Is there a way to get rid of the white disk icon from the desktop?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
i find it rather annoying. every time i open messenger or iphoto 4, etc. i get a white disk rectangle on my desktop. is there a way for it to possibly open somewhere else? ide rather not have to see 3 of those on my desktop all the time. thanks.



cheers!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Er...



    Huh?



    Explain what you mean by a 'white disk rectangle'... so you mean an icon for a mounted disk image that kinda looks like a white hard drive case?
  • Reply 2 of 11
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cam'ron

    i find it rather annoying. every time i open messenger or iphoto 4, etc. i get a white disk rectangle on my desktop. is there a way for it to possibly open somewhere else? ide rather not have to see 3 of those on my desktop all the time. thanks.



    cheers!




    The white disk icon is a disk image that's been mounted on your desktop. It's a removable disk (same class as cds/dvds/ipods), so the place to look for that is in the finder preferences:







    Uncheck the CDs/DVDs/iPods box.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    That'll keep it from showing up, but it indicates a bigger problem...



    Cam'ron, *if* that solves it, then I hate to tell you this, but your applications aren't actually installed on your computer.



    Applications are frequently distributed using disk images, a single file that the Finder treats as if it were a hard drive of it's very own - it has a set size, you can read (or sometimes write to) it, and it shows up just like any other hard drive would that you plugged into your machine.



    You're supposed to drag the application from that disk image to wherever on your hard drive it's supposed to end up. (iPhoto should have been installed automatically into /Applications, unless something is wonky.) Then that disk image will never be mounted, because it's not needed.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    That'll keep it from showing up, but it indicates a bigger problem...



    Cam'ron, *if* that solves it, then I hate to tell you this, but your applications aren't actually installed on your computer.



    Applications are frequently distributed using disk images, a single file that the Finder treats as if it were a hard drive of it's very own - it has a set size, you can read (or sometimes write to) it, and it shows up just like any other hard drive would that you plugged into your machine.



    You're supposed to drag the application from that disk image to wherever on your hard drive it's supposed to end up. (iPhoto should have been installed automatically into /Applications, unless something is wonky.) Then that disk image will never be mounted, because it's not needed.




    I concur... it sounds like you dragged the app icons into your Dock directly from the disc images, so that they are re-mounting every time you launch the Apps.



    Drag the app icon from the disk image window onto your Applications icon, then open Applications, and drag the app icon to the dock from there.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    cam'roncam'ron Posts: 503member
    That's really weird. I copied the files from the mounted disk to applications and now it's fine. But, why would it install it like that in the first place? And, where would these mounted disks be put on the hard drive then? Am I possibly installing things wrong? I've only had my first mac for about 8 months so I guess I am still learning a bit. But, so far you have at least helped solve the first problem, so thank you for that.



    Oh, while I'm at it, what do u do with all the .dmg files? I put them in a folder called Extra, but why do I need them?
  • Reply 6 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    It wasn't installed at all... just distributed.



    When you download many apps, they come as disk image files. A disk image can be compressed, it acts as if you stuck a CD in the drive, etc, so it's a pretty nice way of downloading files.



    If you download one of these, and it mounts, it kinda looks like things are ready to go, since voila, there's the app's icon, and double-clicking on it works.



    But.



    It's still not on *your* hard drive, it's sequestered in the disk image, and as FL points out, if you re-launch an app that's in a disk image, the Finder helpfully mounts that disk image for you, instead of producing an error.



    Now that you've installed the applications onto your hard drive, the disk images are superfluous.



    In the Finder, hit Cmd-F to bring up a search window, and from the left pop-up select 'Extension', then type 'dmg' into the text field and hit search. This will show you all the disk images on your drive. Select the one(s) corresponding to the applications you're *sure* you've installed elsewhere, and drag to the Trash.



    Personally, I have a folder named 'Installers' that I toss all those in, just in case. That way I have a fresh copy around at all times just in case something goes wonky. (And, since they're usually compressed, they take up less space than keeping a full second copy around.)
  • Reply 7 of 11
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cam'ron

    That's really weird. I copied the files from the mounted disk to applications and now it's fine. But, why would it install it like that in the first place? And, where would these mounted disks be put on the hard drive then? Am I possibly installing things wrong? I've only had my first mac for about 8 months so I guess I am still learning a bit. But, so far you have at least helped solve the first problem, so thank you for that.



    Oh, while I'm at it, what do u do with all the .dmg files? I put them in a folder called Extra, but why do I need them?




    dmg files are pretty confusing at first. They are only files on your computer until they are mounted. Think of them as floppy disks that haven't yet been put into your drive. Double-click on a dmg file and it mounts. Like putting that floppy into your floppy drive. Do what you want with the contents - drag the application/file someplace on your drive, use it from the virtual disk, whatever. Then eject them. Now they are just files again. The disk is now on the "desk" in your computer. Just like a floppy would be after you've ejected it. If you've copied its *contents* to your computer, you can do whatever you want with the dmg file. You don't need it anymore - just like if you've copied the contents of a floppy, you don't need it anymore.



    As for where they are - they're whereever you downloaded them to.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    cam'roncam'ron Posts: 503member
    yeah, i finally pieced it all together. i jsut figured out that the dmg file is the mounted disk. i would try and delete them b4 but couldnt because the application needed them to run and i couldnt figure out why things would work like that. but, now that i have copied the apps to the apps folder i can delete them. everything is starting to make a lot more sense now.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Anyone know why more developers aren't following Apple's latest guidelines for creating self-cleaning disk images -- other than laziness?
  • Reply 10 of 11
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hobbes

    Anyone know why more developers aren't following Apple's latest guidelines for creating self-cleaning disk images -- other than laziness?



    Probably because self-cleaning disk images are really annoying. Like Kickaha, I have a folder named Installers that I keep disk image files in, so I can re-install an app without having to re-download it. Every so often I burn the folder to a CD-RW and then delete the contents.



    I can't back up like this if the image deletes itself.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    And I, OTOH, don't worry about it. If I have the .dmg or .pkg, great. If not, I know where I can get it again if need be.
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