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webraider · Mar 21, 2008, 03:02 PM

This is one thing I would love to see changed in OS X. I've been a Mac user since the Mac OS 7 Days (Sometimes I miss those days as far as simplicity is concerned!) One of the things I've been hoping to see changed since the induction of OS X is Disk Utility. I first of all would love to see some of it's function's INTEGRATED in to the finder. I should be able to "copy" a CD or DVD just from "Right Clicking/Control Clicking" it or selecting the appropriate item from the menu. Instead.. i have to go to a utility to perform a Basic Function.

The next thing I would love to see is that Disk utility would NO longer show TWO icons representing a Disk. One is sufficient.. just like the OS 8 and 9 days! It makes no sense to me why it shows two icons and why Apple can't simply fix it. Is Unix this imited? I'm sorry for the vent but I'm always getting confused over which is which. You can remind me but there's NOTHING intuitive about it!

TETENAL · Mar 21, 2008, 03:25 PM

It only shows one icon for each disk. The other icon is for the volume. This is required since a disk can have more than one volume.

gradient · Mar 21, 2008, 03:27 PM

I don't totally disagree that disk functions might be useful added to the finder's contextual menu (not something I would use, though, and would add clutter), Disk Utility really does need separate icons for the physical disk and the partition - as soon as you create multiple partitions on a disk it becomes essential.

edit: Tetenal beat me to it.

webraider · Mar 21, 2008, 04:20 PM

Originally Posted by gradient

Disk Utility really does need separate icons for the physical disk and the partition - as soon as you create multiple partitions on a disk it becomes essential.

I agree that Disk Utility needs to show partitions.. however.. I also said it should show them the way that the finder does. If a disk in the finder has multiple paritions, it shows up as 2 disks. If it only has one parition.. it shows up as ONE disk. This just makes sense. In the OS 9 Days.. you would add a parition to the disk by clicking the only icon in drive Utility, and then selecting the partition option. After the process was complete the finder and the disk utitility showed two icons. I prefer the what you see is what you get method better. Disk Utility now reaks too much of Windoze (drive a, drive b, drive c etc..) which has always shown Volumes as opposed to actual Disks.

This is also true of Optical Media. When you insert a CDRW and you want to format it.. you have to go all the way to Disk Utility to do it. We used to be able to do it from the Finder with All disks in OS 9. That's just the sign of a good Disk Operating System. Now you have to go to Disk Utility just to reformat a Removable Media, and Do you choose the Volume icon, or the disk Icon (actually you can choose either, however it's confusing for the new user). This is my point.. it's not consistent from the Finder to the Disk Utility. Basically I'm suggesting that the Disk Utility only show Paritions just like the finder does. You can still monitor SMART status.
Showing Volumes is irrevlevant..as my only concern is the information on the disk.

AppleGirl1990 · Mar 21, 2008, 04:26 PM

The only thing that really needs to be changed is the speed at which Disk Utility scans/repairs. Under Leopard, it crawls no matter how fast your computer is.

CharlesS · Mar 21, 2008, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by webraider

I agree that Disk Utility needs to show partitions.. however.. I also said it should show them the way that the finder does. If a disk in the finder has multiple paritions, it shows up as 2 disks. If it only has one parition.. it shows up as ONE disk. This just makes sense. In the OS 9 Days.. you would add a parition to the disk by clicking the only icon in drive Utility, and then selecting the partition option. After the process was complete the finder and the disk utitility showed two icons.

That's wrong - the Drive Setup program always showed disks, not volumes. If you had two partitions on a drive, you'd get two icons on the Desktop, but only one item in Drive Setup. Disk Utility in OS X is more flexible - since you can see both the disk and the volumes on that disk, you can decide whether you want to erase just one partition or redo the whole partition map. It's a good thing.

ryaxnb · Mar 26, 2008, 09:31 PM

I thought this would be a great time to point out the PC has nothing like disk utility... except as shareware. Even then you usually have to use more than one piece and pay up to $50 total or more. The ISO-as-virtual-disk functionality you can use by double-clicking any ISO, IMG, or DMG in the Mac OS Finder, is very nice, and hard to find on Windows. Furthermore, on Windows making or extracting from an ISO requires either burning it (needing a free ISO burner, only works for extracting) or using shareware tools like PowerISO. And even burning ISOs needs the free ISO Burner PowerToy, so you can't do it on a stock Windows machine. Finally, the proprietary tools have their own formats, like Disk Utility and it's DMG format, but because there's more than one (WinImage, PowerISO, MagicISO, MakBit Virtual CD, etc.) compatibility is sketchy. Disk Utility has established a standard Mac format/formats with .IMG/.DMG, and all Mac programs that handle images and are OS X-based (not OS 9) should be able to handle both.