Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Cannot change Bootcamp partition icon since Snow Leopard install

T

TofaPrune

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2008
8
0
After installing Snow Leopard, the volume icon for my Windows XP Bootcamp partition has changed back to the default Hard Disk icon.

As it is formatted NTFS, I am unable to change the icon within OS X. I used to change it by applying the desired icon to a memory stick, then within Windows, copy the hidden icon files from the memory stick on the base directory of the 'C:\' Drive.

When in Leopard, it would recognise the icon that I had applied to it - but ever since I installed Snow Leopard, this trick no longer works and I cannot find a way to change it (other than to change my Bootcamp partition to FAT32, so I can apply an Icon within OS X - but this means reformatting and is slightly OTT for just an icon :p)

This occurs both after doing a Upgrade install on my MacBook Pro, and a clean install on my iMac, both with already existing Bootcamp partitions. I might try by making a new Bootcamp partition now Snow Leopard is installed, but I don't see how that would be any different to the ones I currently have.

Is anyone else having/noticed this problem and is there an fix?
 
Yeah I think there's a bug in the new finder having to do with hard drive icons in general.

My user folder, for instance, is actually a separate hard drive. That icon only shows up like half the time, otherwise it's the standard blank.

Does it/did it ever show up under the bootloader (hold down option while booting)?
 
My Icon's show up for ever other drive, just not the Bootcamp one unfortunatly.

It is definatly due to the fact that it is NTFS/not being able to write to the drive, and in Snow Leopard, Apple must have changed the way that drive icons are stored.
 
Have you tried using MacFuse NTFS-3G so your mac is able to write to a NTFS formatted HD? I don't have Snow Leopard, but this is how I got it to work.

Strange.

EDIT: Right, my Mac HD icon shows up in the bootloader and not the windows one. Sorry, had to correct that.
 
Confuzzeled23 said:
Have you tried using MacFuse NTFS-3G so your mac is able to write to a NTFS formatted HD? I don't have Snow Leopard, but this is how I got it to work. Also, the icon appears in the bootloader. However, my custom icon for the Mac HD does not.

Strange.
Click to expand...

ditto. macfuse and nfts-3g will help you do what you need. although in the bootloader my custom mac icon shows up but not my custom windows icon.
 
I noticed my Windows icon was gone from my Windows partition as well since Snow Leopard was installed. If anyone finds out how to fix this, let us know!
 
Yeah, I might just have to go the NTFS-3G route - I just don't see what apple has done to stop it from detecting the icon like it used to.

Also, even in Leopard, you could never see the custom bootcamp drive icon in the bootloader (unless possibly if you were using NTFS-3G, as I didn't have it back then)
 
Here the same; My "windows-boot camp partition" icon it's not shown. I've tried to set it up again, but doesn't work.

In addition, If I change the icon of my fat32 pendrive, it's still showing the original icon, not the new one :eek:... But if I plug in that pendrive in other mac, I can see the new Icon!!!
:(

Note: I didn't do a fresh install, I updated from Leopard. Of course, it's a legal build, familiar pack.
 
I have SL and I have mine working. I used liteicon to change my default internal hard drive icon to what I wanted my bootcamp partitions icon to be and then I just manually edited the OS X partitions icon and all works well :)
 
Ok, I was having this exact same problem since I installed Snow Leopard and just found the solution, which is similar to Bubba22's it appears.

I installed SL and it replaced my windows (NTFS) partition icon with the standard internal drive icon. It would not let me change it back by going into Get Info or by copying the icon files to the C:\ from a USB drive within windows. I tried repairing my disk permissions as well, as I saw that mentioned somewhere, also to no avail.

Now, I just went into Candybar and changed the icon for Internal Drives and it worked! I am glad I finally figured out a way to change it. Not sure why I didn't try this before, probably because I was thinking in terms of changing this one specific icon and not the icon for internal drives all together. This works though, and I don't have any other "internal drives," aside from my mac volume, which retained its custom icon.

So, for anyone having this same problem try out liteicon or candybar (there's a free demo of this)!


Thanks Bubba22!


ck
 
Agreed, Bug.

I had the same problem everyone described: Custom icon on an NTFS volume in Leopard, upgraded to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.0), icon reverted to generic icon. I tried the basic things mentioned in this thread. When I tried FAT USB stick trick again in Snow Leopard and replaced my existing .VolumeIcon.ics file on my NTFS volume I noticed the file size was different (this later proved to be irrelevant anyway, just thought it was curious.)

So I installed NTFS-3G/MacFUSE and low and behold, when I unmounted it from Apple's read-only NTFS interface and re-mounted it with NTFS-3G/MacFUSE, that let me write to the drive, and consequently change the icon. I tinkered around and found that after the custom icon was applied it could be unmounted and remounted with NTFS-3G and and still show up. I then unmounted it and re-mounted it with Apple's NTFS interface (so it's read-only) and the custom icon that was displaying reliably earlier reverted back to the generic icon! I unmounted it and re-mounted it with NTFS-3G and the custom icon appeared again. Startled, I tried it a few more times to make sure it wasn't just me.

My Conclusion: Presently, the Finder does not display custom icons for read-only NTFS volumes. It's just a bug or an oversight in the new Finder's newly rewritten code.

Options:
  1. Install NTFS-3G+MacFUSE and let it automatically mount your NTFS volume as read/write (potentially letting OS X mess with your Windows Files)
  2. Try really hard to ignore the generic icon until Apple fixes this bug/oversight, which they likely won't.
  3. Changing every hard drive icon to your computer to whatever you want your bootcamp drive icon to be, potentially having to reset it every now and then. All your other standard HFS and NTFS drives will have this same icon.
 
NTFS-3G/MacFUSE

so currently is the NTFS-3G/MacFUSE the only method that works?

This is driving my dad crazy :mad:

trying to figure it out for him.

any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Bubba22 said:
I have SL and I have mine working. I used liteicon to change my default internal hard drive icon to what I wanted my bootcamp partitions icon to be and then I just manually edited the OS X partitions icon and all works well :)
Click to expand...

did you have to go with the NTFS-3G route to get this working? bubba
 
ckFoxtrot said:
Ok,
Now, I just went into Candybar and changed the icon for Internal Drives and it worked! I am glad I finally figured out a way to change it. Not sure why I didn't try this before, probably because I was thinking in terms of changing this one specific icon and not the icon for internal drives all together. This works though, and I don't have any other "internal drives," aside from my mac volume, which retained its custom icon.
ck
Click to expand...

How do you change the icons for the internal drives, using Candybar??
Thank you.
 
you can change the NTFS drive's icon, on your desktop in SL at least, by changing it to read/write. i.e.: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=823542

however, i'm pretty sure that if you change the drive back to read-only the icon reverts.

not sure if it changes the boot icon as well.

UPDATE: it doesn't change the icon upon boot. however, i changed the drive back to read-only (by simply deleting the /etc/fstab i created) and the icon is still the "custom" one. i don't recommend leaving ntfs mounted read/write as it isn't really supported in os x.
 
Has a solution been found for this? I'd like to change my bootcamp and windows drives Icons in SL
 
Looked at various guides but they are all from years back. Nothing works now.

I'd like to have my Windows 7 drive icon on my Mac desktop to be something else.
 
Kilamite said:
Looked at various guides but they are all from years back. Nothing works now.

I'd like to have my Windows 7 drive icon on my Mac desktop to be something else.
Click to expand...

A work-around I've used for years:

I don't need my Windows partition in Mac anyhow, and it won't let me make it pretty with a better icon. Unmounting the partition after every reboot is a hassle.

Easy way to make sure it doesn't show up at all, simply rename the c:/ drive in Windows! Anything that begins with '.' will work.

Mac automatically hides any drive or folder or file that begins with a period. So once you have it renamed, it just will not show up on the desktop any longer.

Jacques
 
Jakimo said:
A work-around I've used for years:

I don't need my Windows partition in Mac anyhow, and it won't let me make it pretty with a better icon. Unmounting the partition after every reboot is a hassle.

Easy way to make sure it doesn't show up at all, simply rename the c:/ drive in Windows! Anything that begins with '.' will work.

Mac automatically hides any drive or folder or file that begins with a period. So once you have it renamed, it just will not show up on the desktop any longer.

Jacques
Click to expand...

Good to know, but what we are trying to do is have a windows icon appear in the boot process and while using the macintosh side.

Out of curiosity if you hide it does it still work with vmware fusion?
 
I ended up using the advice earlier in this thread or some other thread out there. I downloaded LiteIcon. This program is free and allows you to change system wide disk icons. So I just chose a custom icon for my internal hard disks. All internal disks end up having the same icon as the one I set for bootcamp, but if bootcamp is your only additional internal disk partition. This method should work for you for the time being. Give it a shot.

http://www.freemacsoft.net/LiteIcon/
 
Jottle said:
I ended up using the advice earlier in this thread or some other thread out there. I downloaded LiteIcon. This program is free and allows you to change system wide disk icons. So I just chose a custom icon for my internal hard disks. All internal disks end up having the same icon as the one I set for bootcamp, but if bootcamp is your only additional internal disk partition. This method should work for you for the time being. Give it a shot.

http://www.freemacsoft.net/LiteIcon/
Click to expand...

great stuff dude hopefully works under snow leopard but first class dude especially as changing the internal drive only affects so few visible icons and if we dont like the one we use for windows showing as mac we can just do the command paste of any icon for our mac disks cheers again
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back