Glen Smith (General Related category)

Bootcamp Assistant: How to overcome the "files cannot be moved" issue

2009-10-28T08:53:00Z

You're busy trying to use the Bootcamp Assistant to install a bootcamp partition on your shiny Macbook, when suddenly you're greeted with the dreaded fragmentation dialog of death:

So what does "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved" actually mean? I mean, I've got 25Gb free and I only want a 10Gb windows partition! The answer lies in fragmentation. OSX seems to want a contigious block of clean disk to write to, and fragments of your files are scattered across it.

I know what you're thinking. "But it's a Mac. I've got this fancy file system that isn't prone to fragmentation". Yeah, yeah. Well, dude, the crushing news is that you can fix the problem by defragmenting your hard disk then trying again, so I guess OSX isn't as committed to defragmentation as you might suspect.

I'm sure there are many ways to defrag an OSX hard disk. I chose to fork out 20 Euro and make the problem go away using iDefrag. There may well be open source/free alternative out there (feel free to comment if you know of any -- useful for other googlers who come on by). iDefrag does its best work when it's not defragging the boot disk, so you'll want to generate a bootable DVD to run it from. Fortunately it ships with the tool to generate that bootable DV for you.

iDefrag ships will a free product called "Coriolis CDMaker". Stick your Snow Leopard disk in the drive, run the CDMaker app, and it will get busy generating a bootable DVD for you with iDefrag as the autorun. Stick your bootable DVD in the drive, restart OSX, and hold down the "C" key as the machine boots -- and it will boot up your DVD and run iDefrag.

Defragging takes some time - mine took about 3 hours to run - but that's a lot less hassle than reformatting and restoring my entire drive. After the defrag I could happily run the Bootcamp Assistant without any "some files cannot be moved" drama.

Recoving your iPhoto collection from an Emptied Trash... (there is hope!)

2006-08-30T21:08:40Z

So what *do* you do when your small child erases your iPhoto collection? I guess you undelete from the trash... But what happens if you didn't know your photo collection was in the trash and you emptied it? You go to your most recent backup. But what happens when your most recent backup is 6 weeks old (you know, just before your newborn arrived?). You panic.

I've had a Mac Mini for over a year, and never had a drama with it. So when all my photos disappeared I felt sick in my stomach. I am so not battletested in this space - I've never had to be.

Anyways after some frantic hunting on the web I bought a copy of FileSalvage for OSX. It's $99USD which is quite a sum... but really a very smart pricing model since the only time you need this tool is when you *really* need this tool. RIght Now. Before your OS starts using all of that "empty" space you just created.

Anyways, I set it off and a few hours later I had 23000 undeleted images called File001. I only needed ones from the last six weeks, so I ran the sensational PhotoToolCM to rename and redate the files based on the EXIF data that the camera stored inside the image and I was in business.

This story has a happy ending (not many of these sorts of things do). The newborn shots are back. All of them. Phew!

Now I plan to backup weekly...

Yahoo Desktop is worth a look...

2006-05-14T05:31:57Z

I've played around with Google desktop (and others) in the past and never had much success. They all slurped too much CPU, didn't handle my OpenOffice files or PDFs, and came with interfaces that were either too simple, or far too complex.

My local Aussie PC mag, PC Authority did a feature on desktop search technologies this month and gave the editor's choice to Yahoo! Desktop. I didn't have much luck with Google desktop, but based on their review the Yahoo offering looked like it was worth for a spin. And it was...

I've gotta say that I'm pretty impressed. Handles all my OpenOffice docs, and displays them inside the search window just fine (note: you do have to download the filters pack which handles an extra 200 file types - don't know why they didn't just roll it into the base install). Ditto for the PDFs. (Screenshot below)

Haven't been able to get it to index my IMAP store yet, but other that than it works a treat. Low CPU impact. Nice UI. Very stable. And I'm actually finding it very handy!

Big props to the Yahoo! Dudes. Very class offering.

Iterations considered harmful?

2006-03-28T01:59:45Z

It would be pretty insane to argue that regularly delivering running, tested, value-add code is hazardous to any project. But when it comes to iterations, if you're not careful the mojo can get very funky pretty quickly. I've just finished reading a fantastic article by Alistair Cockburn on the misuse of iterations in agile projects... and I've just realised that I'm living the nightmare myself!

Alistair's argument comes down to the fact that shipping iterations is not necessarily the same as delivering real value to the client. And it's not the same as getting you closer to your end-game. A fave quote from the article:

"Danger grows when the results of the iteration are not directly linked to delivering the product to the end user. Without that linkage, iteration results hang in the air just as badly as the old, pre-agile forms of wandering in the wilderness."

Reading this I started to rethink our iterations in line with the big picture of getting our product out the door. I've spent a bunch of time over the last couple of months "tidying" up stuff, refactoring and adding small features that don't (1) add immediate value to the client; and (2) Move us closer to getting 1.0 out the door. Yes I am hitting iterations, but no it's not moving us closer to 1.0. That thinking is changing today. The problem is not the iterations - the problem is that I'm not planning them properly!

In line with Alistair's recommendations, I'm setting aside some time this week to make sure that our monthly iterations are better aligned to our end game. In essence, it's all about delivering. Not about delivering iterations, but about delivering the features that are adding value and getting us closer to a revenue stream.

If you haven't read Alistair Cockburn's Crystal Clear - do yourself a favour. I have found this book a really challenging read. This really brought together a whole bunch of agile thinking into my world - and it's the most practical and battle-tested book on small team development methodology I've read.

Awesome stuff...

Two Very Cool Developer Utils for Windows

2006-01-21T09:16:57Z

While some of my development is done on Mac, and some on Linux, most of my time is spent on Windows. Not really fussed about operating systems these days, so happy to work on whatever. Anyways, I work with this guy Shayne who knows more about Windows utilities than anyone, and he keeps showing me cool stuff.

The first one is a clipboard extender called Yankee Clipper. This beast keeps a running history of your clipboard over time, and gives you a cute dropdown menu to pick from when you use Ctrl-Alt-V. Shayne has a more complete review.

The second cool utility that I just can't live without any more is Dirkey. This guy allows you to bring up a picklist of Windows Explorer shortcuts when you are in File Dialogs (or Explorer itself) simply by right clicking on the Close Window button. This turns out to be phenominally useful when navigating the filesystem.

Both utilities are freeware.... And too cool for school.