As hard as it is for those of us in the northern hemisphere, Friday, August 28, 2009 is a Snow Day. It’s the day that Mac OS X 10.6—Snow Leopard—arrives in stores. But here at Macworld, we’ve been using it for weeks, and in some cases, for months.
The Abyssal Depths expansion adds a kind of threat: Fiends who hound you throughout your entire quest to reach the boss. It includes 6 different Fiends, each with two levels of difficulty. Plus, 2 new aquatic heroes join the fight in the murky waters! Apple Mac OS X, Xsan, and iWork Curriculum Mac OS X courses Length Description Leads to Certification For Support Professionals and Technical Coordinators Snow 101: Mac OS X Support Essentials 10.6 3 days Provides an intensive and in-depth exploration of troubleshooting on Mac OS X, touring the breadth of functionality of Mac OS X systems.
Now we’ve got the details on Apple’s new operating-system release, from a full review to in-depth feature roundups and individual stories that dive deep into special corners of this new cold-weather cat.
Below you’ll find an ever-growing list of Snow Leopard stories from Macworld. Check back often for even more coverage. And if you’d like to see a comprehensive list of every story we’ve published about Snow Leopard, we’ve got that too.
SD describes devices that conform to SD standards for non-volatile memory cards. See the SD Association website for details.
Yes. The SD card specification for a memory card is 32mm by 24mm by 2.1mm. You can also use thinner cards, such as MultiMediaCards (MMC). Avoid using cards that have a thickness greater than 2.1mm, as they might damage the SD card slot if you try to insert them.
Cards that conform to the SD 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x standards should work. The SD card slot can use:
You can use a passive adapter like the one shown here to make MiniSD, MicroSD, and higher density formats like MiniSDHC and MicroSDHC conform to the width and thickness specifications listed above:
Mac notebooks use the USB bus to communicate with the SD card slot. They have a maximum speed of up to 480Mbit/s. Mac desktops use the PCIe bus to communicate with the SD card slot. Desktops can transfer data at a faster rate.
Check the packaging that came with your SD media to determine the maximum transfer rate that your specific card uses.
To determine the maximum transfer speed of your Mac, you can use System Information. Choose Apple menu > About This Mac and then click System Report.
If you use a Mac notebook:
If you use a Mac desktop computer:
Yes. However, most media manufacturers preformat the media using common block-and-cluster sizes that don’t approach the theoretical limits of a given file system.
Most SD cards use the FAT32 file format, and preformatted FAT32 SD media is commonly available up to a capacity of 32GB. Media that exceeds 32GB usually uses the exFAT file system, while some smaller capacity cards use the FAT16 file format. Preformatted FAT16 media is generally available up to a capacity of 2GB.
If you use OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.5 or later, you can find out which file system you’re using:
Yes. Any Mac that has an SD card slot and is running OS X 10.6.5 or later can use the exFAT file system.
exFAT is also supported in Boot Camp with Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 on any Mac made in 2011 or later with an SD card slot.
When you insert the card, make sure that the metal contacts face down and point toward the computer. Don’t force media into the SD card slot, as this might cause damage.
Your computer recognizes a card inserted into the SD card slot as a USB storage device. You can mount, read from, and write to the SD card just like you can with any other USB storage device.
Remove the card and insert it again. Sometimes the SD card won’t mount properly if you put it into the slot too slowly. If the card still won't mount, you might need to reformat your SD card.
You see this message when you try to edit data on an SD card that’s locked. You need to use the lock slider to unlock the card before you can edit the data.
To eject the card, drag the icon that represents the card to the Trash. After the icon disappears from the desktop, you can remove the card from the computer. Adjust the lock slider tab to unlock the card, then reinsert the card into the slot. See the manufacturer’s instructions for the location of the slider tab.
You can use Disk Utility to partition and format an SD device as FAT32 (using the MS-DOS FAT setting) or Mac OS Extended. The Mac OS Extended format can be used only on Macintosh systems. Non-Apple systems won’t recognize cards formatted to Mac OS Extended.
You might have to format a card that’s larger than 32GB with exFAT if you want to use it with a digital camera, GPS, or another device. When in doubt, format the card in the device that you intend to use it with. Formatting a card permanently deletes all of its files. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep on the SD card.
Use Disk Utility to change the default partition table to GUID. Then format the card to use the Mac OS Extended file format.
Before you remove the card, allow any data transfer to SD media to complete. To eject the card, drag the icon that represents the card to the Trash. After the icon disappears from your desktop, you can remove the card from the slot.
Don't remove a card while your Mac is sleeping, as this could lead to data loss. Always wake your computer and eject the SD card before removing it from your Mac.
You can get information about the interface hardware and the media that you inserted in the slot from the System Information:
The SD card slot works with Boot Camp in all supported versions of Windows. You’ll need to download and install the Windows Support Software to use the SD card slot with Windows.
Learn more about using Windows on a Mac.
You can use an SDXC card in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 with these Mac computers:
No. You can’t use SD, SDHC, or SDXC cards with Boot Camp to install Windows software on Mac computers.