what happened to drag and drop?
I am using OSX 10.3.2. I downloaded a program from the web. I downloaded it onto my desktop. I tried to drag it onto the hard drive icon but all that did was create an alias in the HD and left the program on the desktop. Whats going on? Is it stuck on my desktop for all eternity?
Comments
Try dropping it onto your Applications folder, or some specific drive or folder in the computer.
I tried to find it but all that showed up in the search was the alias that was made when I tried to drag it to the hard drive.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
The top level of the hard drive is locked to all but the root user in OS X. Nothing goes on that level except drives.
Try dropping it onto your Applications folder, or some specific drive or folder in the computer.
i've been able to put stuff on my HD icon, and not just an alias...
What you need to do is remove the .dmg from the trash, double click to mount it, open the resultant image, and drag from there to wherever you want (I would recommend against the root of your HD).
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
steve666 welcome to .dmg's, they are disk images, they simulate disks. When you double click on one it mounts on your computer (and by default your desktop) as if it were a disk (CD, Harddrive, etc). When you dragged that mounted image somewhere it is just like dragging a hard drive there, you get a alias by default (ps.. pay attention to the green badge that the os puts on the icon you are dragging.. it will tell you what it is doing).
What you need to do is remove the .dmg from the trash, double click to mount it, open the resultant image, and drag from there to wherever you want (I would recommend against the root of your HD).
I already emptied he trash, bu its OK I already used the program (monolingual) to get rid of the language files.
So, after I double clicked the .dmg, it opened up I believe another thing, then opened up what looked like an icon of a external hard drive. I can then drag this icon into an applications folder, but not onto the Hard Drive icon on the desktop? If this is true, can I then trash the .dmg?
Man, this is mondo wierd for an old time Mac guy!
Originally posted by steve666
Man, this is mondo wierd for an old time Mac guy!
I would strongly suggest reading this thread. In the middle to latter part is an explanation of how DMG files work:
PC equivalent of Mac files?
Originally posted by Brad
I would strongly suggest reading this thread. In the middle to latter part is an explanation of how DMG files work:
PC equivalent of Mac files?
I checked it and im still confused. Ill have to buy a book. Who would of thought that I have to buy a book to learn how to use a Mac?
Originally posted by steve666
I checked it and im still confused. Ill have to buy a book. Who would of thought that I have to buy a book to learn how to use a Mac?
oh please, put a cork in it....
A .dmg is a disk image file.
Double clicking the .dmg decompresses it and results in a virtual hard disk on your desktop. To get rid of it, drag to the trash to eject it.
Double clicking the virtual hard drive opens it up and shows what's on it. Usually the application icon. You can drag the icon and or files some place else.
I don't know what exactly the idea behind this is, I suppose they don't want to just dump this stuff on your user desktop. I wouldn't judge much about the OS from this one issue though. I think the process for app installation could be cleaner in this step though. The rest of the process is easy enough.
[added]Anyway the container diagram is this:
.dmg (compressed archive) > disk image (uncompressed archive) > application (which is really a folder that acts as one opaque file)
Everything is temporary until you install it (i.e., drag it to a volume). as I think about it, maybe the confusion is that the computer is not the same as the hard drive any more. They were equated in OS 9, OS X is more, uh, literal about the relationship between your computer and your storage since your computer can have several hard drives and volumes in it or plugged into it. Now they're all on the same level, at the top of the hierarchy rather than the old metaphor of being on the desktop. Maybe Apple's attempt to console OS 9 users by allowing people to show volumes on the desktop is more confusing than helpful.[/added]
I'm sitting here logged into my admin account (which is by default the first account I set up), and I can't drop files on the Computer level of my machine. I imagine it might be possible if I logged in as root, though I've never tried it. I don't know how mattjohndrow does it. It doesn't make logical sense to place files and folders at that level. Those things have to be inside some media, a drive, CD, DVD, CF card, etc. If a file is sitting at the same level as the volumes, what volume would it be on?
Originally posted by k squared
Really? I thought hyperb0le's explanation was pretty good. If you are used to OS 9, Apple used disk images to distribute software too. They looked like floppy disks.
A .dmg is a disk image file.
Double clicking the .dmg decompresses it and results in a virtual hard disk on your desktop. To get rid of it, drag to the trash to eject it.
Double clicking the virtual hard drive opens it up and shows what's on it. Usually the application icon. You can drag the icon and or files some place else.
Actually you just described it very well. I think I get it now. I open the hard drive icon and drag the application to whatever folder i want, but can I leabe it by itself without dragging it into a folder? Can I now trash everything, including the .dmg without losing the app?
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Basically, a .dmg file is a compressed disk image for downloading. So it's just like a zip file. But you have another container for those files, unlike a zip. That's the disk image. The disk image is a temporary disk drive in effect, a separate volume at the top level of your hard drive like all your other media.
I don't know what exactly the idea behind this is, I suppose they don't want to just dump this stuff on your user desktop. I wouldn't judge much about the OS from this one issue though. I think the process for app installation could be cleaner in this step though. The rest of the process is easy enough.
[added]Anyway the container diagram is this:
.dmg (compressed archive) > disk image (uncompressed archive) > application (which is really a folder that acts as one opaque file)
Everything is temporary until you install it (i.e., drag it to a volume). as I think about it, maybe the confusion is that the computer is not the same as the hard drive any more. They were equated in OS 9, OS X is more, uh, literal about the relationship between your computer and your storage since your computer can have several hard drives and volumes in it or plugged into it. Now they're all on the same level, at the top of the hierarchy rather than the old metaphor of being on the desktop. Maybe Apple's attempt to console OS 9 users by allowing people to show volumes on the desktop is more confusing than helpful.[/added]
I'm sitting here logged into my admin account (which is by default the first account I set up), and I can't drop files on the Computer level of my machine. I imagine it might be possible if I logged in as root, though I've never tried it. I don't know how mattjohndrow does it. It doesn't make logical sense to place files and folders at that level. Those things have to be inside some media, a drive, CD, DVD, CF card, etc. If a file is sitting at the same level as the volumes, what volume would it be on?
Originally posted by steve666
Thank you for the info.so no more dragging things directly onto the hard drive icon, that will take getting used to. Do I have to drag tha app I downloaded into the applictions folder? Im used to plopping things down by itself.
Why is it so hard to get used to? It's common sense. Applications go in the Applications folder. What's hard about that? Yes, you drag the app to the applications folder. But you don't have to. It just makes most sense to do it that way because all users have access to it. Just put things where they *should* be and you won't have any problems at all.
Originally posted by steve666
Actually you just described it very well. I think I get it now. I open the hard drive icon and drag the application to whatever folder i want, but can I leabe it by itself without dragging it into a folder? Can I now trash everything, including the .dmg without losing the app?
you can't trash the .dmg while the image is mounted, but once you've moved the app off the virtual disk, you can umount the image and toss the .dmg without losing anything (but, of course, the .dmg)
Computer > Macintosh HD > Applications for example, or
Computer > Macintosh HD > Users > steve666 as another example
So mattjohndrow's original post that he can put stuff directly in the HD icon is true. Do I have that right? You just have to be admin user. If you're the only user, then you're the admin user by default.
In OS 9, there simply wasn't a "computer" level to the hierarchy. The desktop was the top level, and hard drives were on the desktop. In OS X, the desktop is a place in the user's personal directory, something like 5 levels down in the hierarchy. In OS X, you have the catch-all Computer level, then the drives and media, then the local folders for each drive (apps, main library, system, users, etc.).
Sorry! Hope I didn't create more confusion with all of this. (I think I did.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
update to my previous post: I finally get what steve666 and mattjohndrow are talking about when they said "computer" in some occasions. I've been rather thick-headed about this. You guys meant the hard drive icon, the one on the desktop by default, yes? I was talking about the Computer icon, the absolute top level of the Finder's hierarchy, the place in which the hard drive resides.
Computer > Macintosh HD > Applications for example, or
Computer > Macintosh HD > Users > steve666 as another example
So mattjohndrow's original post that he can put stuff directly in the HD icon is true. Do I have that right? You just have to be admin user. If you're the only user, then you're the admin user by default.
In OS 9, there simply wasn't a "computer" level to the hierarchy. The desktop was the top level, and hard drives were on the desktop. In OS X, the desktop is a place in the user's personal directory, something like 5 levels down in the hierarchy. In OS X, you have the catch-all Computer level, then the drives and media, then the local folders for each drive (apps, main library, system, users, etc.).
Sorry! Hope I didn't create more confusion with all of this. (I think I did.
You cleared it up for me - a Mac novice - quite nicely.
Originally posted by steve666
I am using OSX 10.3.2. I downloaded a program from the web. I downloaded it onto my desktop. I tried to drag it onto the hard drive icon but all that did was create an alias in the HD and left the program on the desktop. Whats going on? Is it stuck on my desktop for all eternity?
Talking about diverging.....
Once your mount the ".dmg" file or disk, just drag it while pressing "option/alt" key and will drag the content to which ever folder you want to copy into the hard drive.
It's time for apple to start using multiple button scroll mouse.
- 1. Open a DMG. It mounts a virtual disk. It acts exactly like any other drive, CD, floppy, etc.
In short: Virtual disk images act exactly the same as any other disk.2. If you drag the disk itself somewhere, again, it acts exactly like any other disk and the Finder makes an alias to it.
3. If you want to copy the data off the newly mounted virtual disk, drag that data (be it documents, folders, applications) from the virtual disk to somewhere else on your hard drive, just as you would data from a CD or other disk.
4. When you unmount the virtual disk, it's the same as ejecting a CD or unmounting a network drive. Drag it to the trash and it unmounts. Restart or log out and, like a network drive, it unmounts.
5. If you delete the original DMG file, it's the same as taking an actual CD and throwing it out your house's window. It's gone. If you want it back, you'll have to go find it again (by downloading it again or pulling it out of the trash).
As others have said, this is nothing new to Mac OS X. Apple itself distributed software via disk images in a nearly identical IMG format. Mac OS updates were one type of item that was usually distributed as disk images.
Originally posted by steve666
Do I have to drag tha app I downloaded into the applictions folder? Im used to plopping things down by itself.
You can still technically put an application anywhere you want, but it is greatly recommended to put them in the Applications folder. Putting them there means several things:
2. Apps put in the Applications folder will be detected by Apple's Software Update.
3. Apps put in the Applications folder will be usable by other users. Simply put, if you put an app on your desktop or some other odd location, other users will not be able to access them.
4. It makes organization and quick access much easier. Anywhere you have navigation, from the Finder itself to open and save dialogs, pressing cmd-shift-A will jump you to the Applications folder. The Applications folder also appears by default in the side panel in the Finder and open/save dialogs.