The iDisk is among the most useful things about having a .Mac account. The uses for an iDisk are almost limitless; the bottom line is that your iDisk is additional disk space that you access via the Internet. You can use this space to store any files you choose. It is also vital to certain .Mac services, such as HomePage, because you store all the files you use on your web page in the appropriate folders on your iDisk. TIP Although your iDisk isn't likely to be large enough to perform system backups, you can use it to back up important documents. This keeps them separate from your computer and enables you to access them from any Mac. With your .Mac account, you can download and use the Apple Backup application to back up your files on your iDisk. You can configure a Mac to create a local copy of your iDisk and keep it synchronized with your online iDisk. This is especially useful when you work with the same set of files from multiple locations, such as a work Mac and your home Mac. When you purchase a .Mac account, the combination of iDisk and email storage space is 250MB. You can configure this to shift more space to the iDisk or to your email, and you can upgrade the disk space available to your account.
Setting the Size of Your iDiskIn most cases, you should increase the size of your iDisk relative to the space used by your email account. TIP Only email that you store on the .Mac server counts against the email portion of your .Mac disk space. Make it a practice to download your .Mac email to your Mac and to regularly delete your email to keep your disk use for email to a minimum so you can have more iDisk space.
TIP As you have probably figured out, you use the Account Settings web page to configure various aspects of your .Mac account, such as changing your password, billing information, and so on. Configuring Your iDiskYou can configure your iDisk for your Mac OS X user account by opening the iDisk tab of the .Mac pane of the System Preferences utility (see Figure 17.4). Figure 17.4. Using the iDisk tab of the .Mac pane, you can configure your iDisk; here, you can see that I have 225MB of space available but am currently using only 145MB.TIP If the iDisk tab doesn't reflect your most recent account changes, quit the System Preferences application and restart it. The most important configuration you will do is determining whether you will create a local copy of your iDisk on your computer. If you do this, you can work with the local copy just like other volumes on your computer. Then, you can either synchronize the local version with the online version manually or have your Mac do it automatically. If you use a dial-up connection, you should create a local copy of your iDisk because accessing the online version is too slow to be practical. When you make changes to your iDisk, you can synchronize it to move those changed files online. If you have a broadband connection, this is less important because there won't be as much difference accessing your online iDisk compared to the local copy. However, if you are going to work on files while they are on your iDisk (as opposed to just storing them there), using the local version will improve performance. To configure your iDisk, perform the following steps:
Working with a Local Copy of Your iDiskIf you chose to create a local copy of your iDisk, you can open it from the Finder by clicking its icon in the Places sidebar. You can also select Go, iDisk, My iDisk or press Shift-"-I (see Figure 17.5). In the resulting Finder window, you will see the folders on your iDisk. At the bottom of the window, you can see the current space being used along with information about the last synchronization that was performed (or the progress of the current one if it is still being performed). While the local copy of your iDisk is being created, you'll also see the synchronization symbol rotating next to the iDisk icon in the Places sidebar. Figure 17.5. You can access your local copy of your iDisk by clicking its icon in the Places sidebar of a Finder window.NOTE The local iDisk is actually a disk image file called Previous local iDisk for username.dmg, where username is your member name. If you set the local copy of your iDisk for manual synchronization, you can perform the synchronization by clicking the "Synchronize now" button located to the right of the iDisk icon in the Places sidebar (refer to Figure 17.5). The two versions of the iDisk will be synchronized; a progress bar at the bottom of the Finder window will inform you about the status of the process. TIP If you click the Action button or the contextual menu for a Finder window showing your iDisk, you can select the Sync Now command to perform synchronization or the Automatic Syncing command to set your iDisk to be synchronized automatically. Working with Your Online iDiskIf you choose not to create a local copy of your iDisk, you can still work with your iDisk from the Finder. However, when you move files to and from the iDisk, you will actually be moving those files across the Net rather than just between locations on your hard drive. In most cases, you should use a local copy instead. However, you can directly access your online iDisk to work with it. To do so, click the iDisk icon on the Places sidebar and the contents of your iDisk will be shown in a Finder window. If you have set your desktop preferences so that mounted disks appear on your desktop, you will see a disk with an icon of a hard disk in front of a globethis is your iDisk. If your mounted disks don't appear on your desktop, open the Computer directory and you will see your iDisk there.
To learn how to set the preference for disks being shown on the desktop, p. 135. TIP Look for the Synchronize symbol to the right of the iDisk volume in the Places sidebar of the Finder window to tell the difference between the online iDisk and a local copy of your iDisk. If you don't see any symbol, you are working with the online iDisk. If you do see the Synchronization symbol, you are working with a local copy. TIP If you use more than one .Mac account, you can download and use the iDisk Utility application to make working with multiple .Mac accounts more convenient. You can download this application from the .Mac website. Working with an iDiskAfter your iDisk is mounted on your Mac (whether it is a local copy or the online version), you can work with it just like the other volumes and disks on your machine. Open your iDisk and you will see the following folders:
Accessing iDisks from the Go MenuThe iDisk commands on the Finder's Go menu are the following:
TIP When you need to enter a password to access someone else's Public folder, your username is Public, which is entered for you. If you add the password to your keychain, you don't have to enter it again. The Public folder will be unlocked for you automatically when you access it. Sharing Information on Your iDisk with OthersOne of the most useful things about an iDisk is that you can place files in the Public folder and then share them with other users. You can do this in a couple of ways. If the people with whom you want to share files are Mac users, they can access your files via the commands on their Mac's Go, iDisk menu. All you need to do is place the files you want to share in your iDisk's Public folder and then provide your .Mac member name to the people with whom you want to share files. If you protect your Public folder with a password, you need to provide the password to them as well. NOTE If you use a local iDisk and chose the Manual synchronization option, remember to synchronize your iDisk after you place new files in your Public folder for others to access. You can also publish the contents of your Public folder so others can access it using a web interface. This means you can share files with anyone, whether they use a Mac or not.
To learn how to create a .Mac website, p. 506. Upgrading Your iDiskYou might need to have more space available than the 250MB that is provided as part of a standard .Mac account. In fact, if you want to create a website with lots of movies, music, and photos on it, 225MB might not be enough for you even if you've allocated most of your space to your iDisk. If you will be using the .Mac backup application to back up your data, you are also likely to want more .Mac disk space. At press time, you could increase the total storage space for your .Mac account to 1024MB for an additional $49.95/year. To add more space to your .Mac account, go to the iDisk tab of the .Mac pane and click the Buy More button. You'll move to the .Mac website. Log in and you'll move to the Buy More page. Follow the onscreen instructions to add more space to your .Mac account. After you have added more disk space to your .Mac account, allocate the portion you want to make available to your iDisk.
To learn how to allocated disk space between your .Mac email and iDisk, p. 499. Using Your iDisk to Work with the Same Files on Multiple MacsIf you regularly work on more than one Mac (such as one at work or school and one at home), you can use .Mac to make sure you can access the same files on each Mac you use. To do this, perform the following steps:
TIP After you have finished working on files and no longer need to access them, move them out of your iDisk so they no longer impact your available space. |