28 MacDirectory
DEPARTMENT
Q > I accidentally connected both my
desktop and my laptop to the same firewire
drive and now the drive will not mount.
What do I do?
Imani Diot, Maine
A > Imani Diot? No you aren't. You are
simply more "creative" than the rest of us.
I suggest that you try a software solution such
as DiskWarrior from Alsoft or
Data Recovery II from Prosoft
. DiskWarrior will attempt to
repair the directory if possible. If this fails, try
Data Recovery II. DR II will not repair the drive
but it should enable you to see the directory
contents and copy off your data.
Q > I have a stack of external hard drives,
all of which spin up when I start my Mac. I
don't need to have them running all the
time and it is a hassle to manually eject
them every time I boot up. If I put them to
sleep, I'm always being slowed down by
needless spin-ups. Any ideas?
Vincent Gholam, Texas
A > Look in your Applications folder for
Automator. Fire it up, then select "Finder" in
Automator's library pane. Grab the icons for
the external hard drives from your desktop
and drag them into the rightmost pane,
then select "Eject Disk" in the Action pane.
Select "Save As" in the File menu and save
your creation as an application. Place your
new app into your dock and click it to eject
the drives. If you wish to remount a drive,
either disconnect and reconnect its cable or
turn it off and on. If you want to automate
the entire unmounting process, set your
user prefs to automatically run your new
applet at startup.
Q > I have dual monitor system with a flat
panel and a CRT. No matter how many times
I run the calibration utility on both monitors,
the colors still do not match. What am I
doing wrong?
David Johns, Utah
A > Absolutely nothing. Mark Twain said
that when you have only one clock you
always know what time it is, but when you
have more than one clock, you're never
quite sure. The same goes with the multiple
monitors and Apple's completely subjective
software calibration tools. What you need is
a dedicated calibration tool such as the Spy-
der 2 from ColorVision .
Install the software, plug in the calibration
tool, place the tool on the monitor screen
and turn off any nearby lights. Then launch
the application and follow the prompts. If
you also want to make sure that your printer
output matches what you see on your moni-
tor, go for the Spyder 2 Suite or Spyder Pro 2.
Q > I am just starting out with graphic
design and need a source of stock photos
but most online sources are way too
expensive. Do you know of any budget-
friendly photo sources?
Sam Haidarian, Illinois
A > Check out bigstockphoto.com. They
have a zillion images (about a quarter zillion
good ones) and you only have to pay $1 or
$2 per photo. (Sure beats $500!) Just set up
an account, deposit a few bucks and off you
go. By the way, if you happen to be a
decent photographer or illustrator, you can
submit your own work for possible inclusion
on the site, receiving a small royalty for
every download!
Q > We recently had a power outage in
my neighborhood. I use a good quality surge
protector and the outage didn't cause any
noticeable damage to my Mac, but I lost
what I was working on. What can I do to
prevent this in the future?
A > First, save your work and save it often.
Second, buy a surge protector that includes
battery back-up capability. This will keep
your machine up and running long enough
for you to perform a safe shut-down. A
number of solutions are available from your
local computer or electronics superstore.
Leading brands include APC and
Tripplite . As for choosing a
specific model, add up the watts of your
computer, monitor & external hard drives
(look on the back or bottom of the device)
and select a model that exceeds this rating.
BEEBE > MACDIRECTORY'S TECH GODDESS
