Another thing that can be helpful is to create an admin account called Apple Service with an odd password for when you take it in. Then you don’t have to modify your password or give it to them.
I’ve been using Macs for 25 years, have always set custom names for all drives, and have never had a problem because of this. Tbh, that’s the first time I’ve heard it might cause problems. The customisation and lack of rigid file paths has always been one of Macintosh’s strengths 
Good backup software should use disk IDs (this goes back to at least System 7), so migrating a drive usually involves an ‘adoption’ process for drives regardless of name.
This also sounds like poorly written software. Mac OS doesn’t generally use hard coded paths to ‘find’ files. Indeed, when I get a new computer, I migrate the drive and then rename the one in the new computer to something I’ve never used before. I’ve not had problems with software because of this.
I’m with Adam here, I’m surprised to hear of these warnings. In many years and magazines, books, mailing lists, and forums, I’d not come across a concern about renaming the main drive (or any drive for that matter). This has been one of the ‘friendly’ aspects of the Mac, especially compared to other systems which used to not allow or have significant limitations with drive names.
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This has been the case from day-one.
When opening or creating a file, apps should use the standard system file dialogs (open or save-as), which return to the application opaque data that references the file. Originally, this was drive-ID/file-ID handles. Later on, the data became more complex as macOS needed to support different kinds of locations (e.g. network drives and cloud-storage).
Apps that need to store a reference to a file (e.g. in order to re-open it later) are supposed to store the system-provided file object. This object allows the app to track the file even if it is moved or renamed.
The file path string should only be used when the path needs to be presented to the user, or for debugging purposes. Actually storing the path and using it to re-open files is fragile, by definition, since the path will fail if the file is renamed or moved.
This is also why Mac apps should not use the UNIX APIs for file access - those APIs only support paths for access. Using them forces your apps to provide less robust file handling capabilities.
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Some of us have to live in a world where the apps come from multiple platform support and are “industry standards”. Use the app or figure out a new business to be in.
It is possible to develop cross-platform apps that use each platform’s APIs in the way they are intended to be used. It requires a bit of thought to develop an appropriate portability layer in the code-base, but it is completely possible. I’ve done it plenty of times.
Developers who say they can’t use Mac features because nobody else has them are just making an excuse to take the easy way out. And the result is a low quality app.
And yes, I am aware that there are many expensive industry-standard apps that do this. Price and popularity are no guarantee against sloppy programming.
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Just because I’m curious… In reality, apples are incredibly varied because of their biology, but how many were actually used to designate Apple products? Lisa, Macintosh (or McIntosh), Performa I know of. Even Newton had some relation to apples. But where there any others? It would have been nice to have had an Apple Schone van Boskoop, but I suppose this never happened.
Hmm, I’m not sure there’s any apple connection for Lisa or Performa. There’s some thought that Steve Jobs named the Lisa after his daughter. And Performa, I believe, was just a marketing term.
Newton does have the connection with the story of an apple falling on Isaac Newton’s head.
There was also the Pippin, which was a multimedia platform (and the Pippin apple is a relative of the McIntosh).
Can’t think of any others off the top of my head, but there probably are some.
Thanks for your reply! When the Performa line appeared somebody told me this was another Apple (biological) variety as much as the Lisa and the Macintosh were before… Until fairly recently apple (biological) varieties tended to be fairly local (due to the way they are produced) so I did not have any reason to disbelieve this… Google only returns links to the Apple, not the apple varieties… Too bad. It would have been nice to have had an Apple Schone van Boskoop!
There are actually many pippin apple varieties, it doesn’t refer to a single one. Pippins varieties tended to have started in (usually large estate) gardens and the word refers to the fact that the variety was grown from a pip (the seed of an apple). Normally apple trees are cuttings grafted onto other root stock, because when you grow from a pip, you never know what the resulting fruit will taste like or if it will even be edible.
Fascinating—didn’t know that before…
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Howard Oakley makes an interesting related point—how many places does macOS still talk about hard disks? They still exist of course, but the Finder clearly distinguishes between “hard disks” and “external disks.”
It is amusing. They clearly need to rename “Hard disks” to “Internal drives”, since that is really what the setting really refers to. Although (if I remember reports correctly), Thunderbolt-attached drives are not considered external by the Finder.
For what it’s worth, my Time Machine volume (a hard drive attached via FireWire) is correctly considered an “external disk” by the Finder.
I thought I’d chime in quickly – “Macintosh PowerBook G3” went straight to just “PowerBook” (no G3, but it did have a 750), or if you need to be specific, “PowerBook (FireWire)”. That was then followed by the PowerBook G4. I know this because I own a Lombard – the semifinal G3-powered PowerBook – and it says “Macintosh…” right on the bezel.
Also, at least the PCI Graphics model was officially named “Power Macintosh G4” on the box. I don’t know if the AGP Graphics was, and if so, if it was named so through its whole life or just pre-post-speed dump.
I’ve been using Macs for 25 years, have always set custom names for all drives, and have never had a problem because of this. Tbh, that’s the first time I’ve heard it might cause problems. The customisation and lack of rigid file paths has always been one of Macintosh’s strengths
It was Adobe Acrobat that couldn’t handle relative links on the Mac … (not recently, but …).
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You’re reminding me of many years ago when I had that hack on my Macintosh that replaced the system trash with one that had Oscar poking his head out of it whenever there was trash in it. The good old days!
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