How to Remove or Hide "Remote Disc" from the sidebar (cd's, DVD's and iPods) by using workgroup manager

Question

How to Remove or Hide "Remote Disc" from the sidebar (cd's, DVD's and iPods) by using workgroup manager

Dear Apple Pro's

I'm Working on a school with 400 imac's a lot of students will use this dayly. I would like to disable or hide the "Remote Disc" from the sidebar by using a policy under workgroupmanager or an Unix command that I can use by ARD. I've look for a week now so i'm out of the question! Could somebody help me?

I played a lot with the "preferences ==> details" under the workgroupmanager, but nothint work!

I hope somebody can help me pleaz

Regards,

Roderik

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Server

Posted on Jun 10, 2011 4:02 AM

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Answer 1

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 4:07 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Hey Roderik, welcome to discussions. What exactly do you mean by "Remote Disk"? Do you mean the Shared devices the computer can "see" over the web, or what?

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Answer 2

Jun 10, 2011 4:39 AM in response to Ingo F.

He Ingo,

I would like to hide the icon (finder sidebar) "left side" Remote Disc for our students. I think it's indeed the shared devices. What i really want is hide the devices for ever ;-) but onder workgroup manager it's not so easy.

I think "remote disc" is a part of cd's, DVD's and iPods? See pic.

Iam looking for a week now, but can't find it. My terminal level is not so high ;-( must shame me...

I hope maybe you can help me.

Regards,

Roderik

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Answer 3

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 4:43 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Rod,

have you tried the Preferences in Finder? Click on the Desktop, it will show "Finder" in the Menu Bar on the top of the screen. Under Finder, go to Preferences, and in that Window under General, deselect all the check boxes there. Does that affect the Remote Disk?

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Answer 4

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 4:44 AM in response to Ingo F.

Aw crap brainfart. Yeah, that will probably affect it, but I forgot the 400 systems ARD thingie. *thinks*

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Answer 5

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 4:49 AM in response to Ingo F.

OK, let's try something else. Remote Disc is a disc one system shares to other systems. Do you know which system is the one that shares it? If so, how about just ejecting the disc from there? Or disable file sharing on that system? Something like that?

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Answer 6

Jun 10, 2011 4:59 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Hey Ingo,

There is no workstation that shares it. See the local policy below. We only use ARD Agent on the client. Mostly of the policies what we are using is used by the workgroup manager. I wish there was a comment that say's something like: chflags hidden /volumes/"Remote Disc"

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Answer 7

Jun 10, 2011 5:00 AM in response to Ingo F.

You can set it up in Finder > Preferences > Sidebar on one mac and copy the com.apple.sidebarlist.plist file to all users home accounts on the 400 Macs via ARD??

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Answer 8

Jun 10, 2011 5:02 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Hi Chris,

Already tried no succes ;-( I read also an article that say's you must install the admin tools on the client and connect with ldap and make local changes and than export it to the server, but also not working.

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Answer 9

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 5:05 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Rod, I accept that. What I do not understand: I do not see the Remote Disk item on any of my systems. So the question is: Where does it come from? All I can find in docs is that there must be one system somewhere (and I guess it can be any of the 400) which is set up to share a CD or DVD in its drive. But maybe I am wrong here. Should it not be possible to find out where that disc is shared from? I mean, when you click on that disk, there is something "on" it, right?

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Answer 10

Jun 10, 2011 5:12 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Could it have something to do with the new imacs that support's SDcard onboard? That's also a media however I blocked in the workgroup manager al the devices. ;-(

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Answer 11

Jun 10, 2011 5:14 AM in response to Ingo F.

"So the question is: Where does it come from? All I can find in docs is that there must be one system somewhere (and I guess it can be any of the 400) which is set up to share a CD or DVD in its drive. But maybe I am wrong here"

run this command on all 400 Macs via ARD (only joking!) it will eject the dvd drive...

drutil tray eject 0

always wanted to do this on 400 Macs!!

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Answer 12

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 5:20 AM in response to roderikdehaar

I think ⚠ that on one or more computers, the following point must be active:

This seems to me the setting where this comes from. When I switch that on, I can see Remote Disc on my systems on the same network. I would have to check in ARD, but maybe there is a way to ensure this is switched off on all systems?

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Answer 13

Jun 10, 2011 5:23 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Hi Chris,

I did the comment but with no result. I've asked my collegues to walk with me (10) and the one he will found it get's 25 euro ;-) happy for me nobody earnd it. Hower back to the problem. No disc found.

Regards,

Roderik

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Answer 14

Jun 10, 2011 5:31 AM in response to roderikdehaar

Hi Ingo,

I turned the selection off... rebooted twice no effect.

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Answer 15

Ingo F.

Level 4

1,804 points

Jun 10, 2011 5:37 AM in response to roderikdehaar

OK, to be honest, I am out of ideas right now, but I only have ARD running in my home network. So I will go home later today and try and see whether I can get this remote disk to pop up on any system I have, and then try to figure something out with ARD. But please, do not expect an answer before Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday here 🙂 In fact, better to not expect an answer at all, because right now I have no clue where this comes from 🙂

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