Tag Archives: format

fixed : “Convert to APFS” option greyed out in Disk Utility (in Catalina Patcher)

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Question :

I am trying to install macOS 10.15 Catalina on an unsupported MacBook Pro that I have lying around. I downloaded the Catalina Patcher from dodsude1.com and watched the instruction video. I am following the instruction video to the letter and everything seemed to work okay so far, but now I have to reformat my internal HD to APFS, using Disk Utility, I can’t do so because the “Convert to APFS” is greyed out…

What am I doing wrong ?

 

Answer :

Nothing maybe… is your MacBook (Pro/Air) already running macOS 10.13 High_Sierra ?

If your Mac is running macOS 10.13 High_Sierra, your disk format may already be APFS !

To check, in Disk Utility, select your internal disk in the list on the left and if in the middle, under the disk’s name, it says “APFS Volume • APFS”, your disk is already formatted as APFS… so in that case you can skip the ‘APFS formatting’ step and proceed with the next step of the instruction video…

If it doesn’t say “APFS Volume • APFS”, try the options lined out here :

https://iboysoft.com/mac-data-recovery/convert-to-apfs-option-not-available-or-greyed-out.html

 

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

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fixed : installer error 16GB USB-stick not large enough for 10GB Catalina Patcher

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Question :

I am trying to install macOS 10.15 Catalina on an unsupported Mac using dosdude1.com’s Catalina Patcher. I have a SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB-stick plugged in. I have just reformatted it as per dosdude1.com’s instruction video. But when try to install the Catalina Installer onto it, I get an error saying that the selected media is not large enough because it needs at least 10GB of free space.

The USB-stick is 16GB so that shouldn’t be a problem. What can I do ?

 

Answer :

Some versions of Disk Utility seem to have trouble (re)formatting disk volumes. Could it be you tried this with Disk Utility on a macOS 10.13 High_Sierra Mac ?

The solution is rather simple: format the USB-stick from Disk Utility on a different Mac that runs another version of macOS (preferably an older version of MacOSX / OSX). Make sure you (re)format the USB-stick as “Master Boot Record” in “HFS+ Case-sensitive (Journaled)” (a.k.a. “Mac OS Extended”) format.

Then retry in Catalina Patcher.

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

 

fixed : (re)format a drive in FAT32 MBR using macOS

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Question :

I need to reformat a USB-stick in FAT32 MBR.

Is it possible to do that on a Mac ?

 

Answer :

Yes, you can.

To (re)format a drive, like a USB-stick, external HardDisk or external SSD in FAT32 MBR (MBR = Master Boot Record) do this :

  • plug the drive (USB-stick) into you Mac
  • make sure that there are no files or documents you need to keep left on the drive (USB-stick)
    • copy all files and documents you are not willing to lose to your internal disk space, or to another external drive
  • goto Applications –> Utilities –> Disk Utility
  • double-click on the application’s icon to startup Disk Utility
  • in the window that opens, click on the View-button (top-left) and select “Show Alle Devices”
  • then, select the drive (USB-stick) from the list of drives on the left
    • it should be listed in the “External” chapter
    • make sure you select the drive itself, not the formatted partition that is on it
      • drives are listed entirely on the left (and have a small triangle in front if they are formatted)
      • partitions are listed shifted slightly to the right of the devices list
  • then, click on the Erase-button (top-center, just below the Disk Utility name)
  • in the pulldown window that opens, select these settings :
    • Name : Untitled [ …or any name you prefer, the choice is up to you ]
    • Format : MS-DOS (FAT)
    • Scheme : Master Boot Record
  • then click on the Erase-button
  • now, wait for the process to complete
  • then, click on the Eject-icon (underlined triangle) next to the name of the drive (USB-stick) in the list on the left
  • when de drive (USB-stick) disappears from the list, you can unplug the USB-stick (or external HD or SSD)
  • close the Disk Utility app

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : hashtags making text unreadable in Excel

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Question :

Somebody sent me an Excel spreadsheet in which some of the data is unreadable since it has been replaced by text consisting of hashtag signs only…

I’ve seen this happening before, and the remedy used to be just to broaden the column, since all number that are too large to fit their cell width are automatically made unreadable…

However, in this case, if I broaden the column width, some of the hashtag text will turned into readable numbers, but other hashtag text will remain, no matter how wide I make the column…

What is wrong ?

And how can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

This seems to be a problem with Excel for Windows files that are opened in Excel for Mac (possibly more specifically with data copied or converted from another application into Excel on a Windows-PC). So PC-users will not be warned on forehand that their Excel output is not suited for use on Macs…

Fixing it turns out to be rather simple (but annoying) :

• open the file in Excel for Mac

• select the cells that are effected (or preferably even the entire column), then go to “Format” in the top menu bar

• from the dropdown-menu that appears, select “Cells…” and a window entitled “Format Cells” will open

• make sure the “Number”-tab is selected and make sure that you select “Number” or “General” from the list (make sure that it is something else than what was previously selected ; anything seems to be okay, as long as it is not “Accounting”)

• no return to your spreadsheet to check if the hashtag texts have disappeared (if not : try again)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : place a picture behind an Excel chart or graph

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Question :

I am using Excel (from Microsoft Office) and I want to put the chart I’ve just made on top of a picture. How can I do that ?

Answer :

In Excel v14 (from MS Office 2011 for Mac), this can be done like this :

1- create the chart

2- select the chart area (you will see a bold, light blue frame around the entire chart area), then click the “Charts>Format”-tab (the purple tab in-between the green tabs), then in “Current Selection” click the “Format Selection”-button

3- in the window that opens select “Fill”, then the “Solid”-tab, and set the “Color:”-dial to “No Fill” and click “OK”

4- select the chart itself (inside the chart area – you will see a black lined square with light blue dots on the corners around the actual chart), then again, click “Charts>Format”-tab (the purple tab in-between the green tabs), and again, in “Current Selection” click the “Format Selection”-button

5- in the window that opens, again select “Fill”, then the “Solid”-tab, and set the “Color:”-dail to “No Fill” and click “OK”

6- then de-select the chart

7- in the upper Excel menu bar that’s fixed in the Finder, select the “Insert”-tab, and from the drop down menu that appears, select “Photo > Picture From File” and in the “Choose a Picture”-window that appears, select the image you need and click “OK”

8- the image will appear on top of your chart, now first resize it (by dragging the light blue corner-dots) and place it over your chart area

9- select the image (again, if it’s not already selected), click the “Format Picture”-tab and remove the background color(s) of the image if you need (using the “Remove Background”-option from “Adjust”)

10- then, also in the “Format Picture”-tab, select the “Reorder”-option from “Arrange”, and select “Send to Back” from the 4 options that appear in the pulldown menu ; your image will now be behind your chart

11- for fine-tuning, if needed, you can now resize or rearrange the image and the chart until the align exactly as you need them to

12- if you want the Excel-cell-grid behind your chart to disappear also, select the area of cells behind and around your chart and select WHITE (or any other color you need) from small triangle-shaped arrow just next to the “Fill Color”-button (the paint bucket icon)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

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

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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

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