Permissions …

You know, I’ve not actually written much about Snow Leopard, have I, just recently.

Why, I don’t know, but there you go …

I do, though, that I’ve done the usual thing recommended by many Mac owners.

What’s called a Permissions check.

Mac OS X — like its Unix and Linux cousins — has a complicated web of what’s called Permissions associated with every file, folder and application on the Hard drive.

They’re fairly important to how OS X works.

Because they govern who can — and can’t — access any given file.

Or Application, folder, account, what have you.

Actually, I’ve put a small screen recording together, so you can check on the permissions for any given item on your Mac. I’ll embed at the bottom of the page, I’m still adding an audio track to it. But — so you know what to do — open a Finder window, highlight a folder, file, or application. Then call up that file’s Information window by pressing ⌘(cmd) and I, or by ctrl-clicking on the file, and going down to the ‘Get Info Option’. At the bottom of that Info window, you’ll see — and can change — the file’s permissions window.

Now, as you can see from that, you can change the Permissions for each file, folder, or application with the file’s Information Window.

But this is also something you can do in Terminal: although, to be frank, this isn’t something I’ve investigated for myself.

At any rate, you’re probably wondering why on Earth I’m telling you this, aren’t you?

It’s mostly because of what I was doing earlier.

A Permissions Check … !

Complicated?

Not really, although there’s probably a lot going on under the hood, there.

Over time, permissions can get a bit scrambled. To the point where you’ll find your Mac noticeably slowing down.

So what’s needed is a basic Permissions check.

Or Permissions repair, as it’s sometimes called.

Basically, all it does is unknot the tangled set of permissions, free up some space, and put a little bit more speed into your machine.

And involves using our old friend, Disc Utility.

But not the actual copy on the hard drives, in Hard-Drive>Applications>Utilities, oh, no!!

The one on the actual Install* discº that came with our Macs.

But what you need to do is boot from your Install disc. That’s easy to do.

Get your Install disc out, and put it into the main optical drive of your Mac.

Restart the Mac.

The minute — literally, the second — it shutdowns, press and hold down the ‘C’ key. Make sure you’ve been to the loo, and made a cuppa, before you do this, it does take a little longer than usual.

Your Mac will then restart … from the Install disc⎺!

But we don’t want to re-install what ever version of OS X is on our machine.

What we want to do is go into the Utilities options, and open Disk Utility.

Then — as if we using the one on our Hard drive — we pick our hard drive from the Menu, then click the Verify Permissions button.

And once THAT’S finished — and I’ve got to confess, this seemed to got a faster under Snow Leopard, than it did with the version of Leopard that came with the Mini — you can hit the Repair Permissions button.

And, finally … !

Once that’s done, you can restart your Mac from the usual Start-up disc.

And you’re ready to go!

•••••

Now, I know that sound’s complicated.

Possibly a bit to complicated, for some.

But it’s really a fairly simple — if time consuming — procedure.

And, daft as it sounds, it’s also one that helps keep any muck from building up on our main hard drivesª.

* Or the Upgrade disc that you’ve just got for Christmas: whatever’s more recent.

º There’s other options, of course: DiskWarrior has a very good reputation for this sort of thing!

ª Which does help. I think — after using AppDelete, yesterday — I’ve uninstalled a lot of stuff, AND installed a lot of updates, over the weekend. Doing this Disc and Permissions repair keeps the amount of software junk down on the Mini.

⎺ If you’re familiar with the way an Ubuntu ‘Live’ disc work’s this is pretty much the same procedure: except here, we’re using some software, instead of installing it.

That Time of year …

Weeelll, it is, though, isn’t it?

It is!

As Trevor’s already told you, today is Stir-up Sunday; when traditionally, those of us with an inkling to, start making Christmas Pudding!

And eating loose plums.

Andrea, behave, I can see you going into Brazen Crazy Hussy mode, from here!

Tim, Trevor, Adrian, STOP GRINNING!!

Honestly, I’m expecting Cara to chip in with another ‘Beanpole Sandwich’ comment, I am!

No, don’t.

Just … don’t!

Anyway, the point I’m making, is that it’s the time of year when people start hinting about what they’d like for Christmas.

And gently asking what a body wants, themselves …

Lots of chocolate seems to be popular, I know that …

Tub sized, at that … !

Now why am I expecting Sue to make a comment, Andy?

At any rate, I do know I’ve had one or two people what Allison and I’s dream presents would be; which is simple …

Allison, I know, is a big John Wayne fan: which means I’m going to possibly have to start iBalling her collection, to see what I can do …

And, of course, me, being me …

Well …

Anything white, spotty, cat-shaped and made by Apple would be nice …

Bargain price, as well, if I recall …

But I’ve got to admit, I’ve already had … hints …

Which really is a cue for something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, now.

Do you remember, quite some time ago, I mentioned that I’d been toying with the capabilities of OS X’s on-board Disc Utility to do all sorts of burning functions, and disc wiping options?

Hmmm … ?

You might just want to use the Search box, then … !

But, at any rate, that’s got me thinking that I’ve got to at least make a vague effort to sort out the two exterior drives I have: one used as the storage for OS X’s on-board back-up facility, Time Machine, introduced originally in Leopard, and the other used as separate storage for my movies, TV shows, iTunes library, disc image software files, what have you.

Because, to be frank, the Time Machine one — at 160 gigabytes — is the smaller of the two.

And getting rather full.

So having recovered all the stuff I actually need from it, I’ve managed to use Disc Utility to completely wipe it.

Well, not completely; the 7-pass option included with Disc Utility is — according to it’s own estimate — would take thirteen hours.

So I used the Zero Out Data option, instead.

Which gave me a nice mix of security and speed; although, saying that, I don’t know how many pro users out there would use that particular option. The 7-pass, and 35-pass, may be more useful to them. Any thoughts, there, Andy, Adrian?

At any rate, I’m now copying over various bits and bobs over from the Maxtor 320 gigabyte exterior drive, to the Seagate exterior drive that had served as back-up.

That’s got about another 25 or so minutes to go.

There’s more stuff to be copied.

Which shouldn’t take that long either; it’s mostly a case of drag and drop. With both drives directly connected, rather than going through a hub, it’s fairly speedy.

However, once that’s done, my intention is — in the morning — to use Disc Utility to re-partition the Maxtor into two volumes. One serving as Time Machine, the other as more storage.

I’ll write more, in the morning.

After I’ve finished slobbering at this …

Disc Utilities

You know, it’s just occurred that I’m rather lucky, as a Mac owner, to have a copy of Disc Utility to hand.

For some year’s, now, I’ve been aware of basic computer security issues; little thing like making sure I don’t reply to dubious looking emails – we’ve probably all had one along the lines “Dear Friend, I represent a person who needs to get a large amount of money out of A. N. Country - if you give us your bank details, we’ll dump it there, and give you a percentage” – or making sure I BCC people, when I want to send an email to a lot of people – I’m guilty of that, certainly – and encrypting files on USB stick, if it’s sensitive info that should be keep limited to as few people as possible.

Which the UK’s Civil Service seems to be rather bad at doing, when they leave laptops on trains …

I also know that if I’m replacing a hard drive, it’s important to make sure of a thing or two.

From the little bits and bobs I’ve picked up over the years – having worked in a pub full of cabbies, bankers and, more to the point, here, IT professionals – I know that our computers hard-drives are capable of storing huge amounts of information.

Music, video, photos, letters we’re writing, recipes; near enough everything, bar the kitchen sink.

And if you’re a kitchen sink designer, I’m not going to take bets, there, either …

It also stores things we take to take for granted that we’ve put there; things like passwords, personal information, bank details.

Stuff like that.

Stuff that we’d rather keep to ourselves, if at all possible, and not handed to people who’d be happy to have access to it to do … stuff …

Dubious legality type … stuff …

With the amount of credit and debit card fraud being reported in the media, I’m sure you can see my point.

So, when we’re replacing our computers hard drive we want to make sure the personal information on it – including those rather valuable bank details – aren’t accessible to criminals, crooks and fraudsters.

Let me give you a case in point.

A few years ago, the BBC decided to get hold of some second hand hard drives – from Nigeria, I seem to recall – to see how easily traceable a person was, from the data left on a junked drive. The reporter bought a second hard drive from a dealer in Nigeria, and was able to recover the previous owners home address, bank details, and other bits and bobs from it.

And then turned up on the unfortunate prior owner’s front door step, to ask him what he thought about it.

I recognised the chap; – it was one of the regulars at the pub I was working at, at the time; a cabbie called Ted. Who was, in his own words, gobsmacked to find out how easily doable it was to get all he, and his families, details from the recovered disc.

Now, admittedly, the BBC used what, at the time was fairly pricey forensic hard drive recovery service to get to the info.

But given that the technology for doing this sort of thing will get more available as time goes by and that the article itself was written some three years ago, well …

So we can see that some basic techniques will become more and more important as time goes by. I can only compare it to making sure you don’t leave you wallet in your car, when you sell it to a second hand car dealer …

Or leaving your front door keys in the lock, when you go shopping …

Little things like that

Which is wear things like Disc Utility come in handy.

One thing we can do – indeed should do, if we’re disposing of our old computer, rather than selling it on – is to literally destroy the hard drive.

Putting a screwdriver or hammer through is generally considered a good idea.

But if you’re planning to sell the drive, or the computer, on eBay, something like that?

Then wiping the drive as thoroughly as possibly is usually the answer.

For some time, Apple have included Disc Utility with Mac OS X. It’s OS X’s all-in-one software tool for formatting a hard-drive when you wish to install an operating system.

Or partitioning an exterior drive into separate sections.

Or do all of the same, to a USB flash drive, CD, or DVD.

Just as importantly, you can also use it to it to wipe a drive. It’s got a trio of options, when needed.

It can do a quick erase of the free space on the drive. The next level up will erase the drive by writing zeros over the data, generally agreed to be reasonably secure. However, Disc Utility can also do a 7-pass erase, which writes zeros over the space seven times, or a 35-times pass, which writes zeros over the space, thirty-five times. Something of an overnight job, but also one that’s generally considered very secure. And as I recall Spencer Kelly, presenter of BBCNews24’s “Click” saying at the time, reputedly secure enough to stop the Pentagon recovering the data that had been on there.

My point is this; I think we all need to take basic precautions, and this, for me, strikes me as one.

I also know that it’s a route not available to Windoze user’s, out of the box, although I’m told fdisc is available, but not the easiest one to use.

However, I’d suggest those of us that need to check out Source Forge, the open source directory, for some useful stuff. The link to that is on my Links page, but you can also find it here.

But if you’re reading my blog, and know of a good app, please, feel free to leave a comment and a link.