Skip to content

The Eclectic Light Company

Macs, painting, and more
Main navigation
  • Downloads
  • Mac problems
  • Art
  • Macs
  • Painting
  • General
  • Life

HFS+

There’s more to files than data: Extended Attributes

All about xattrs: their origin, where they’re stored, how they’re named and typed, how to find and work with them, and their common problems.

October 24, 2020 Macs, Technology

There’s more to files than data: Attributes

Explaining inodes, names, dates, permissions, file types, and specialised attributes used for iCloud.

October 22, 2020 Macs, Technology

There’s more to files than data: Structure and data forks

Looking in more detail at newer tricks used by APFS on the data of files: sparse files, which can squeeze vast empty files almost to nothing; file clones; and compression, opening up in Big Sur.

October 20, 2020 Macs, Technology

Inside the file system: 4 Summary and references

Disk structure diagrammed for comparison, from the partition table, to HFS+ and APFS volumes, with further references.

October 10, 2020 Macs, Technology

Inside the file system: 3 APFS containers and volumes

What you need to know about the APFS file system, its containers and volumes, so you can understand errors and how to repair them.

October 8, 2020 Macs, Technology

Inside the file system: 2 HFS+ volumes

What you need to know about the HFS+ file system, so you can understand error reports and how to repair it using Disk Utility and other tools.

October 7, 2020 Macs, Technology

Inside the file system: 1 Disks and partitions

What you need to know about disk formatting using the GUID Partition Table (GPT) to understand its problems and how to repair it.

October 6, 2020 Macs, Technology

Fitting a quart into a pint pot with sparse bundles

How to store a 400 GB sparse bundle on a volume which only has 200 GB free space – provided that you don’t actually use the space that isn’t there.

September 21, 2020 Macs, Technology

Fun and confuddling with Unicode

How to hide text so that it can’t be searched or analysed, and how file naming almost brought APFS down.

August 21, 2020 General, Language, Macs, Technology

Time Machine and snapshots

Time Machine has been using snapshots since High Sierra. How can it then use them to make backups to APFS volumes in Big Sur?

July 29, 2020 Macs, Technology

Posts navigation

Previous1 2 3 … 8 Next
Blog at WordPress.com.
Footer navigation
  • About & Contact
  • Macs
  • Painting
  • Language
  • Tech
  • Life
  • General
  • Downloads
  • Mac problem-solving
  • Extended attributes (xattrs)
  • Painting topics
  • Hieronymus Bosch
  • English language
  • LockRattler: 10.12 Sierra
  • LockRattler: 10.13 High Sierra
  • LockRattler: 10.11 El Capitan
  • Updates: El Capitan
  • Updates: Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur
  • LockRattler: 10.14 Mojave
  • SilentKnight, silnite, LockRattler, SystHist & Scrub
  • DelightEd & Podofyllin
  • xattred, Metamer, Sandstrip & xattr tools
  • 32-bitCheck & ArchiChect
  • T2M2, Ulbow, Consolation and log utilities
  • Cirrus & Bailiff
  • Taccy, Signet, Precize, Alifix, UTIutility, alisma
  • Revisionist & DeepTools
  • Text Utilities: Nalaprop, Dystextia and others
  • PDF
  • Keychains & Permissions
  • LockRattler: 10.15 Catalina
  • Updates
  • Spundle, Cormorant, Stibium, Dintch, Fintch and cintch
  • Long Reads
  • LockRattler: 11.0 Big Sur
  • Mac Troubleshooting Summary
Secondary navigation
  • Search

Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Cancel