How can I keep icons in the sidebar after unmounting their disks?

[Bodega.]

Hi folks,

I've got a Macbook Pro running 10.8.2 that I use at home with a USB HD. There are a couple of folders that I access all the time, so I've moved their icons to the Sidebar.

The problem is that when I unmount the disk to take my laptop out of the house, it will get rid of the icons in the sidebar so that when I re-mount the HD I have to navigate to the folder or drag an alias or whatever to get the icons again.

Does anyone know a way to lock an icon in the sidebar so it stays even if the folder it points to isn't mounted?

This has been bugging me for absolutely ages so any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!
Matthew

 

[Weaselboy]

Plug the drive in and navigate to each folder and right click then select Make Alias. Now drag the alias to the Dock. If you click the alias it should open the Folder.

I just did a test on a USB key and even after you eject the USB drive, the alias will stay in the dock and just do nothing if clicked. If you plug the USB drive in again the alias will work. But it (the alias) does stay in the Dock when the drive is ejected.

Edit: Hey now! You did a Ninja edit on me there... Hah. Did I misread at first that you wanted this access in the Dock? I don't know how to get an alias in the Finder sidebar.

Edit2: I found a bit of a work around. Make the alias like I described then drag the alias up into the Finder toolbar (see my screen shot). I just tested it and the alias persists even if you eject the USB drive.

 

[Bodega.]

Thanks for the suggestion, Weaselboy.

I've added aliases to the top toolbar. The only downside is that I can't immediately see the names of the folders, but then I guess I only have two so it shouldn't be hard to memorize.

 

[Kraegm]

Solution, sort of

I know this is about a year out of date, but I think I've found a workaround for it.

I have a Marketing drive where I access several folders nested deep within said drive on a regular basis. These shortcuts kept disappearing from my sidebar after disconnection from the Marketing drive. In my Documents folder I created a new folder called Marketing drive and place an alias for each and ever sub folder I like to access within that drive. Then I moved that Marketing drive folder to my sidebar where it remains permanently. Now those alias' all work whenever I mount the Marketing drive. Additionally, I can mount the Marketing drive by clicking on those alias' within the Marketing drive folder in my sidebar.

Hope that makes sense.