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‘Fix’ allows you to install Windows Bootcamp on new iMacs with 3TB drives

Issue-with-3-TB-or-larger-Hard-Drive-sizes

If you haven't heard, those who purchased a new Mac with Apple's built-to-order 3TB hard drive option found themselves unable to utilize Boot Camp assistant to install Windows. Boot Camp Assistant is currently limited to drives up to 2.2TB. Apple hinted that support might come at a later date, but TwoCanoes shares a step-by-step guide for getting the job done in Boot Camp until then:

Since it is not possible to get around the 2.2 TB limitation with booting Windows, it is possible to organize the partitions so that Windows is the last of the first four partitons and is within the first 2.2 TBs of space on the drive. Since the Mac can see the remaining space above the 2.2 TB limit, this space can be used for addtional storage space for OS X.

In order for Windows to boot successfully and still be able to utilize all of the available space on a 3 TB (or larger) hard drive, Windows must be installed on the fourth partition. You can use Disk Utility to create the partition, but since Disk Utility does not show hidden partitions, it can be difficult to see what is going on if some partitions are hidden. To have Disk Utility show hidden partitions, open Terminal and run the following command:

You can get the full instructions on TwoCanoes here.





9 Essential New Years Resolutions & Tips Mac Users Can Do Right Now

Essential Mac maintenace tips for new years (or any time of year)

Happy New Year! Start your new year off right with some simple digital resolutions to make your Mac perform better, be safer and more secure, plus you will get some added peace of mind. We've broken these tips into three simple sections, follow along and your Mac will thank you for the year to come.

Perform Basic System Maintenance

We have covered various simple ways to maintain a Mac before, and with the start of a new year there's no better time to run through some easy basic maintenance tasks.

  • Update System Software – Keeping OS X and core system software up to date is important for optimal performance, stability, and security. This is so easy to do, pull down the  Apple menu, choose Software Update, and install what's necessary. Reboot and you are good to go.
  • Update Apps to Newest Versions – The latest versions of apps include new features and bug fixes, and keeping your apps up to date is just as important as your OS X system software. If most of your apps come from the App Store, this is so easy to do there's virtually no reason not to do it. Just open up the Mac App Store, visit the Updates tab, and install them all.
  • Clean Up Junk – Spend some time freeing up disk space by deleting stuff you no longer need. Look at your Downloads folder and trash anything that isn't necessary, delete large files and archives that are no longer needed, and if you want to go even further, check out our guide on how torecover disk space on a Mac.
  • Uninstall Apps You Don't Use – If you have a bunch of apps installed that you don't use, all they're doing is taking up space. Take a few moments to check out your Launchpad and Applications folder, and uninstall what you don't use anymore. Apps from the Mac App Store can be uninstalled simply by deleting them from Launchpad, and most other apps can be uninstalled just by trashing them from the Applications directory

Set Up A Backup Solution

Are you backing up your files and important documents yet? We talk about this often because you really should be, and with how easy it is to do these days there's practically no excuse not to.

  • Use Time Machine – Time Machine is included in all modern versions of OS X and it makes backing up your entire hard drive as easy as possible. On initial run it will back up everything, then it will run in the background and just back up the changes that are made. All you need is another hard disk to do this, and external drives with huge capacity are cheap these days.
  • Consider Cloud Backups – For the best backup situation, you'll use Time Machine in conjunction with a cloud backup service, that way you'll have two copies of all your important files, a local copy and one in the cloud that can be retrieved from anywhere. Services like CrashPlan (paid) do this for you with the same ease as Time Machine and run in the background, but if you want a more hands-on approach you can manually back up the most crucial files to the free service levels of DropBox and even Amazon S3. Dropbox integrates nicely into the Finder like any other Folder, while S3 is a bit more advanced, and if you run out of space on either it's very cheap to get tons more.

Take Some Simple Security Precautions

It only takes a few minutes to set up some simple security on a Mac that will give you added peace of mind. Simple things like requiring passwords in order to use the Mac at any time, and using the excellent Find My Mac service through iCloud should be considered mandatory.

  • Require Passwords – Nobody wants unauthorized users gaining access to your Mac, and among the best ways to prevent that is to require passwords for things like boot login and when waking from sleep. Enable and use the screen lock feature when you step away from your desk, and disable Automatic Login through the Users & Accounts preferences panel to force passwords on boot and reboot.
  • Use Find My Mac – Part of the free iCloud service, Find My Mac is the OS X version of the Find My iPhone ability that lets you quite literally pinpoint a Mac precisely on a map. If it happens to get lost or stolen, you will know exactly where it is, and precise location information like this can help you or the proper authorities recover your hardware again. I have personally had friends and colleagues recover missing hardware using this service, it's free, and it's invaluable. If you haven't set up Find My Mac (and the iPhone and iPad versions too for that matter), take a few minutes to read our guide and do it now.
  • Add Identification Messages – After you have passwords required to access a Mac, add a quick identification message so that if your computer does get lost, it's easy for someone to figure out who it belongs to. Ideally, put an ownership name, email address, and phone number on the login screen and screen saver. It only takes a minute to configure login messages in OS X, and even less time to set messages as your screen saver. Do both.

What New Years tasks to do perform on your Mac? Is there anything we're missing here? Let us know in the comments, and Happy New Year!





2013 iPhone and iOS 7 Already Appearing in Developer's Logs

TheNextWeb reports that at least one iOS app developer has already spotted references to the next iPhone and iOS 7 in their app logs.
One developer showed us that Apple has been testing hardware relating to a new 'iPhone6,1′ identifier, powered by a device running iOS 7, which is expected to be released by Apple in the middle part of this year.
For reference, the current iPhone 5 carries an "iPhone5,1" and "iPhone5,2" identifiers. The specific entries were associated with Apple campus IP addresses, making it more likely they were legitimate entries.

Apple first announced iOS 6 at WWDC 2012 in June. iOS 6 was then released to the public in September. The iPhone 5 was also launched in September 2012.

There have been few hints about what might be expected in iOS 7 and the next generation iPhone, though there have been persistent rumors of Apple investigating the use of Near Field Communication for payments. Other rumors have suggested that the 2013 iPhone could arrive earlier than expected with a mid-year launch rather than later in the year.