Monthly Archives: January 2013

info : I can’t get write-permission to external harddisk from Windows-user

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

A Windows-user asked me to put some file on his external harddisk, but when I try to do so, I get a message that I only have ‘read-only’ permissions to the harddisk.

How can I copy the files over ?

Answer :

If you get this problem, it usually caused by the fact that MacOSX does not support NTFS-formatted disks ‘out of the box’. [ NTFS = Windows NT File System ; a format that, mainly for server, has replaced the old DOS-originating formats FAT16 and FAT32, which are fully supported by MacOSX, but are less suited for use on large volume harddisks ]

There are 2 main solutions to this :

– 1 –

If you are going to frequently swap this external harddisk between your Mac and a Windows-PC, you’ll be best off reformatting it to FAT32 :

– connect the external harddisk to your Mac

– copy the entire contents over to your Mac (or to another external harddisk or to a diskimage on your Mac)

– check and make sure you have copied everything over

– then reformat the external harddisk to DOS-format (= FAT32) using OSX’s Disk Utility app

– when finished, copy all content that originally was on the external harddisk back on to it

– that’s it !

– 2 –

If it’s only a one-off for you to use this NTFS-formatted harddrive, you’re probably better off installing a special NTFS-driver/utility for OSX.

– download Tuxera NTFS (to use in demo-mode) :

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33122/tuxera-ntfs

– install Tuxera NTFS, and open it (NOTE : it’s not a regular application, so it can’t be found in your Applications folder, but it’s a Control Panel in the System Preferences)

– now the external NTFS-disk should appear on your Mac in read&write-mode, and you can start copying files onto it

If you run into problems using Tuxera NTFS, read the FAQ :

http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/faq/#startup-disk

And if you do exceed the 15 day free Demo-mode of Tuxera NTFS and are not willing to upgrade to the full payed version, you can start using the FREE open source program that is at the origin of Tuxera NTFS ; it’s called  NTFS-3G and can be downloaded here :

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g

Donate Button (MacManusNL)

Advertisement

fixed : printer auto-install in Windows Vista won’t work

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

My HP DeskJet 930c prints colors if I print out the test page from the printer, but if I print from my Windows Vista PC, it only prints in grey-tones…

From the info on the HP website it has become clear to me that I have to reinstall the printer (and specifically the printer drivers) on Windows Vista.

But… according to HP the only way to reinstall the printer in Windows Vista using USB is to delete it from the Configuration Panel and then restart the PC and just plug in the printer and wait for Windows Vista to do the ‘magical’ auto-install…

The official HP instruction video can be found here :

http://bcove.me/4xavsoow

…and nothing happens when I do that.

And HP does not offer any other option… what can I do ?

 

Answer :

— DISCLAIMER —

This is purely a Windows problem, and this weblog is for Apple solutions only. I do have a solution that will probably work for you, and I’ve not found that solution posted online anywhere, so I will provide it to you here ‘as is’ (meaning NO guarantee, NO additional help and NO service) ! Try at your own risk ! If it doesn’t work for you : I’m sorry… please ask a Windows-specialist.

————————-

The solution is simple (and it’s unexplainable why HP doesn’t mention this anywhere) :

Just reinstall the printer the way you would have done it in Windows XP :

– delete any previous installs of the printer from the Configuration Panel

– install all (essential) available Windows Vista updates using Vista’s built-in Security Panel

– restart your PC

– connect the printer to your PC using a USB printer cable

– go to START-menu

– then to Configuration Panel

– then to Printers

– then choose Add Printer

– choose Virtual USB Port 1 (or 2) as the connection to be used

– choose your Printer

– choose the dedicated driver [*]

– and wait for the installing to finish

– test your printer using any (color) document you have available, if you don’t have any useable color document available, use this printer test-page :

https://macmanus.nl/2010/07/28/looking-for-a-good-test-page-to-test-your-pinter

– that should be it : enjoy !

[*] if no driver is available, download it from the following website, then install and start over with this procedure from the beginning :

http://www.driverguide.com

— DISCLAIMER —

This is purely a Windows problem, and this weblog is for Apple solutions only. I do have a solution that will probably work for you, and I’ve not found that solution posted online anywhere, so I will provide it to you here ‘as is’ (meaning NO guarantee, NO additional help and NO service) ! Try at your own risk ! If it doesn’t work for you : I’m sorry… please ask a Windows-specialist.

————————-

fixed : select photos of only one camera in iPhoto

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

I have imported various new photos from my digital camera into iPhoto some days ago. Today I found out that I had forgotten to adjust the daylight savings time on the camera. I would now like to select the photos of this particular camera only, and adjust the time stamp (a.k.a. EFIX data). But there’s no option to do so in iPhoto…

How do I do that ?

Answer :

Even though there’s no option in iPhoto to select photos based on included info about the camera that took them (a.k.a. based on “Camera Data”), it’s not too hard to do so anyway by creating a Smart Album.

– in iPhoto, go to “File” in the top menu bar, then select “New Smart Album” from the pulldown menu

– in the drop down panel that appears, start by typing a name for the new Smart Album (e.g. “Camera X photos”)

– then set the following using the three multiplechoice-buttons “Camera Model” “is” “[your camera X model]”

– if you want to only filter out photos that were made after a certain date, you should set another rule to do so

– then click on the “OK”-button

– an album folder icon accompanied by a gear-wheel (a.k.a. “sprocket”) will now appear on the left menu, click on it to open it

– then select one of the photos in that folder and press [CMD]+[A] to select all photos in that folder

– then go to “Photos” in the top menu bar, and select “Adjust Date And Time” from the pulldown-menu

– in the drop down panel that appears, type the time that you want to change the first photo’s time to in the field behind “Adjusted:” ; the exact same time change that you set here for the first photo will be implemented to all selected photos

– I would suggest putting a checkmark in front of “Modify original files”, but this is not essential

– then click on the “Adjust”-button

– to clean up, right-click (or CTRL-click) on the Smart Album folder in the left menu and select “Delete Album” from the popup list [this will delete the Smart Album, but the individual photos will remain in their original location]

– that’s it…

tip : easily make FREE screen recordings in MacOSX

Posted on by
Reply

“Screen Recording” means making a video of your screen (i.e. your MacOSX Desktop) while you are using it.

This is a way to make tutorial video’s which you can use to send or give to others, just like the ones you find on YouTube.

(…or you can use this to record online video’s that you can not download)

“Screen Recording” used to be something that would require rather expensive software, but with the introduction of QuickTime X Player in OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard, it’s a simple and completely FREE feature included in MacOSX !

Here’s how to :

– open the “QuickTime Player” application (or maybe it’s called “QuickTime X Player” in your case)

– go to “File” and select “New Screen Recording” from the pulldown menu – or use the key-combo [SHIFT]+[CMD]+[N]

– in the small (shaded) screen that appears, you will see a record-button (with a red dot) in the middle and a grey triangle button on the right

– click on the grey triangle button and you can select your audio input source (e.g. a microphone you’ll be using for your voice-over comments), output video quality and whether you want record your mouse movements and clicks in the video also

– then click on the red-dotted record-button to start recording, but when you do so you will get the option to either select a (static) part of the screen [by dragging the cursor over the area you want to select for recording] or the entire screen [by clicking anywhere on the screen]

– recording will start right away after you’ve made your choice (so do not forget to start talking if you want a voice-over)

– to stop recording, go back to the record-button (which now shows a small black square) and click it

– the recording will stop and it will take a few moments for QuickTime X Player to process it (the longer your recorded, the more time the processing will take)

– the recording will be visible in a QuickTime X Player window right away

– to Save or Share your screen recording, go “File” and choose one of the following :

option 1. “Export” (= normal Save) for saving as a QuickTime .mov-file [you can set the video quality from the “Format” pulldown menu ; either (general) Movie, 480p, 720p or iPhone/iPad/AppleTV ready

option 2. “Export to” to directly upload to a website, import into iTunes or edit in iMovie

option 3. “Share” to directly share your screen recording with your friends through eMail, iMessage (= Apple SMS), AirDrop (= Apple WiFi-filesharing), Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo or Flickr

That’s it ; this might seem rather complicated from these instructions, but it’s actually really simple once you try 😉