Can I change the name of a disk...

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John Stolz - 31 Jan 2007 09:25 GMT

..without formatting or repartitioning.

I have 3 macs on my network and all have the same name ('Macintosh HD').
It makes finding the volume you want very difficult.

Can I change the name of a disk without reformatting it?
Any other way to deal with this problem - I tried changing the name of
the shares on my desktop, bit that caused problems on the local machines
(new users got created.

Any help appreciated.

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David J Richardson - 31 Jan 2007 09:39 GMT

> I have 3 macs on my network and all have the same name ('Macintosh
> HD'). It makes finding the volume you want very difficult.
>
> Can I change the name of a disk without reformatting it?

Yes, just change it in the info box (command-i) or choose "Rename XXX"
from the right-click menu, or... lots of ways to change it, just like a
folder or filename.

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David J Richardson -- davidj@richardson.name
http://davidj.richardson.name/ - Dr Who articles/interviews/reviews
http://www.boomerang.org.au/ - Boomerang Association of Australia

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nospam - 31 Jan 2007 09:59 GMT

> Can I change the name of a disk without reformatting it?

click once on the disk to select it, hit <return> (the name will become
editable), type in the new name and hit <return> to complete the
rename.

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David Empson - 31 Jan 2007 10:04 GMT

> I have 3 macs on my network and all have the same name ('Macintosh HD').
> It makes finding the volume you want very difficult.
>
> Can I change the name of a disk without reformatting it?

Yes. Click on the name as it appears below the disk icon on your
desktop, wait for it to highlight, click on it again, and type in
something else.

This works fine in Mac OS X. In Mac OS 9 you might need an extra step:
if you currently have File Sharing enabled, you can't rename the hard
drive, so turn off file sharing first, then rename the drive, then turn
on file sharing again.

I tend to name each of my hard drives the same as the computer, which is
itself a nickname rather than the default assigned by the operating
system. "David Empson's Computer" isn't very helpful if I have several.

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David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

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John Stolz - 31 Jan 2007 11:00 GMT

> ..without formatting or repartitioning.
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Any help appreciated.

Thanks for these suggestions and I had already tried this, but the
problem is that when I try and connect across the network to another mac
the disk is still called 'Macintosh HD'. For eg I have 3 machines an
iMac, a MacBook and a MacMini. On each local machine I have changed the
names of the disks to 'iMac', 'MacBook', 'MacMini' and the disks appear
on the respective machines desktops with these names.

However when I try to connect from, say, 'iMac' to 'MacMini' the disk on
the MacMini is still called 'Macintosh HD'

What am I doing wrong?

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J.J. O'Shea - 31 Jan 2007 11:19 GMT

>> ..without formatting or repartitioning.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> problem is that when I try and connect across the network to another mac
> the disk is still called 'Macintosh HD'.

That's strange.

> For eg I have 3 machines an
> iMac, a MacBook and a MacMini. On each local machine I have changed the
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> What am I doing wrong?

Donno. Need more info.

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email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.

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John Stolz - 31 Jan 2007 11:33 GMT

>> ..without formatting or repartitioning.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> What am I doing wrong?

I found out - for the sake of the archive. Although changing the name
of the disk changes the name on the local machine desktop immediately,
the name change doesn't become visible to other machines on the network
until they are rebooted. I rebooted iMac but when I tried to connect to
MacBook, the name of its disk was still Macintosh HD. I rebooted
MacBook and hey presto iMac now sees the name of MacBook's disk as MacBook.

I thought you never had to reboot Macs ;-(

Thanks for your help all.

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Dave Balderstone - 31 Jan 2007 18:02 GMT

> > ..without formatting or repartitioning.
> >
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> What am I doing wrong?

What's the machine's name in the Sharing pref pane?

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J.J. O'Shea - 31 Jan 2007 11:15 GMT

> ..without formatting or repartitioning.
>
> I have 3 macs on my network and all have the same name ('Macintosh HD').
> It makes finding the volume you want very difficult.
>
> Can I change the name of a disk without reformatting it?

Easily. The two simplest ways are:

1 click on drive. Hit enter. Type in name.

2 right-click or control-click on drive. Select 'get info'. Scroll down to
name box. Type in name.

> Any other way to deal with this problem - I tried changing the name of
> the shares on my desktop, bit that caused problems on the local machines
> (new users got created.

Each of my Macs (and my WinBoxes, too) have their drives named as part of a
theme. One machine, for example, is named 'Kido Butai' ('Fast Striking
Force') and the drives on it are named for Japanese aircraft carriers.
(Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu...) Another one is 'Raptor' and the drives are
named for birds of prey. (Eagle, Falcon, Hawk, Kestrel...) And so on. It's
fairly easy to detect which share is where that way...

> Any help appreciated.

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Mac Forum / General / General / January 2007

Can I change the name of a disk...