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Finder Questions

ungraphic

ungraphic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 15, 2007
596
0
Toronto, Canada
So I recently bought a new external hard drive. Its got 500gb of free space on it, and am debating whether to make it a single FAT32 based partition, or two partitions; one FAT32, the other HFS.

I say this because, I can't seem to setup the finder to memorize the look of folders on a FAT32 partition, ie; icon view w/ previews, sorting by filename, etc. It does this HFS drives, but the settings are always reset with FAT32 drives. Is there a way to fix this?

Is there even a way to make ALL folders in the finder get folders and files in icon view with previews and ALWAYS sorted by filename? I'm getting REALLY annoyed with some folders showing up as a complete mess of files and folders, especially on archived DVDs I make via Toast.

And lastly, selecting a number of files and folders and then pressing option gives the 'show inspector' function, as opposed to get info, which basically gets the info of all the files/folders selected in a single dialogue box. Is there a way to make this the DEFAULT option, as it should be??

Thanks!
 
i think i have ur answer to the part where u said there a mess, highlight all the files that are messy or whatever, then click on clean up selection.
 
The DS Store files keep track of how you organize things, etc. If you are on 10.5, I don't think those are written to Windows volumes. I don't remember the exact change in behavior, but this will put you in the right direction.


As far as the show inspector, hold option before selecting it from the menu or hitting command + I. That will give you the inspector.
 
calderone said:
The DS Store files keep track of how you organize things, etc. If you are on 10.5, I don't think those are written to Windows volumes. I don't remember the exact change in behavior, but this will put you in the right direction.
Click to expand...

So the DS Store files on OS X 10.5 are NOT written to FAT32 partitions, but are in OS X 10.6? Correct me if i'm wrong.
 
ungraphic said:
So the DS Store files on OS X 10.5 are NOT written to FAT32 partitions, but are in OS X 10.6? Correct me if i'm wrong.
Click to expand...

I suppose I should have been more clear. After 10.5 they changed the behavior of the DS_Store files due to complaints. I can only imagine that has remained the case in 10.6.

Also, I am not sure if they are not written to FAT32 volumes, I think this was part of the complaint though. It was mostly Windows admins seeing DS_store files all over their network shares.

I can definitively tell you that they changed the way DS_store works. I would recommend looking into what exactly changed.
 
I can confirm that DS_store files are still written to FAT partitions in 10.6.1.

To keep files and folders arranged as you prefer in Finder:

1. Open the folder, or drive you wish to arrange in Finder.
2. From the drop down Action menu, select Show View Options.

action_menu.png

3. From View Options, click the Arrange by drop down menu, and select the way you would like your items arranged.
4. Next click Use as Defaults, and close View Options.

view_options.png

From this point on, your files and folders should stay arranged as you selected. You may also want to take note of the other options in View Options. Such as "Always open in icon view", and "Show item info".
 
calderone said:
I suppose I should have been more clear. After 10.5 they changed the behavior of the DS_Store files due to complaints. I can only imagine that has remained the case in 10.6.

Also, I am not sure if they are not written to FAT32 volumes, I think this was part of the complaint though. It was mostly Windows admins seeing DS_store files all over their network shares.

I can definitively tell you that they changed the way DS_store works. I would recommend looking into what exactly changed.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Well in that case, is there at least a way to make all the folders and files open sorted by alphabetically in icon view? I'm tired of having to manually re-arrange all the files and sort them whenever im working on FAT32 partitions, most of them being on external drives for use with other windows computers.
 
Steve-M said:
I can confirm that DS_store files are still written to FAT partitions in 10.6.1.

To keep files and folders arranged as you prefer in Finder:

1. Open the folder, or drive you wish to arrange in Finder.
2. From the drop down Action menu, select Show View Options.

View attachment 199335

3. From View Options, click the Arrange by drop down menu, and select the way you would like your items arranged.
4. Next click Use as Defaults, and close View Options.

View attachment 199334

From this point on, your files and folders should stay arranged as you selected. You may also want to take note of the other options in View Options. Such as "Always open in icon view", and "Show item info".
Click to expand...

Thank you so much! Finally, a working FAT32 partition! :)
 
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