BBC Beige box cleaner.

Maybe it's the fact you can't see your iPod song collection to copy it back to your hard drive; maybe your applications aren't cooperating as they should; maybe iTunes won't sync your iPod; or maybe the wrong apps keep opening your files; maybe you got hit by a trojan that looked like a text file.

It all boils down to beige box cruft: data you can't see hidden in your hard drive's volume control block. It made a difference back in the days of the beige box but today it just gets in the way - time and time again.

You Don't Need It

You don't need this 'beige box data' either: your Mac runs fine - sometimes even better - without it.

All you really need is an application that clears this cruft away. And that's what you have now.

Drop any and all files you want to cleanse on the BBC window. There might be a bit of a show but that's to keep you occupied - the task of cleaning this cruft away is rather straightforward and goes rather fast.

What You Lose

In terms of performance? You lose nothing. Creator codes, file types, and other insidious flags that keep things like your iPod song collection invisible? Those are things you'd gladly live without. You'll only need creator codes if you don't use default file extensions.

Remember: it's easier to change a file extension you see than a file type or creator code you don't. And it's only possible to trust a system if it always opens files the way you expect, using data under your control.

What You Gain

You gain control of your computer - and your iPod and whatever device you have running OS X.

See Also
Learning Curve: OS X Haunts