hfs

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions on using Disk Utility from a prior version of OS X, whether or not to repair a broken G5 or upgrade, how to recover a missing Downloads folder on the Dock, and the necessity of the Lion recovery partition. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

NOTE: The "contact us" box on the MacFixIt … Read more

One question that has been brought up recently is which disk-checking practice is best when performing maintenance on your system. When a Mac either has problems booting, is experiencing slowdowns, or has just recovered from a crash or power outage it's good to at least verify that the file system structure has not been compromised.

There are several common ways to do this, which include booting to Safe Mode, Booting to Single User mode and running "fsck," or booting to the installation DVD and running Disk Utility. The question that has been brought up is, what is … Read more

A couple of days ago we discussed some problems that could arise with sizing files with HFS compression. This problem basically arises from there being a lack of consistency in the various utilities that are available in OS X, where some show compression status and size, and others show the uncompressed size.

If you regularly do scripting or other work with files on disk that require you to know details about the compression, there are some utilities available that can help you get the status of file compression, and apply or remove compression from files on disk.

Hfsdebug

Hfsdebug is … Read more

When you get information on a file in the Finder, you can see numerous attributes including the file size. Under some circumstances, however, the size reported in the information window of the Finder may differ from the size reported by other file-sizing utilities.

We were recently contacted by a MacFixIt reader who was trying to get the size of a selection of files via AppleScript, and in order to do so was using the OS X "System Events" to grab file sizes with AppleScript code similar to the following:

tell application "Finder"     &… Read more

Despite the advancements in virtualization technologies, Boot Camp is still the best option for compatibility and overall speed when you want to run Windows programs on your Apple hardware. This will arguably always be the case, but while speed is a perk, native support for NTFS in OS X and HFS in Windows prevents quick file transfer both to and from the partitions.… Read more

Ever since Apple started using Intel processors, the line between Macs and PCs has been blurred as Mac users have the option to combine the Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows in one machine with help from Apple's Boot Camp. Version 3 of Boot Camp, which comes with Snow Leopard, makes it even better by offering Windows the ability to read a Mac partition, which is formatted in HFS+ or HFSX file system.

Boot Camp, by the way, is a bundle of software drivers and utilities that allow you to install the Windows operating system on an Intel-based Mac. You then have the option of booting the computer in either Mac OS or Windows. You can also install and use only Windows on the Mac hardware.

However, if you want the ability to have full read-write access to a Mac partition from Windows, you'd need another utility, such as HFS+ for Windows from Paragon.

Paragon announced Thursday the latest version of this software, called Paragon HFS+ for Windows 8. The company claims that this version is the industry's fastest two-way solution, capable of transferring files between Windows and Mac OS X at a rate higher than native HFS file-system performance.… Read more

There's so much we like about Rejetto's HFS, which stands for HTTP File Server. It's a free, open source, Web-based file-sharing utility that also functions as a Web server. You can use to upload and download files, access remote files via the Internet, host your Web page, and more. It includes HTTP templates, logs, bandwidth management, a dynamic DNS updater, and support for accounts.

HFS downloads as a small executable file that is ready to go as soon as you open it, without requiring a formal installation process, which also makes HFS completely portable, yet another thing … Read more

Earlier this year, we took a close look at Iomega's eGo line of portable hard drives. We tested both the brown leather eGo and the camo eGo, with superb results: we liked both Iomega's Drop Guard design that protects the drives from drops up to a meter above the floor, and the quick transfer speeds.

Now, Iomega is taking the drives' aesthetic value one step further by introducing the 320GB eGo Helium. The drive is just .63 inches, and its sleek exterior casing is anodized silver to match perfectly with Apple's MacBook Air. Inside the chassis, you'… Read more