Mac 911 Page 2 of 2

Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems

Ready for the worst

One day, you just might waltz up to your computer, press the power switch, and stare in dumb horror as your Mac displays a flashing folder, offers a plain blue screen, or does little more than whir. It makes sense, then, to have a troubleshooting drive at the ready that can help you repair your ailing machine.

Your System Discs The good news is that you already have an emergency boot disc: the Mac OS X CD or DVD that you bought or that came with your Mac. Insert one of these and hold down the C key at startup to make your Mac boot off the disc. Then use the disc’s copy of Disk Utility. (If you’re using the Tiger installation disc, choose Utilities: Disk Utility and then click on the First Aid tab when Disk Utility launches.)

Commercial Troubleshooting Utilities If you own a utility such as DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, or Drive Genius, these also come on bootable discs. Use them as you would your system disc.

FireWire Drive You can create a bootable troubleshooting device that, because it can hold multiple repair utilities, exceeds the capabilities of an OS X installation disc. For instance, if you have a FireWire hard drive, it can probably do the job. (Not all FireWire drives can boot OS X; see our review of FireWire hard drives )

If the drive has enough capacity, duplicate your Mac’s current startup drive using Mike Bombich’s Carbon Copy Cloner ($5). Any troubleshooting or repair utilities you have on your startup drive will work from the FireWire drive. On the other hand, you can create a fresh emergency drive by installing a clean copy of Mac OS on the FireWire drive and then installing your troubleshooting or repair utilities on it.

When choosing an emergency FireWire drive, consider one that you can easily slip into a pocket or pack in a computer case—for instance, LaCie’s $240 Mobile Hard Drive or Other World Computing’s $250 Mercury On-the-Go (both ; see our latest review of portable FireWire drives ). Such a small drive will prove a useful companion both in your office and on the road.

Older iPod Do you have an older iPod (first through fourth generation)? It can also boot a Mac when attached to that Mac’s FireWire port. (Sorry, current iPod models can’t.) If the iPod has about 5GB to spare, you can install a bootable version of Tiger on it, as well as your troubleshooting utilities. This is a very handy way to lighten your carry-on bag when traveling: all you need is your iPod for both tunes and emergency protection.

Note that the iPod was not designed to be a primary startup drive. It has no vents, and the heat buildup from running its drive constantly will likely shorten its life. But I’ve successfully booted an iPod to quickly repair a misbehaving Mac without apparent mishap.

Tip of the month

Bring bookmarks into Firefox: Your review of Web browsers (November 2005) firmly convinced me to switch from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to Mozilla’s Firefox. However, the Import wizard in Firefox 1.0.7 will not import bookmarks from Internet Explorer. I finally found a quick way to do this crucial task.

Choose Bookmarks: Manage Bookmarks, and then choose File: Import. Make sure that the From File option is enabled, click on Next, and in the resulting Import Bookmark File window, navigate to the Explorer folder (/ your user folder / Library/Preferences/Explorer). Select the Favorites.html file and click on Open to import the bookmarks.— Henry Francis

You can also use this technique to import your Explorer History file as bookmarks. Simply choose History.html rather than Favorites.html in the Import Bookmark File window.—Ed.

[ Senior Editor Christopher Breen is the author of Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, fifth edition , and The iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide (both Peachpit Press, 2005). ]