I've been trying to use a Mac to move some files around, nothing
complex, but I'm hitting behaviours that I don't expect -- they're
sufficiently generic problems that googling gets me a gazillion hits,
none of which look like what I want, so I thought I'd ask here.
1. Using Finder, is there any way to delete a file without sending it to
the trash can that doesn't involve using 'rm' from a command window? The
same thing that shift+delete does on Windows, basically.
http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2007-03/getting_immediate_delete_functionality
thinks there isn't, but I thought I'd check.
2. General OS question -- how do I convince the 'force quit' list to
update properly? If I'm using (say) VLC to play a video, and VLC locks
up in such a way that 'force quit' doesn't work, then I can use 'kill
-9' to kill it, but 'force quit's list still has VLC in there.
3. How do I know when I'm allowed to use external USB storage devices?
If I plug in a multi-card reader and try and copy files off it before <I
know not what> is ready in the background, Finder locks up, and I have
to do a hard power down to get things running again (see 5). If I
connect the reader and wait a minute or so, I can copy files
successfully. (Windows equivalent of, um, waiting a bit because drives
take longer to show up but are ready as soon as they do pop up)
4. Is there any recommended way to improve stability when using USB
storage? If I'm trying to copy a file and it locks up mid-way for
whatever reason, I'm basically stuck -- copying files with Finder, I've
seen it lock up at 200meg; copying the same file with 'cp', it locks up
at 400 meg, but either way, once that's gone wrong I'm stuck -- I can't
eject the device, I can't "umount" it from a command window (umount
never returns), I can't kill the 'cp' process, etc. (now, to be fair,
there is certainly something wrong with the file, but on Windows, it
just says "error copying file" and aborts, which lets me get on with my
life rather than having to do a hard powerdown to get things functioning
again).
I'm assuming I could do something like 'kill usbstoraged' but I don't
know what that would be.
5. How do I restart Finder? I can kill it with 'force quit' (though
see 2 -- Finder still shows up in the list), and in this case, it gives
me the option to restart rather than kill, but it doesn't actually
restart it. What do I need to do at a command window to get Finder back
again, other than holding down the power button until it shuts down, and
restarting? The apple icon in the top right's dead, so I can't use that;
the Dock is still alive, though, but clicking on Finder (which has the
little 'running' arrow below it) in there doesn't do anything.
(equivalent of Windows ctrl-alt-del, "Run", "explorer" -- again, I'm not
sure if it's just a matter of running the right executable or if there's
more going on)
6. Copying from DVD-roms, how do I convince Finder to copy files
sequentially rather than in parallel? Now, I can't believe this is
actually what's happening, but the behaviour I'm seeing is: select four
300-meg files, drag to Desktop, I can hear the dvd reader head thrashing
back and forth and copy speed is insanely slow. Copy them one at a time,
and it's the speed I'd expect. The only thing I can think of is that
it's trying to copy the four files in parallel, but that seems really
ridiculous to me.
thanks,
-- dan
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|