remove time machine icon from desktop

[adamb529]

I would like Finder to not display my Time Machine drive on the desktop. The only way I can think of to do this is to uncheck to preference to show external drive icons on the desktop. I only want Time Machine to not be displayed. I want to see other external drives I connect. Is there a way to do this? I use flash drives a lot and would like them to appear on my desktop. I never access the Time Machine drive via the desktop, so I don't need its icon there. Thanks in advance!

[trevor]

Hmmm. You could try giving it a name that begins with a period (i.e. a "."). I've not tested whether this will cause problems with Time Machine, but in theory it should make the drive invisible to the Finder, yet still work in Time Machine.

I've never done this myself to an entire drive, so let us know if it works.

Trevor

[adamb529]

Quote: Originally Posted by trevor Hmmm. You could try giving it a name that begins with a period (i.e. a "."). I've not tested whether this will cause problems with Time Machine, but in theory it should make the drive invisible to the Finder, yet still work in Time Machine. I've never done this myself to an entire drive, so let us know if it works. Trevor

The Finder won't let you use a period at the beginning of a file. "...these names are reserved for the system."

[trevor]

Ah, so you'd have to rename it in the Terminal. Something like the following might work, although you'll need to put the real name in place of 'ExternalDrive'.

mv /Volumes/ExternalDrive /Volumes/.ExternalDrive

Trevor

[adamb529]

Quote: Originally Posted by trevor Ah, so you'd have to rename it in the Terminal. Something like the following might work, although you'll need to put the real name in place of 'ExternalDrive'. mv /Volumes/ExternalDrive /Volumes/.ExternalDrive Trevor

Nope..."Permission Denied"

[trevor]

D'oh!

sudo mv /Volumes/ExternalDrive /Volumes/.ExternalDrive

You'll be asked for your admin password because of the 'sudo' command.

Trevor

[Las_Vegas]

This would cause a problem selecting the Time Machine drive in the Time Machine preferences. With a dot as the first character, it would also be invisible to the preferences.

[trevor]

OK, that's a good point.

There's other ways to make a folder (and hence, a drive) invisible, but the problem is, would it be invisible in Time Machine as well?

As I recall, you can set something to be hidden in Leopard (not in previous versions of OS X) using the command
sudo chflags hidden /Volumes/ExternalDrive

...but this may still have the same problem that Las_Vegas mentions above.

Trevor

[solipsism]

Here is another way: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/05/01/termi...veloper-tools/

[adamb529]

Quote: Originally Posted by solipsism Here is another way: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/05/01/termi...veloper-tools/

That worked...with a little messing around. Finder does not see my Time Machine Volume, but I can use Time Machine to restore and backup files. It is actually backing up right now to prove this. I will be submitting an official hint for others who want to know how to do this. Once I figured it out, it didn't take that long! Thanks all for your help. I'll post a copy of my hint submission here after I type it!

[solipsism]

To hide Time Machine (uppercase 'V'):

 /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V /Volumes/"Time Machine"/

killall "Finder"

To show Time Machine (lowercase 'v'):

 /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v /Volumes/"Time Machine"/

killall "Finder"

You must have SetFile from Xcode installed (free download).

[adamb529]

exactly, but I don't have developer tools installed, so I had a bit more work to do. You don't actually have to install tools to do it

[solipsism]

It is free, but if you don't have the room to install it you could also extract SetFile using Pacifist.

I am posting the attachment but I'm not 100% this will work. If someone could test it, that would be great.
[attachment removed by moderator]

[adamb529]

Quote: Originally Posted by solipsism It is free, but if you don't have the room to install it you could also extract SetFile using Pacifist. I am posting the attachment but I'm not 100% this will work. If someone could test it, that would be great. [attachment removed by moderator]

That's what I did. So it works, and I am submitting the hint.

[adamb529]

Sorry for the clutter, but the html tags from the hint post appear here too. Hopefully, people will be reading the hint and not this forum post, so I won't spend the time to remove the tags!

<p>I don't like to have icons cluttering my desktop. I have figured out a way to remove the Time Machine volume icon from the Finder without affecting Time Machine. I want other external drives to be visible, so the Finder's preferences are of no help here. Apple actually provides everything needed. I will explain how to remove the volume for Finder using Developer Tools and without having Developer Tools installed (like me). Please note that <i>Time Machine Volume</i> refers to the volume Time Machine is backing up to, or any volume you would like to hide.</p>

<p><b>With Developer Tools</b></p>


<p>1. Open Terminal</p>
<p>2. Run the following code, replacing Time Machine Volume with the proper name:</p>
<code>/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V '/Volumes/Time Machine Volume/'

killall "Finder"</code>
Note the uppercase V. I do not have Developer Tools installed, so I cannot confirm that this works.

<p>3. Log out and log back in for changes to take effect

If you ever want to restore the Time Machine volume's icon to the Finder, run the following code in Terminal:</p>
<code>/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v '/Volumes/Time Machine Volume/'

killall "Finder"</code>
<p>Note the lowercase v. Again, you need to log out and back in for the changes to take effect.</p>

<p><b>Without Developer Tools</b></p>

<p>I can confirm that the following method works as I have used it on my system. You will need two things for this to work.</p>
<p>1. A copy of Pacifist (http://www.charlessoft.com/Pacifist.dmg) <b>This starts a direct download!</b></p>
<p>2. Your Mac OS X Leopard Install DVD that you bought or that came with your computer.</p>

<p>Have everything you need? (A trial version of Pacifist will work)</p>

<p>Here's how to do it:</p>
<p>1. Open Pacifist with the install DVD in the DVD drive. Select "Open Package..." and navigate to: /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/Optional Installs/XCode Tools/XCodeTools.mpkg</p>
<p>2. Search for "SetFile". Choose the second choice on the list (the first one that is NOT an alias) and click install in the upper left corner. Type your password if necessary.</p>
<p>3. Open Terminal and type the following:
<code>/usr/bin/SetFile -a V '/Volumes/Time Machine Volume/'

killall "Finder"</code> </p>
Note the uppercase V.

<p>4. Log out and log back in for changes to take effect</p>

<p>If you ever want to restore the Time Machine volume's icon to the Finder, run the following code in Terminal:
<code>/usr/bin/SetFile -a v '/Volumes/Time Machine Volume/'

killall "Finder"</code></p>
Note the lowercase v. Again, you need to log out and back in for the changes to take effect.

<p>I hope other find this as useful as I did. Time Machine still sees any volumes that you have hidden from the Finder. If you ever needed to browse using the Finder, you could always use the Go to Folder command under the Go menu and type /Volumes/<i>Time Machine Volume</i>. Note that this hint removes the volume from the Finder's sidebar, the computer window (top level Finder window, and the desktop. Enjoy!</p>

[adamb529]

Here is the official hint: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...80124184544791.

Also, does anyone know how to stop Time Machine from changing the icon of my internal hard drive? I hate that icon, and it's not even my Time Machine drive!

[adamb529]

Never mind. I played around a little more with setfile and figured it out.

Adamb528 can you tell me how you figured out to restore the original image of the HD icon that Time Machine changed?
Thanks