[teney7]

So, I want to make a few files in my home directory hidden, and I have been Googling different phrases to try and find out for myself, but I just can't get explicit enough info.

I know... ls -a will show all files, including those that are hidden... but how do I go in and rename something...? I thin you have to start in the / directory.

Also, how do I open files that have been hidden...?

TIA

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

You can put all your porn in one folder and make an encrypted disk image.

[teney7]

hahaha, its financial stuff, thanks

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Ok replace the word Porn with Financial stuff and there ya go.

Do you know how to make encrypted disk images?

[Maflynn]

Encrypted files make me a little nervious. If the key is lost somehow so isn't your data.

I'm not sure what the situation is, but wouldn't this case be a good example of setting up different accounts. I don't know who you want to keep the financial stuff away from, but just create a user account for them so they don't use your account.

Mike

[teney7]

well, you just create a new image in disk utility and set it to be encrypted, beyond that I don't know... I have had some troubles with FileVault before (I no longer use it because I lost some data when my hard drive crashed and I couldn't unlock the sparseimage)

i agree, Mike, totally. Basically, I have financial stuff that I need to reference once in a while, but I want to make sure that if something were to happen to the computer, (bascially, theft or perhaps in some parallel universe, a system compromise, that unwanted eyes would have to at least find them in terminal or guess my password)

[hollowflame]

I believe if you create a folder, and make sure the name starts with a "." you will create an invisible folder. If you want to open that folder and see it's contents once in a while, just hit Shift-Command-G, and type in the filepath.

[fisherKing]

if you need to,
go to versiontracker.com and search for "invisible".
there's a handful of freebie apps that can hide folders
(hmmm...perhaps a search there for "hide" as well...)

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by teney7

i agree, Mike, totally. Basically, I have financial stuff that I need to reference once in a while, but I want to make sure that if something were to happen to the computer, (bascially, theft or perhaps in some parallel universe, a system compromise, that unwanted eyes would have to at least find them in terminal or guess my password)

Finding invisible files in OSX is a snap. All you have to do is boot from an OS9 CD and you can see everything (if your computer doesn't boot in OS9 they can just pull the drive). Someone can also scan your drive and find them no problem even if you reformat.

Again, the best thing to do is make an encrypted disk image and remember the damn password. Even if you leave it on the drive, reformat it AND someone still finds it they can't get access to the documents.

[JKT]

The encrypted disk image is the best option - if you are afraid of corruption, you should be backing up the disk image at regular intervals (you should be doing this anyway). Not rocket science.

A hidden file is not a protected file.

[teney7]

So, just FYI, once you find the directory containing the file to be hidden, type mv file .file, effectively renaming the file as a hidden one. Took me a while, but I figured it out.

[osxrules]

If you use File Buddy, you can rename files and make them invisible. Plus, you can browse to show/open them. I might recommend PathFinder if it wasn't so slow.

I recommend the disk image/backup option. Just don't use sparse images. With a read/write encrypted drive, you are all set. The good thing is that if something messes up and say you can't boot your system, the disk is unmounted and safe.

Yes, there is the possibility of forgetting the key but just use something that means a lot to you. Maybe you like dogs and so you're password might be i_like_dogs. Because it's something that means a lot to you, you will always remember it - memory is all about linking. Trust me, once you type it in every day you can type the keys with your eyes shut.

[parsec_kadets]

Originally Posted by Maflynn

Encrypted files make me a little nervious. If the key is lost somehow so isn't your data.

I'm not sure what the situation is, but wouldn't this case be a good example of setting up different accounts. I don't know who you want to keep the financial stuff away from, but just create a user account for them so they don't use your account.

Mike

If you have .Mac you can store the key in your keychain and use the .Mac sync. This will ensure that even if your hard drive fails, and you forget the key, you can still retrieve it from another system. From there, you just recover the encrypted image (which isn't going to be any more or less difficult than recovering other files on the failed drive) and unlock it.