Mac Question

[bryno74]

I'm new to MAC. When I drag a folder to a drive and the drive has a folder of the same name, It asks if I want to replace that folder, But it does not give me an option to append. I want to blend the 2 folders together and not completely replace it..

[Seamless]

Correct--it's noticing that they resolve to the same pathname, and two can't share it. One can go inside the other (which is a different path), or you can open the source folder, select the items inside (command-A will select all of them), and then drag them to the destination folder (if they're on the same volume--hard drive, removable drive, etc.--it will be a move operation; if they're on different volumes, the operation will be copy).

You probably could script your own Finder action that allows you to quickly do what you want; there are some hints in the Finder help system, which also links to Apple's online documentation if you are connected to the Internet while searching. Mac OS scripts are on websites all over, if you don't want to roll your own.

[Stocky]

What system are you moving from that handled this differently? For at least the last 6 years or so my mac and my windows computers have handled this operation about the same.

[Dan-]

Oops. Finder copy does not work like cp command.

[Khaled]

What system are you moving from that handled this differently? For at least the last 6 years or so my mac and my windows computers have handled this operation about the same.

Not entirely true.

Windows DOES append files within the folder.

Mac OS X DOES NOT append files. It replaces the entire folder with the new contents. It basically deletes the older folder and replaces it with new contents.

[Stocky]

Not entirely true.

Windows DOES append files within the folder.

Mac OS X DOES NOT append files. It replaces the entire folder with the new contents. It basically deletes the older folder and replaces it with new contents.

Wow. I just didn't read the whole dialog box. If files in the existing folder have the same name as the files you are copying in they will be replaced, but I will have to give Windows the win on this one.

On the mac I always just opened folder and copied the files inside although it is a pain for subfolders.