hard drive icon moving when system restarts?

[depmode101]

i apologize in advance if this has been covered, or is a stupid question -

when i restart my system, my HD icon, which i usually keep in the top left corner is moving itself down the page about 5 inches -
although this doesnt bother me at all - im worried that this could be an indication of something else that may be wrong -

i have not adjusted the screen size, or resolution - and this can occur no matter what is done when i keep the system on - so it isnt being affected by any programs - for instance, i can start the system up - put the icon in the top corrner, shut down and restart and its moved back again.

any help would be apprciated

[Giaguara]

How many other items do you have on your desktop? Sometimes the system puts them automatically to alphabetical order - could be that your hard disk is alphabetically after some other items on your desktop, or is the desktop otherwise empty?

[Arden]

I don't know what's causing that or how to fix it, but I can tell you a workaround.

Open Applescript's Script Editor and press "Record." Move your HD icon where you want it (though why you want it on the left, Windows fashion, is beyond me... but it's your computer ), and push "Stop" in Editor. Run this to make sure it works; move the icon, then run it, etc. (You can do other stuff with a script like this; I use one to put all my desktop icons in the right place and the HD window in the right position and the right size (like after a resolution change).) Put this script somewhere and add it to your startup items, and every time you start up the icon will move to its correct spot. You'll forget you have a problem.

[cybergoober]

You don't, by any chance, have your dock positioned on the left side of the screen do you?

I've got a user who has his dock positioned on the right side of the screen and has a lot of icons in it (enough so that his dock pretty much fills top to bottom). The same thing happens to him. If you turn on the "Snap to grid" item in Show View Options (Command + J) in the Finder, you see the effects instantly. Drag the HD icon to upper-right (where it's suposed to be) and it promptly positions itself a few inches down and a smidge to the left.

If this is not the case, then I have no friggin' idea.

[HECTORdaBIZATCH]

There's no way to move icons in Applescript, so recording yourself doing it won't do the trick.

I've experienced hell with desktop icons in Mac OS X. I have my dock at the bottom of my screen, and some of the icons go under it! UNDER! Why? Sometimes if I have the dock on the left or right side (and sometimes on the bottom too) the icons seem to get out of the dock's way, but sometimes they don't. Is it really hard to just make the desktop underneath the dock "off limits" for icons?

And about the hard drive moving, I don't know what you can do. Seems to me that it always gets moved around upons restarts. More crappy desktop behavior.

I mean, all of this is nitpicky, and pretty minor, but it's just not elegant like the rest of the system.

[macidiot]

what version of X are you running? 10.2.4 was supposed to fix the issue with the moving icons...

[Arden]

OS X can't move desktop icons through Applescript? I would have assumed otherwise...

[larry98765]

I'm running latest Panther (10.3.2) and this is still happening to me as well. My HD icon meanders from the upper right to the middle of the screen during restart (maybe it craves more attention?) I've tried to figure this one out and can't either. Just plain weird.