to compress. To trim the video go to Edit > Trim and cut out the beginning and end of the video to what you want. Every bit you cut off is less you have to compress down the line making the final video file smaller.

When you have trimmed your video you can now save it for final use, although the final video is already saved in your Movies folder (or other location if you specified it) its worth compressing the video. Go to File > Save As or File > Save For Web. The former is good for saving for use on your computer, since you can select 480p resolution, among a variety of others. The latter is good if you plan on putting it on the web. Have a look at the settings and pick on which you think is suitable for you. If you want more options it may be worth opening the movie in the older version of QuickTime and using that apps options.

There you have it. Capturing your desktop as a video couldn’t be simpler. If you want to learn more about QuickTime I recommend Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual or Apple Pro Training Series: QuickTime Pro. There are many resources out there so look around.

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Over the past two weeks I have mentioned many times about making a Terminal script into a Service. This post is going to be a round up of some of the small quirks I have found and worked around. You can use this post as a may of booking this method if you forget how to do this in the future. In essence it will take any Terminal Bash script which you have made and would normally run in Terminal and apply a short cut. I’m finding this more and more useful as time goes on. I have a small growing list of scripts that I run on a daily basis.

Before I start there are two books I would like to point out on Amazon which have similar sort of articles. To a certain extent they take this concept a bit further. They are Automator for Mac Snow Leopard, which is a guide for Automator. A more general guide which features a more general tutorials is Snow Leopard, The Missing Manual.

If you have read my earlier posts the process is rather simple. We are going to create an Automator work flow which is designed to run as a Service from the Application > Services menu. We can then, through System Preferences, add a short cut. This short cut will allow the work flow, which contains your script to run. It doesn’t take long to set up.

The first step is to open Automator. This is located in your Applications folder. When it opens select Automator from the pop up list.

This will automatically put your Service into the required folder and update your system.

The next step is to add your code to the Work flow. To do this first select no input from the first drop down this allows the script to run from any application and allows you to use the short cut any time. The new service menu in Mac OS X 10.6 only shows certain options when certain applications are selected, this change makes sure you can run your app any time you want.

To run your shell script which you have created select the “Run Shell Script” workflow from the list, it is under utilities. In the text box copy and paste the code you have created. You can leave the drop down options intact.

The advantage with Automator is that you can run normal actions after the script. This is useful if you want to do something relatively simple but don’t know how to code it with a Shell script.

When you have finished save your script. Give it a name, this name is visible from the Service menu so make sure you give it something useful, simple and short. All finished work flows are stored in /Users/[name]/Library/Services if you need to modify or delete them.

The final step is to give the work flow a short cut so you can run it any time. To do this open up System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services. You new Shell script will be at the bottom of the list. Double click on the right hand side of the Service option and add your short cut by pressing the required keys. Note you need to make sure you don’t use a short cut that is used by another program as you may run into conflicts. Add two or more modifier keys such as Shift, Option, Command and Function to make sure you don’t run into problems.

Any short cut will take a minute or two to update everything and you will be able to use your script with a short cut.

Hopefully everything works. If you have any problems have a mess around and see if you can make it work. If you still have problems search the web or ask a question below. I hope that this round up post enables you to run any shell script with a short cut.

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I did a post a while back about Resizing Images using Apple Script. Its an old post, however it does have some good points. For people who don’t know how to use AppleScript it can be a bit complicated. This post is going to show you how your can batch resize images using Preview (which has slowly become more powerful) and then move this into an Automator script. Its a good simple way to resize images and is quick and simple.

If you want to learn more about Previews functions I recommend Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual. Its a great book. If you want to learn more about Automator, Automator for Mac is a recommend book, there is a Snow Leopard version available if you are running the latest OS.

Preview

Resizing with Preview, for the most part, is very simple. It can be used for nearly any image size and allows you to determine which value (height or width) you want to change. The process is simple and is as follows:

1) Select your images in Finder.

2) Drag the images onto the Preview icon and let it load.

3) Select all of the images from the sidebar, by either shift clicking the first and last image or Command + A.

4) Go to Tools > Adjust Size and enter either a Width or Height value, it will keep the aspect in relation to the value your enter, its useful to enter a width value if you have a specific value in mind. You can enter two values, however it will change the aspect ratio.

5) Press Save All.

Preview allows your to do this for numerous images. One of the advantages of using Preview is that you can determine what size you want to use, however if you want to use the same value over and over again, this method is a bit clunky, this is where Automator comes in.

Automator

For people who have not come across Automator before, it allows use to run and build tasks with a simple GUI interface. It is designed to build scripts that are simple and don’t need the coding power of something else. In Automator we are going to replicate the same processing, but use Automator Actions. The first step is to open Automator, located in the Applications folder and select workflow from the pop up option.

1) In Automator select the “Copy Finder Items” action and drag it into the work area. Select a copy to location. This is so it preserves the original file (Automator gets a bit panicky when you don’t have it). It should go without saying that you have a copy if you are making changes.

2) Add “Scale Images” from the actions library. Set a size depending on what you need.

3) Add “Save For Web”. Select “Save to” as “Same folder as input”, Use “Preview”, and Type “JPEG”.

4) Save the workflow. Select a name and have the file format as an “Application”.

5) Test by dragging a bunch of image files onto the workflow application.

This allows you to quickly resize and image to the same size every time. From testing the pixel value you enter into the “Scale Images” input is the x value. There is no option for the y values.

Preview and Automator have both disadvantages and advantages. Preview is good since you can choose which size you want, unlike Automator. However Automator is quicker, especially if you want the same size over and over again (such as a website). There is nothing stopping you making different workflows for different sizes.

Have a play and see what you think, there are plenty of improvements which you can make. It all depends on what you want the final script for.

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I use Windows semi-regularly to play PC games, when booting into Windows with Boot Camp, I normally have to restart as normal, wait for the main screen to pop up, press Option, restart my Mac again because I forgot to press option, select my Windows hard drive and boot up as normal. This takes far too long and in the boot time I would rather get a drink than wait to select the correct drive. So I went on a quest last night to find a simple one click solution to reboot, automatically into Windows. I wanted a solution where I click an icon and my Mac restarts, avoiding an option to enter my password. As you will find out this is a lot harder than you would think. There is three solutions that do work each with varying results. These are a Terminal command /script. An AppleScript and an Application someone has designed.

Terminal Script

When doing anything like this I automatically turn to a Terminal script. Most of the time there is a solution. There is actually a solution which does work, however I deem it to be a bit “violent” as it kills everything immediately and then restarts. This is OK, however any unsaved files will not prompt the save dialogue box. The script itself is as follows.

/usr/sbin/bless --device /dev/disk0s3 --setBoot --legacy --nextonly | sudo shutdown -r now

The thing to note is that /dev/disk0s3 is the Boot Camp disk. You can find out which disk it is in Disk Utility, you may need to change disk0s3 if you have more than one partition or drive.

The previous script did work, a warning does come up every so often in Terminal. Due to the way your Mac system is built you cannot skip the add password bit. This includes setting the script as root user. I could get round this by adding my password into the script as a variable but this would open a security hole that I didn’t want.

As a result the Terminal script did what I want, however it was a little bit violent, as mentioned, and I would need to add my password, so I turned to AppleScript.

AppleScript – Background

I find AppleScripts tend to follow Terminal scripts in there layout and function. As a result it wasn’t too hard in finding and working out a simple one line script that I could use. In AppleScript typing the following and compiling it would allow you to restart into BootCamp.

do shell script "bless -mount /Volumes/WINDOWS/ -legacy -setBoot -nextonly; shutdown -r now" with administrator privileges

This will prompt your for your password and restart in the same manner as the Terminal script (since it is running a Terminal script). AppleScript has an option where you can add a password for it to run with. Normally you would be opening up a hole in your security, but if you save the resulting Application as “Run-only” the contents is scrambled, as a result it is a lot harder to get your password. This can’t be done with a Terminal script.

do shell script "bless -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/ -legacy -setBoot -nextonly" password "xxxxxxx" with administrator privileges
do shell script "shutdown -r now" with administrator privileges

This still restarts your computer by killing everything, it doesn’t do a nice restarts by closing Applications, this is where the power of AppleScript comes in.

AppleScript – Working App

Having learn’t (for about two hours) in getting something to work I ended up if a working AppleScript that did what I wanted. It would restart my computer into Boot Camp, have a nice shutdown by closing apps (not violently killing them) and not need my password but still being secure. To do this open AppleScript Editor and paste the following.

do shell script "bless -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/ -legacy -setBoot -nextonly" password "xxxxxxx" with administrator privileges
tell application "Finder" to restart

Edit both the disk which Windows is stored on and your password. Then go to File > Save As, name the application and select “Application” as the file format and select “Run Only” from the check boxes. Then save and test out your file. It should restart into window, while shutting your computer down in a timely and safe manner.

Prefect, a script to do exactly what I want in a safe any easy way. The icon was produced by pasting an image into the icon in the Get Info pane of the finished AppleScript Application.

Application

To finish off this post I searched for an application which does the same thing, if your note a code wizz but want something useful. I searched around and found BootChamp, it will restart you Mac into Windows but you can quickly access this from the menu bar. It does need your password which is semi-annoying but it is still a good little app.

Conclusion

To finish off I have shown your three ways in which your can restart you Mac into Windows. The first is a Terminal script which is violent but very quick. An AppleScript which does the same job but allows your to skip using your password and an Application which does the same job.

If you have any comments please leave one below.

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The title is a bit complicated for what I am trying to achieve in this post. What I am going to cover is a way of upgrading your Mac’s internal Hard Disk Drive and then use this drive externally. I gained the idea from generally searching questions on the net, and from what I did quite a while ago. By the end of this you should a bigger capacity drive in your Mac, and an external Hard Drive to use for extra storage.

1) The first step is to work out what kind of disk your Mac currently holds. Most of the time this is obvious however it is always a good idea to check what type of drive your Mac is running with. To do this go to the Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info. This will open the System Profiler. You have to do a little bit of detective work to find out what sort of drive you are using. In System Profiler select Serial-ATA under hardware. At this page you will be given a couple of bits of information, most of it is irrelevant, however there is a line called “Model” and a long alpha numeric number. This is the model of hard drive you are supporting. Copy and paste this line into Google and do a search. You should end up with a web page showing the type of hard drive you are using.

There are two points you should note, the physical size (in inches) and the interface speed. The physical size is needed because we want a new one to fit. It usually 2.5 inches for laptops and 3.5 inches for desktop drives. The interface speed (using SATA) is how fast your computer can talk to the drive. You need this number, usually 1.5Gb/s or 3Gb/s so you can get the best performance out of your drive. If you buy a drive that is slower than what you Mac can support you are losing out on potential speed. If you buy a drive that can run faster than what you what can support it really doesn’t matter. The hard drive you currently have installed will be optimised for your system so it is worth remembering what value you have.

At this point you should have two values written down for your hard drive. The size and the speed. We can now purchase a new drive and increase our hard drive space.

2) There are lots of hard drives which you can pick. I usually recommend you find one that is twice the size  (at least) of your current drive. If you sport a 120GB hard drive, find one that is 240Gb or 320Gb to get maximum usage out of it. Bigger is usually better. You can purchase hard drives from anywhere on the net, but I am going to use Amazon as a good place for examples.

There is plenty of examples for 3.5 Inch Hard Drives, on Amazon. The majority are really large and run at SATA 3Gb/s which means you get a lot of speed and a lot of space. Go for the largest hard drive you can afford. Check the reviews to get you are getting a good drive. You only want a bare drive/OEM.

On the laptop side of things, looking for 2.5 Inch Hard Drives, there is plenty to choose from. As with the desktop drives buy the biggest one possible, you will thank yourself in a year or two when you fill it up.

When you get your new drive you will copy files from your old hard drive using a caddy. You need will also need need to buy a caddy at this stage so skip ahead to the caddy section to see what sort of caddy you need to buy)

3) When your new drives arrives. It is time to swap the drives over. There are lots tutorials on the web, the best way to find a guide is to search the net to find one that works. I have found a couple, one for replacing a MacBook Pro, and an iMac. Find a guide, print it out (and this guide while you are at it) and replace your hard drive.

4) At this point you have a Mac with a blank drive. You now have to install an operating system. Find your boot disk that came with your Mac (or a newer version of Mac OS X if you have one)  and install a fresh operating system. If you have a Time Machine backup ask to restore from a backup. This will merge the new operating system with your applications and documents.

If you don’t have a Time Machine backup. Install Mac OS X, you can then transfer your files over later.

5) You now should have a freshly installed OS and a spare hard drive. It is now time to put it in a caddy and use it. On Amazon there is various SATA Enclosures, you want one that has SATA internals and a USB interface, similar to this one. When your caddy comes you can insert your old hard drive and use it as an external one. Most have the applicable adapters so you can use a laptop hard drive in a caddy as well.

6) All you have to do now is transfer and files over (if you haven’t already) and then format your hard drive. Format  your hard drive using Disk Utility in Applications > Utilities.

All done. By the end of it you have an upgraded internal hard drive and an external hard drive (your old one) which you can use for extra data storage.

If you have any questions for comments please leave a comment below.

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I love my computer games. They are a good way to burn a couple of hours when I have nothing else to do. The problem with the Mac operating system is that it is largely incompatible with Windows games. There is a very simple and easy to use solution to this, CrossOver for Games. There are a variety of different methods to install games on your Mac machine. CrossOver allows you to go straight back into the Mac operating system without the need for a restart as you do with Boot Camp. Using Crossover Games is very simple once you get the hang of it. This post will serve as a guide and a review of the app.

CrossOver games works on a version of Wine, it allows you to run Windows programs on your Mac. Crossover builds on this app and I think is far more useful, especially for people who are not confident using Wine. CrossOver has a lot of supporting code and structure and works something like this, you have a “bottle” this is basically your Windows install without any of the Windows bits. Its an environment where Windows programs can run in peace. In this bottle you install your games (or other programs), when the install has finished CrossOver will configure the application so it can correctly interface between Mac and the Windows bottle. CrossOver has two versions of it app, a normal one and one for games. The games version is more suited to computer games.

To install a Windows game download and install the app. I can’ fully remember the initial process for setting up a bottle, however it would be something very similar to what is outlined here. In the app go to Configure > Manage Bottles. In the sidebar at the bottom click the plus button to add a new bottle. Select an operating system (Windows XP is recommend) and a name. You can have more than one bottle, how ever one will suffice. Once this bottle has a name and operating system.

You are now ready to install your applications. Go to the Applications tab in the bottles window or select Configure > Install Software. From the option that pops up, you can either install some supported software (especially useful for Steam) or install “Unsupported Software”. Unsupported software is apps that are not on the list. Install your software as you would. When you have finished your game is installed and ready to play. It can be accessed from the “Programs” menu item.

One option I would like to point out, is the ability to open the  “C:” drive. This is under the “Advance” tab. It is very useful as you can view the files that the game files runs on, and you can make changes as you see fit, and example being adding Save Files or extra files needed by your game.

Most games run pretty quickly. They are not as fast as a Boot Camp install, however old games are pretty quick and run well. More modern games are a little laggy how ever you can play around the game settings to make it smoother. If you need ultimate performance I would install Boot Camp, for ease and simplicity I would go with CrossOver.

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Today we have a guest post by Chris Wanja. He wanted to do a post on creating different bootable disks which you can use on an external hard drive. For example a Leopard Boot and a Snow Leopard Boot. This means you have two different operating systems which you can use and allows you to try things out in different operating systems. This method is slightly different to the bootable backups I did a couple of days ago. The method is quite complicated so you have to follow the instructions quite carefully. I recommend people who know what they are doing attempt this tutorial as you can easily lose all of your data. If you have any questions please leave a comment below or  Twitter or email Chris.

“In the post we cover how to create bootable, clean operating systems as well as bootable installers. Some plus sides to creating a bootable drive is the ability to defragment your own hard-drive. Defragging simply moves broken up sectors on your hard-drive back inline so they are side-by-side. This increases the response of your operating system when you request a file. To read more on defragmentation, check out this Wikipedia article. On a Windows machine, they include the ability to defragment right from inside the operating system. On the Mac, you have to purchase a software CD such as Drive Genius and then boot into that CD. With a bootable operating system, you can load via that and defragment right from there. It is a lot faster over FireWire or USB than a bootable CD. Creating a bootable operating system installer makes things so much faster than installing off a retail copy or grey discs included with your Mac. The latter part of this post will show you how to great a bootable operating system while this next section will show you how to create an installer partition.

Go ahead and plug in and turn on your hard-drive. Insert the retail copy of Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard or which OS you would like. Let it mount on your desktop. As soon as it mounts, fire up Disk Utility found in your ~/Applications/Utilities folder. In Disk Utility you are welcomed with a screen that has your local hard-drive and your optical drive. For users on 10.3 or lower, Disk Utility will not mount your optical drive. At this point, you will see your internal hard-drive, CD drive and any external hard-drives connected. Choose the main hard-drive (the brand name) on the left hand side. Across the center, choose the partition tab and create two (2) partitions for every operating system you would like to install; one for the installer and one for the clean boot. Use all of the sizes below to make sure you have enough space partitioned:

• Snow Leopard:
  • Install: 12GB
  • Operating System: 15GB
• Leopard
  • Install: 15GB
  • Operating System: 20GB

You are now ready to move on to imaging the CD to the Installer partition. Read on!

The picture below shows five (5) different partitions. On a small 500GB disk I have my TimeMachine, 10.5.6 Installer, 10.5.6+ OS, 10.6 Installer and the 10.6 OS. Choose the partition you want to send the installer too. Notice the buttons across the middle box change when you select a specific partition. Go to the “Restore” button. Feel free to read the text at the top, but our focus will be on the input spaces in the lower half of the box. The first box is for your source (the install CD) and below that is for the hard-drive partition you want it to install to.

NOTE: obviously, names of partitions will be different so the Destination box will be different from user to user. Click the “Restore” button, input your password and off it will go. Let the Disk Utility do its thing and about forty-five minutes to a you will be done. By default, your partition will be renamed “Mac OS X Install”; go ahead and rename it for reference later on. I choose the OS version – IE: 10.5.6 Install or 10.6 Install.

Next up is installing a clean operating system on an empty partitioned hard-drive. We just created an faster way to install the operating system, so lets go ahead and use that. Make sure there is an empty partition waiting for your OS install. If not, go back into Disk Utility and create a partition (as described above). Shut down your computer (or restart) and as soon as you see the grey screen hold down the option/alt key – ⌥. This should bring you to the screen show you all bootable drives. You will see your internal drive (Macintosh HD or what you have it named as) and then you will see the partition with the installer you just created. There should be only two drives, so you should not be to confused, try doing it with five different bootable OS and installers. Choose the installer partition and you will be booted into it just as if you were doing it off the CD. Follow the prompts just like you would to re-install. The only difference is when you come to the screen that allows you choose the hard-drive, make sure you choose that empty partition. DO NOT CHOOSE YOUR INTERNAL HARD-DRIVE – it should have a yellow triangle on it. Consider that a big red stop sign and choose the other. Finish the installer and it will reboot. When it reboots it is scripted to go to that operating system it just installed. So make sure you hold down the option / alt key to choose your internal hard-drive (unless you want to go into the new operating system you just created).

You have successfully created a FireWire or USB installer and bootable operating system. There is a couple of different ways of access these new jewels of yours.

• Easiest: restarting and holding down the option / alt key. Then choose the partition you want to access.
• Pain in the neck: Open System Preferences, go to Startup Disk, unlock, and choose the external drive. The reason I call this the pain in the neck method is for two reasons:
  • On turn on, the OS will constantly look for that external partition. When it doesn’t find it (because it is not always plugged in) it will default to your internal hard-drive. This adds about ten seconds to the boot time.
  • If the drive is plugged in, it will always default to that (until you change it). Making it a pain if you forget”

You should now have more than one different operating system available to you which you can use as necessary. I hope you followed this tutorial and now have two operating systems on your hard drive.

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Today will be the last post in the mini series that has evolved on backing up your data. So far I have covered general backup solutions, and cloning your hard drive. The final post will be on cloning your Windows boot camp partition. Backing up this partition is slightly more problematic due to the fact that your partition can be NTFS or FAT32, and not a partition that is compatible with Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This technique will not create a bootable partition but one that has all your data in the form a disk image. You can then use this disk image to restore you data at a later date.

The first step in backing up boot camp is to download and install a tool called WinClone. It designed to do exactly what we want to do. You may have to install some supporting software to get it to work. When its installed and ready to run open the application.

Using this application is very simple. There is really only two functions, image and restore. Within the image tab select your boot camp partition from the drop down menu. Then press image. You will be prompted for a location to save the disk image. I recommend a disk which doesn’t already hold your boot camp partition, I would also suggest putting it on a disk with plenty of space. When you are done, let the process run. It shouldn’t take to long. Unlike using Carbon Copy Cloner in the previous post you can still use you Mac since it isn’t accessing Mac system files and locking up your system.

When the app has finished you will have an ISO file of your Windows partition. You can now continue your day. If you want to restore you files simply use the menu option “Restore” in the application. Before you start have a quick ready through the help on the website.

Restoring Windows is quite simple but not as sophisticated as backing up your Mac disk. This way seems the most useful and easiest to use. I do recommend you have a backup of important files in Windows anyway. This method is to create an image for quickly restoring your system to a certain point.

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It seems a little mini-series has emerged on getting backups sorted. The original post, Backup Solutions For The Mac, mentioned three different methods of backup, Time Machine, Bootable Drives and Online Backup Solutions. I can’t stress enough how important backup’s are. I know many of you do use Time Machine and you should continue using it. Today’s post is going to focus on how you can create a bootable backup for your data. I feel this type of approach is more ballistic. It designed for the worse case scenario, when you hard drive completely fails and you can’t use it any more and you need something to get your Mac running again.

Bootable backup’s, I feel, are methods to get into your system with all of your data intact. As the name suggests you can run and use a bootable backup, like it was your original disk. This means you can, hopefully, sort out your system and make sure your original hard drive can work again while retaining your data, so you can still work on that very important project that is due in tomorrow. I also find it a quicker way to solve problems, since I don’t have to run off the install disk, which is inevitably slow, and I have all of my bookmarks in Firefox to find solutions to problems.

Creating a bootable backup needs an external (or internal if you have me than one drive slot) hard disk. Its not wise to create a bootable backup on any disk you currently use regularly, such as your main disk or one you use to store data. Ideally you need a new fresh disk, however one you haven’t used for a while will still work. You just need to make sure the disk you have chosen works and is the same size, if not bigger, than the one you want to clone.

With you new fresh disk attached to your computer, either through a USB or Firewire hub, the best way to start is by formatting the disk so it is blank. Open up Disk Utility in Applications > Utilities. Select your disk from the sidebar. In the main window go to the partition tab and set the Volume Scheme to one partition, and the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The disk formats need to be the same for a clone to work properly. Finally give you partition a name.

You now have your target disk in the same format as you main disk. Its now time to clone the data. The best tool for the job is Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC). There are a variety of tools out there which do a similar job. CCC, is designed to copy everything on your disk, while making sure all of the permissions and links are correct. The last thing you want is to copy every file (including system files) and find it wont boot because the permissions are wrong.

In CCC, on the left hand side, select your main disk. On the right hand side select your target disk which you formatted in Disk Utility. There are a variety of cloning options, if it is your first clone you will want to select “Backup Everything”. If you want to have an up to date backup of your main files you can select “Incremental Backup Of Selected Items”. For more details on the different settings have a browse through the help. For the purposes of this tutorial you need to select the first option.

When you are ready to go, press Clone. Depending on the size of your disk, this process could take a long time. So either sit back and watch the progress bar move or do something else. I did mine over night. I found that the app does lock your computer up every so often, since the program is accessing your disk a lot and reading a lot of files, applications will slow down. Just leave the application to run and it will do its job.

When everything has finished you now have a bootable backup. To test the disk, to make sure it works, restart you computer and hold Option. Before boot you should see two hard disks on screen, your original drive and your backup. Select the backup disk with the arrows keys (I think you may be able to use the mouse as well) and press enter to boot into the disk. The boot process should proceed to run. It may take longer to boot, since you are running off USB which is usually slower than SATA. I suggest you log in into the boot disk and checking out a couple of applications to make sure they work properly and load all of your preference files etc. To be double sure that your Mac is running off the right disk, select the Apple Menu Option > About This Mac. The little window will tell you which disk you are running from.

You now have a bootable disk. You can now restart back into your normal disk and proceed as normal. If you want to recover a cloned drive, just do the process in reverse. Boot into your backup, wipe your new drive which you have installed into your Mac, and then clone your backup drive to your new main drive. Make sure you select “Delete items that don’t exist on the source” to make sure everything works. Once as the clone from your backup has completed you should be good to go. However I recommend you read the help topic on this before your start anything to make sure you don’t waste a lot of time with incorrect copy options. Help can be found within Carbon Copy Cloner.

Overall the process is simple. Wipe, Clone, Relax. You should have at least one bootable backup for when things inevitably go wrong. If you have any tips on this process please leave a comment below.

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A couple of days ago I had a quick post about changing Dictionaries Labels, this post is going to be a follow on explaining how you can add new dictionaries to your Mac. Its quite useful if you want a language that isn’t supported by Dictionary. The only problem with this tutorial is that it is a little long and the results aren’t perfect. However it is free to use and gives you a new basic dictionary.

The first step is to download a dictionary file. The best way to find them is through StarDict. This sites holds a lot of dictionary files. Find the one you want and download the .tar.bz2 file. This is known as a tarball on the site. You can find numerous dictionaries from the list and the headings at the top of the page. The dictionaries vary in quality and words, you may need to try out a couple of different ones before you find one you like.

At this point the file is in the incorrect format. You need to convert it so Dictionary can read it. Download a small app called DictUnifier. Simply choose the file you have downloaded and press convert. After a couple of minutes the file will be converted and loaded into the Dictionary app. You now have a new dictionary file that you can use.

The new dictionary file can be used right away. The quality of the dictionary files varies depending on the original source, most of them are pretty good. If you do want a professional dictionary it may be useful to buy a dedicated one which has more words and features. However for free, its pretty good.

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In the previous post on this site I mentioned about 99 Amazing iPhone Wallpapers, most of the wallpapers were specifically designed to be iPhone wallpapers. In this post I want to show you how easy it is to turn any image on your Mac, into one designed and set up correctly for the iPhone. This tutorial is designed to take a picture of your favourite car or family member and crop it to the right size.

The first step is to pick an image which is suitable for use on an iPhone’s desktop. Take one that is relatively simple and isn’t to complex. On the small screen the complex detail gets pushed out and you usually end up with a smudge. As well as this also take one that doesn’t have any exact dimensions such as circles or proportions that need to stay exact. The method used can distort the images slightly.

Once as you have found your image, using the select tool in Preview draw a rectangle about 1.5 times as high as it is wide. We are not worried about the exact length, this is sorted later, just the ration between the sides. Use a sample size to judge the correct size. Once you have done this copy the image to the clipboard.

The next step is too make sure the sizes are correct. Go to Tools > Adjust Size. Uncheck “Scale Proportionally” and change the dimensions to 320 x 480. If the final image looks bad, go back to your source image and copy a new section. At this point you can save your image and upload it to your phone or play around with the other tools in Preview.

This process takes seconds to complete. You could probably create a script to do the resizing for you. Its a lot quicker than using Photoshop or a similar program.

If you have some really cool wallpapers which you made using this method, please leave a comment below.

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On your Mac there is a hosts file that controls certain IP and domain addresses. It works in a similar way to a normal DNS server. It translates web addresses to IP addresses. This file enables you to change this link. As a result you can block certain domains from loading or just have a bit of fun. You should only use this file if you really need to, as well as this changing this file is a little bit complicated and if you are new to the Mac, I would recommend skipping this tutorial.

The hosts file is in the /etc folder. To access this file in Finder to to Go > Go To Folder, and type in /etc. A normal finder window will appear. In this window find the file called “hosts” double click this file and open it in TextEdit. At this point you should be enabled as a root user, so you can quickly edit the file.

In this file you should notice a couple of things, there should be a comment area at the top signified by hashes (#), and a couple of entries in the file. Do not change these. They are very important to operation of you computer. Your file should look like something below.

127.0.0.1          localhost
255.255.255.255    broadcasthost
::1                localhost
fe80::1%lo0        localhost

The IP address in on the left and the domain is on the right. You can now add more domains and IP addresses, one per line. For instance if you want to block an ad server you would type the following:

127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net

This will send any requests from the doubleclick.net address to a blank adress. Although I don’t recommend you do this for blocking adverts, something like Adblock Plus is a lot better it can be used for practically anything. Say for example you have a program accessing the web, you can put an entry in the hosts file. As well as this it is also very good for blocking sites that you don’t want your kids accessing. If you have a web server set up, you can forward it to that IP address on your local network telling them they are accessing something they shouldn’t.

To make the changes stick, all you have to do is save the file and flush your cache. Using the methods described in this post, clear your cache in Terminal. Once you have completed, the command the changes should take effect.

If you want to find out more about DNS and all its related workings I recommend the DNS for Dummies, I recommended it in a previous post and many people have said it sa really useful book.

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After you have used your MacBookPro (and other Macs) for a while crud and crap gets lodged under the keys. Although this doesn’t really effect MacBooks (older pre Oct 14th version at least) the silver MacBook Pros tend to get a bit dirty. At this point I am unsure whether it will be of use to the newer MacBooks/Pros (after Oct 14th), but if you keyboard is dirty already, you must be doing something wrong.

This post/tutorial will focus on the MacBook Pros. They have a very tricky key design that will take you a while to figure out. Throughout this post you need to take your time. Do not rush this. The springy action of the key is very delicate and if you apply to much force it will break and you will be screwed. Patience is the name of the game.

For this tutorial you will need:

• Something flat and strong; a knife, flat headed screw driver etc
• Something to clean the keyboard base which isn’t to strong
• Lots of time and patience

I will try to be as detailed as possible, if you get stuck leave a comment. Once you manage to remove and re-attach a key the rest of them will be easy. I am focusing on the main keys, but all of the other keys should function in the same manner. The only one that is different will be the space and maybe the bigger keys. You will have to find out.

The actual key design is very simple. At the bottom (the base plate) there is a couple of hooks and the actual button. Into these very small hooks there is a two part piece of thin plastic. This piece of plastic has points which attach to various parts of the system. On the very top is the key. This attaches to the plastic hooks and slots into place. It will all come clear when you take you keyboard apart.

Taking Off The Keys

First open up TextEdit and insert the cursor into the program. I am going to assume you have your Mac on so you can read the instructions. TextEdit is designed to catch all of the random key presses you make and to stop your computer whining as you smash the keyboard.

Next take your flat object and put it into the bottom of the key you are going to remove. Start somewhere in the middle of the keyboard. Gently, and I mean gently prise the key up. Go in from the top as well. You need to apply enough pressure for the key to pop out of the plastic centre piece with out breaking things. After you have applied enough pressure the key should pop out. It may make a small crack. Slowly build up the amount of pressure you apply until you can work out how to easily remove the keys.

In the image I have removed two keys. You can clearly see how the key works. The next step is to remove the white piece. This is so you can easily clean the keyboard. Removing the piece is simple. Pinch the plastic (it can move up and down) so one of the top attachment points comes free. They are quite flexible, but agin they can break. Once as you have remove the white piece store it with the key it came from. Continue to do this for all of the keys.

Cleaning

A clean keyboard works well in my opinion. If you have dirt and pieces of stuff under the keys it becomes hard to use your keyboard. You end up bashing the keys like and old type writer. To clean the keyboard use compressed air or a fine brush. A vacuum cleaner could work, although they tend to be a bit powerful. Gently remove all of the dirt and grime.

Putting It All Back Together

Hopefully you can remember where every key goes. If you don’t use the keyboard viewer from System Preferences in your MenuBar. Re-attaching the keys is a two step process. Attach the white plastic part and snap in the key.

The plastic part is the trickiest. You need to lay the plastic part flat, the right way up, pinch and then slide it into a corner. The bits that stick out go into the top holes. First try and get the piece as flat as possible. This is so the bottom attachment piece can fit in securely. Then in one smooth action pinch the plastic so it can hit into the gap, slide it into place and let go. If all goes well the plastic will reattach into the correct position and the bottom part will be in the correct place.

Attaching the actual key is also quite simple but it takes a bit of practice. With you knife or screwdriver place it in such a way that the plastic part is raised. Then insert the key vertically into the slot so the top attachment points meet.

In one smooth motion you need to bend the key round and move the knife out of the way. It should then click into place. This method seems to work, probably because the top two attachment points slide in quite well. Then the key is flat give it a good couple of presses so it connects properly. Repeat with every other key.

Conclusion

Cleaning a MacBook Pro keyboard is easy. It just take a hell of a long time in taking it apart and putting back together again. Take your time, be patient and hope you don’t break anything. It is a fiddly method, but once you get the hang of it you should be quite quick at performing the task. Its like riding a bicycle, take ages to learn but once you have the knack you can do it without thinking.

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Burning disk images is either really simple (for the people in the know) or really quite difficult for people who are new to Mac or haven’t burnt an image before. This is understandable since earlier today I didn’t really know how to do it. Its no one of those things that is shown very frequently. Like most functions on a Mac its very simple.

The first thing you need is a disk image and a blank disk. I am going to work with a CD, but the principle the same with a DVD, its just larger. There are a couple of ways to go about this technique, but I am going to mention what I think is the simplest and the most fool proof way of getting it right. Like people say, make it fool proof, and people will find a better fool.

Once as you have inserted your disk a small pop up dialog box will appear. From the list select Disk Utility. Disk utility will be the application that will burn our image.

Once is is open click Burn from the tool bar. It will open a message box asking you to pick a file. You can then pick the file you want. I have used Ubuntu server addition, as I am going to play around with it later. You can also go from File > Open Disk Image to pick your file. I don’t no what happens if you open up two disk images, it may burn both to the same disk. I don’t no.

Once as the file is opened you will see something similar to the image below. To get more options click the down arrow. Check you burn options, such as speed and verification (recommended). Then click burn. It will set up you disk and burn the image.

Burning may take a while depending on the size. A CD size took about 20 minutes proximately. DVD’s will take a lot longer. The speed at which you are burning will also make a difference.

Once as a burn is complete, it will then mount the disk if you have chosen that option from earlier on. You can then use it, or save it for later.

Very simple to do, although it is quite hidden away. I didn’t know how to do it until earlier today. You can, of course, use something like Toast, but this application works perfectly well. There is probably simpler and different ways to achieve the same effect, if you know a cool way leave one in the comments.

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