I accidentally created a shortcut of the Mac hard drive icon. Now I'm too afraid to delete this shortcut.

Question

I accidentally created a shortcut of the Mac hard drive icon. Now I'm too afraid to delete this shortcut.

What happened is that I wanted to move some files into a folder, but as I was dragging them into the folder, it turns out I had accidentally selected the hard drive icon as well. I was confused as to what was going on at first because my Mac was taking a few minutes to transfer the photos into the folder, an action which would normally take only a few seconds. My computer also wasn't moving all of the pictures. So, I made several attempts to move the photos into the folder. Later, I found out that I had created several shortcuts of the hard drive. The shortcuts look like the picture I attached, with a little black arrow at the bottom left. I moved all of the hard drive shortcuts into the trash but I haven't emptied the trash yet because I'm worried that it might damage my computer. I'm worried about losing data, software or that the operating system might stop working properly.

What can I do to safely delete these hard drive shortcuts?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Sep 1, 2015 4:19 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Sep 1, 2015 4:31 PM in response to makinglifebetter

They are alias files. Deleting them will not damage your hard drive. Regardless, it's a good idea to have a backup of your drive in case anything adverse does happen to your hard drive. If you had one then you wouldn't be asking this question. The following can get you started on backups.

Basic Backup

For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:

1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;

2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is

used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine

requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the

drive being backed up.

3. Time Machine requires a backup drive that is at least double the

capacity of the drive(s) it backs up.

Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):

1. Carbon Copy Cloner

2. Get Backup

3. Deja Vu

4. SuperDuper!

5. Synk Pro

6. Tri-Backup

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.

Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;

1. Cool Drives

2. OWC

3. WiebeTech

4. Firewire Direct

5. California Drives

6. NewEgg

All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Reply