Not too long ago I read this tip on MacOSXHints.com. It talks about using a 3.5″ floppy disk to remove a stuck CD from a slot-loading optical drive. Since I couldn’t find a 3.5″ floppy, I got an idea after reading ericdsa’s comment.
Instead of a CD or DVD as ericdsa suggested, I used two credit cards (well, the same size, shape, and material as credit cards); one wedged below the stuck cd or dvd, one wedged above the stuck cd, applied tension, and voila!
Popularity: 22% [?]
About a week ago, I was working on a MacBook Pro with a dying hard drive. I was able to access the drive via Firewire Target Disk in order to repair the drive using Disk Warrior. The whole process was expected to take at least five hours.
While in the past I’d always just left the LCD display open, in this case I accidently closed the lid. Shiz, I thought! I’ve just waisted the last few hours of hard drive repair; but when I check Disk Warrior, I noticed it was still working perfectly!
I tried opening and closing the display a few more times, the MacBook Pro kept running with the display closed. I just tested closing the lid on my Powerbook G4 – it worked too! I can only assume that all Mac displays can be shut when in Firewire Target Disk Mode — only wish I would have learned this years ago.
Popularity: 5% [?]
I just stumbled upon a method for moving contacts (Address Book), calendar events (iCal), and bookmarks (Safari) from your iPhone to Mac. This will be useful if your hard drive died, computer was stolen or lost, or if you’re moving from a PC to a Mac (i.e. your iPhone was previous synced with a PC and you want to move the synced info to your Mac!):
1) Open iTunes (update first if you don’t have the latest version)
2) Connect iPhone.
3) Select your iPhone (under Devices) and click the Info tab at the top.
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Popularity: 7% [?]
I never had the need to clone a Boot Camp partition — until yesterday (when I did a hard drive replacement and clone). There were several suggestions for cloning the Boot Camp partition around the interwebs, talking about complicated (well, time consuming) techniques using XP programs, re-creating disk images via boot camp, and re-installing XP and manually dragging/dropping files back. Uhg!
Twocanoes decided to make this super simple, offering a terrific free (donationware) application called Winclone. Very minimal interface with just one purpose, cloning Boot Camp; both NTFS and FAT partitions.
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Popularity: 10% [?]
Last night I created a social network web site called Mac Rants and Raves. It’s a “community blog” aka “forum” – that means you get to share your Mac experiences and read/respond to other’s experiences. The idea is that we’ll learn what to avoid by reading people’s rants, and learn what to check out by reading peoples raves. People will also be able to respond to anyone’s post, allowing ranters the opportunity to find a better solution to their problem. Go to http://macrandr.ning.com/ to start ranting and raving.
Popularity: 2% [?]