Path: sdcc12!network.ucsd.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!haven.umd.edu!uunet!stanford.edu!rutgers!njitgw.njit.edu!tesla.njit.edu!erh0362 From: erh0362@tesla.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: FAQ 2.0 beta for comp.sys.mac.system Message-ID: <1993Jan18.140025.1@tesla.njit.edu> Date: 18 Jan 93 19:00:25 GMT Sender: news@njit.edu Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology Lines: 953 Nntp-Posting-Host: tesla What follows is a beta version of a new FAQ for comp.sys.mac.system. It's based in part on comps.sys.mac.faq 1.18. I'd estimate that about half of it is completely new. For the moment I'd like to hear any comments on it with the exception of formatting. I'll be putting it into a nicely spaced and indented format later. But if you have any comments about content, grammar, accuracy, spelling, mixed metaphors or unfunny jokes send them to me at erh0362@tesla.njit.edu. Please note that although the table of contents covers five separate parts only the first part, comp.sys.mac.system, is posted here and available at this time. The comp.sys.mac.misc FAQ 2.0 beta should be available sometime before next weekend, the others sometime in the indefinite future. comp.sys.mac.faq A. Frequently asked system questions Table of Contents I. Introduction 1. How do I use this document? 2. What other information is available? 3. Which newsgroup should I post to? 4. Someone just asked why the System was taking up sixteen megabytes. Shouldn't I display my knowledge to the world by posting the seventeenth response to their question? A. comp.sys.mac.system: II. Memory 1. Why is my system using so much memory? 2. What is Mode 32? Do I need it? 3. How much memory should I allot to my cache? III. System Software 1. Why does Apple charge for System 7.1? 2. What does System 7.1 give me for my $35 that System 7.0 doesn't? 3. Where can I get System 7.1? 4. How can I use System 6 on a System 7 only Mac? 5. Non-US scripts and systems 6. What is System 7 Tuneup? Do I need it? 7. Why do my DA's disappear when I turn on MultiFinder? 8. Do I need System 7.0.1? 9. How can I get System 7.0.1 on 800K disks? IV. Hard Disks, Filesharing, and the File System 1. Help! My folder disappeared! 2. Why can't I throw this folder away? 3. Why can't I share my removable drive? 4. Why can't I eject this SyQuest cartridge? CD-ROM? etc. 5. Why can't I rename my hard disk? V. Miscellaneous: 1. What does System Error XXX mean? 2. What is A/ROSE? 3. Easy Access or One Answer, Many Questions VI. Preventative Maintenance 1. Trash Unneeded Files 2. Reevaluate Your Extensions 3. Rebuild the desktop. 4. Zap the PRAM and Reset the Clock 5. Reinstall the system software. 6. Disk Utilities 7. Backing Up 8. Disk Defragmentation 9. Reformatting your hard disk B. comp.sys.mac.misc: VII. FTP 1. Where can I FTP Macintosh software? 2. Can I get shareware by E-mail? 3. Where can I find Application X? 4. Can someone mail me Application X? 5. What is .bin? .hqx? .cpt? .image? .etc? 6. How can I get BinHex? StuffIt? etc.? VIII. Viruses 1. Help! I have a virus! 2. Reporting new viruses IX. Printing and PostScript 1. How do I make a PostScript file? 2. How do I print a PostScript file? 3. Why won't my PostScript file print on my mainframe's printer? 4. Why are my PostScript files so big? 5. How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer? 6. How do I make my ImageWriter II print in color? 7. Why doesn't PrintMonitor work with the ImageWriter? 8. Why did my document change when I printed it? 9. How can I preview a PostScript file? 10. How do I edit a PostScript file? X. DOS and the Mac 1. How can I move files between a Mac and a PC? 2. How can I translate files to a DOS format? 3. Should I buy SoftPC or a real PC? XI. Security 1. How can I prevent users from changing the contents of a folder? 2. How can I password protect my Mac? XII. Miscellaneous 1. Are there any good books about the Mac? 2. How do I take a picture of the screen? 3. How do I use a picture for my desktop? 4. Can I Replace the "Welcome to Macintosh" box with a picture? 5. What is AutoDoubler? SpaceSaver? More Disk Space? Are they safe? 6. How do they compare to Times Two and Stacker? 7. Where did my icons go? XIII. Troubleshooting. What to do when things go wrong 1. Identify the problem. 2. Read the READ ME file. 3. Check for viruses. 4. Reinstall the application and all its support files. 5. Reinstall the system software. 6. Isolate the problem. 7. Contact technical support. C. comp.sys.mac.apps: XIV. What's the Best... (the 1993 Elliotte awards) 1. Text editor 2. Word processor 3. Geneology software 4. TeX/LaTeX 5. Integrated application 6. Spreadsheet 7. JPEG Viewer 8. Electronic publishing software 9. Drawing application 10. Painting application XV. Microsoft Word 1. Character based styles 2. Cross-references 3. Word to TeX and back XVI. TeachText 1. How do I change TeachText's default font? 2. How do I insert a picture in a TeachText file? D. comp.sys.mac.hardware XVII. Hard Disk formatters XVIII. Floppy Disks 1. Why can't my new Mac read my old Mac's floppy disks? 2. Can I turn a double-density disk into a high density disk by punching an extra hole in it? XIX. Acceleration (I need warp speed now Scotty!) 1. Oscillators on the IIsi 2. Oscillators on the IIci 3. SE accelerators 4. Plus accelerators XX. Thanks for the memory XXI. Maintenance and Repair 1. Book recommendations 2. Mouse-cleaning 3. Vacuuming 4. Keyboard cleaning 5. Floppy Disk cleaning 6. Programmer's switch XXII. Sound 1. IIsi troubles 2. MIDlless computers XXIII Monitors 1. VGA on a Mac XXIV. Powerbooks 1. Duo Docks 2. Memory XXV. Models 1. What's the difference between an orange? (The Performa Series) 2. Current Macintosh Models E. comp.sys.mac.wanted: XXVI. Purchasing a Macintosh 1. Where can I buy a PB100? 2. What's the best price for... 3. Which Mac provides the most bang for the buck? 4. I was going to buy a Performa 600 this week, but I heard that Apple will soon release the Macintosh Whiz-Bang 10000 with tint control and built-in bread toaster. Should I wait? 5. I heard Apple's prices are going down soon. Should I wait to buy? 6. Friendly Steve's Used Computer Shop XXVII. Software 1. Where can I get payware software X? 2. Where can I get shareware software X? This work is Copyright 1992 by Elliotte M. Harold. Permission is hereby granted to distribute this unmodified document provided that no fee in excess of normal online charges is required for such distribution. Portions of this document may be extracted and quoted free of charge and without necessity of citation in normal online communication provided only that said quotes are not represented as the correspondent's original work. Permission for quotation of this document in printed material and edited online communication (such as the Info-Mac Digest and Tidbits) is given subject to normal citation procedures (i.e. you have to say where you got it). Disclaimer: I do my best to ensure that information contained in this document is current and accurate, but I can accept no responsibility for actions resulting from information contained herein. This document is provided as is and with no warranty of any kind. Corrections and suggestions should be addressed to erh0362@tesla.njit.edu. Apple, Macintosh, LaserWriter, ImageWriter, Finder, HyperCard and MultiFinder are registered trademarks and PowerBook is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Linotronic is a registered trademark of Linotype- Hell AG, Inc. Quark XPress is a registered trademark of Quark. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. MacWAREHOUSE is a registered trademark of Micro Warehouse Inc. MacConnection is a registered trademark of PC Connection Inc. PageMaker is a registered trademark of Aldus Corp. All other tradenames are trademarks of their respective manufacturers. ===================== I HAVE A QUESTION... (1.0) ===================== Congratulations! You've come to the right place. The Usenet community is a wonderful resource for information ranging from basic questions (How do I lock a floppy disk?) to queries that would make Steve Jobs himself run screaming from the room in terror. (I used ResEdit to remove resources Init #11, WDEF 34, and nVIR 17 from my system file and used the Hex Editor to add code string #A67B45 as a patch to the SFGetFile routine so the Standard File Dialog Box would be a nice shade of mauve. Everything worked fine until I installed SuperCDevBlaster, and now when I use the Aldus driver to print from PageMaker 5.0d4 to a Linotronic 6000 my system hangs. P.S. I'm running System 6.02 on a PowerBook 170.) Since comp.sys.mac.system is a medium to high volume newsgroup, we ask that you first peruse this FAQ file, check any other relevant online resources (listed below in question 1.2) especially including the FAQ lists for the other Macintosh newsgroups, and RTFM (Read the Friendly Manual) before posting your question. We realize that you are personally incensed that the System is taking up fourteen of your newly- installed twenty megs of RAM, but this question has already made its way around the world three hundred times before, and it's developing tired feet. Finally, before posting to any newsgroup (Macintosh or otherwise), please familiarize yourself with the basic etiquette of Usenet as described in the newsgroup news.announce.newusers. HOW DO I USE THIS DOCUMENT? (1.1) comp.sys.mac.faq is currently divided into two pieces, one for each of the newsgroups comp.sys.mac.system and comp.sys.mac.misc. You are reading the list for comp.sys.mac.system. FAQ lists for comp.sys.mac.wanted, comp.sys.mac.apps and comp.sys.mac.hardware are in development. Each part should be available in its respective newsgroup. All pieces are also available via anonymous ftp from sumex- aim.stanford.edu in the info-mac/report directory and from rtfm.mit.edu in the pub/usenet/groupname directory, e.g. you would find this document in the directory pub/usenet/comp.sys.mac.system. The table of contents and this introductory section are shared between all pieces of the FAQ so you should be able to get at least some idea from any piece of the FAQ whether your question is answered anywhere else in the FAQ even if you don't the other parts handy. It's not always obvious, especially to newcomers, where a particular question or comment should be posted. Please familarize yourself with the FAQ lists in all the major Macintosh newsgroups before posting in any of them. Which questions appear in which FAQs can serve as a basic guide to what types of posts belong where. To jump to a particular question search for section- number.question-number enclosed in parentheses. For example to find "What is A/ROSE?" search for the string (5.2). To jump to a section instead of a question use a zero for the question number. WHAT OTHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE? (1.2) This FAQ list provides short answers to a number of frequently asked questions from the newsgroup comp.sys.mac.system. The second part of this document covering miscellaneous questions about Macintosh software is posted in comp.sys.mac.misc. Several other files are worthy of particular note. Mike Kelly maintains a FAQ list about Macintosh programming for the newsgroup comp.sys.mac.programmer. It's posted to that group on the first of the month and available for anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.uoregon (128.223.8.8) in /pub/mac. Eric Rosen maintains a frequently asked questions list for the newsgroup comp.sys.mac.comm available in that newsgroup and from rascal.ics.utexas.edu in mac/faq (where the file you're reading now is also irregularly archived). The comp.sys.mac.comm list answers many frequently asked questions about networking, UNIX and the Mac, telecommunications, and foreign file formats. Norm Walsh has compiled an excellent FAQ for comp.fonts that answers a lot of questions about the various kinds of fonts and cross- platform conversion and printing. It's available in comp.fonts or by ftp from ibis.cs.umass.edu in /pub/norm/comp.fonts/FAQ*. Finally Jim Jagielski maintains a FAQ for comp.unix.aux covering covering Apple's UNIX environment, A/UX. It's posted every 2 to 3 weeks in comp.unix.aux and news.answers. It's available for anonymous ftp from jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov. WHICH NEWSGROUP SHOULD I POST TO? (1.3) Posting questions to the proper newsgroup will fill your mailbox with pearls of wisdom (and maybe a few rotten oysters too :-) ). Posting to the wrong newsgroup often engenders a thundering silence. For instance the most common and glaring mispost, one that seems as incongruous to dwellers in the Macintosh regions of Usenet as would a purple elephant in Antarctica, asking a question about networking anywhere except comp.sys.mac.comm, normally produces no useful responses. Posting the same question to comp.sys.mac.comm ensures that your post is read and considered by dozens of experienced network administrators and not a few network software designers. Please post to exactly ONE newsgroup. Do not cross-post. If a question isn't important enough for you to spend the extra time to figure out where it properly belongs, it's not important enough for several thousand people to spend their time reading. For the same reason comp.sys.mac.misc should not be used as a catch-all newsgroup. The breakdown of questions between different newsgroups in this document can also serve as a basic guide to what belongs where. More specifically questions about applications should go to comp.sys.mac.apps except for queries about communications programs, games, HyperCard, and databases all of which have their own comp.sys.mac.* newsgroups. Post questions about non-communications hardware including questions about what software is necessary to make particular hardware work to comp.sys.mac.hardware. Questions about MacOS system software and extensions belong in comp.sys.mac.system. Questions about A/UX go to comp.unix.aux. Detailed questions about Appletalk belong in comp.protocols.appletalk. Direct questions about HyperCard to comp.sys.mac.hypercard. Non- HyperCard programming questions and questions about development environments should go to comp.sys.mac.programmer. ResEdit questions may be posted either to comp.sys.mac.misc, comp.sys.mac.system, or comp.sys.mac.programmer; but generally the netters who inhabit the darker recesses of comp.sys.mac.programmer are considerably more practiced at the art of resource hacking. A general exception to the above rules is that any VERY technical question about an application that actually begins to delve into the hows of a program as well as the whats (Recent example: How does WriteNow which is written entirely in assembly compare to other word processors written in high level languages?) might be better addressed to the programmer newsgroup. For Sale and Want to Buy posts should go to comp.sys.mac.wanted ONLY. We understand that you're desperate to sell your upgraded 128K Mac to get the $$ for a PowerBook 180; but trust me, anyone who wants to buy it will be reading comp.sys.mac.wanted. Political and religious questions (The Mac is better than Windows! Is not! Is too! Is not! Is too! Hey! How 'bout the Amiga! What about it? Is Not! Is too!) belong in comp.sys.mac.advocacy. Anything not specifically mentioned above probably belongs in comp.sys.mac.misc. Finally don't be so provincial as to consider only the comp.sys.mac newsgroups the appropriate forums for your questions. Many questions about modems in comp.sys.mac.comm are much more thoroughly discussed in comp.dcom.modems. Questions about Mac MIDI are often better handled in comp.music even though that's not a Macintosh specific newsgroup. Shop around. Usenet's a big place and not everything relevant to the Macintosh happens in comp.sys.mac.*. 4. SOMEONE JUST ASKED WHY THE SYSTEM WAS TAKING UP SIXTEEN OF THEIR TWENTY MEGABYTES OF RAM. SHOULDN'T I PUT MY BRILLIANCE AND WIT ON DISPLAY FOR THE WORLD BY POSTING THE SEVENTEENTH RESPONSE? No. Frequent answers are just as boring and uninteresting as frequent questions. Unless you really have something new to add to the traditional answers (such as the recent discovery that fonts in System 7.1 could eat memory) private E-mail is a much better medium for answering common questions like this one. You might want to add a mention of this FAQ in your response and a polite suggestion that people read it before posting future questions. I do read all the newsgroups covered here and have written a small script in MicroPhone II that lets me send PWFAQ's (people with frequently asked questions) the section of this document that answers their question with only the click of a button. ============= MEMORY (2.0) ============= WHY IS MY SYSTEM TAKING UP SO MUCH MEMORY? (2.1) Under system versions earlier than 7.0 or under System 7.x without 32-bit addressing turned on the Mac cannot access more than eight megabytes of real memory. If you have more physical RAM installed, the Mac knows it's present but can't do anything with it. When About the Finder is selected from the Apple menu, the system reports all the extra memory it can't use as part of the system memory allocation. To use the memory you need to get System 7 and turn on 32-bit addressing. If you have a Mac with dirty ROMs (a II, IIx, SE/30, or IIcx) you also need MODE32, free from ftp.apple.com or your local dealer. If you have an original Mac II you also need to add a PMMU chip. If you're staying with System 6, Maxima from Connectix ($45 street) allows use of up to fourteen megabytes of real memory and can allocate anything beyond that to a RAM disk. If you have an LC or an LC II with four megabytes of RAM soldered to the motherboard, you still need to add two four-megabyte SIMM's to reach the ten megabyte maximum imposed by the LC ROM. This means you'll always have two unused megabytes which About this Macintosh and About the Finder report as part of the system memory allocation. Unfortunately there is no current means of accessing this extra memory. If you've turned on 32-bit addressing or if you have eight megabyts or less of RAM, check your disk cache (RAM cache in System 6) in the General Control Panel to make sure it isn't set exceptionally high. All memory alloted to the cache comes out of the System's memory allocation. Finally if you recently upgraded to System 7.1 by updating your system software rather than doing a clean reinstall, (See question 6.x) you should use Font/DA Mover to delete all fonts from your system file as these can take up an extraordinary amount of memory. WHAT IS MODE32? DO I NEED IT? (2.2) MODE32 is an extension that allows 32-bit dirty Macs with 68030 processors or PMMU's to access more than eight megabytes of real memory under System 7. If you have more than eight megabytes of real memory in an SE/30, IIcx, IIx, or a Mac II with an optional PMMU and you are running System 7.0, you need MODE32. Otherwise you don't. MODE32 is currently incompatible with the combination of System 7.1 and virtual memory. It works fine with System 7.1 without virtual memory or with System 7.0 and virtual memory. Apple is rumored to be working on a fix. MODE32 is free from your friendly, neighborhood Apple dealer or can be ftp'd from ftp.apple.com in the directory /dts/mac/mode32. HOW MUCH MEMORY SHOULD I ALLOT TO MY CACHE? (2.3) One of the General Control Panel settings is the mysterious cache, Disk Cache in System 7, RAM cache in System 6. This is memory the system sets aside to hold frequently accessed data from the disk. The cache acts like a 7-11 for your hard disk. It's quicker to get a quart of milk at the 7-11, but it costs more so you don't do all your shopping there. And the 7-11 doesn't have everything you want so sometimes you need to go to the A&P (your hard disk) instead. Unfortunately Apple's cache isn't really all that fast. For most people the RAM cache would more appropriately be called the RAM thief. Its effect on performance seems to be much like the canals of Mars. You have to want to see it before you can. However there are a few applications and inits such as Dayna DOSMounter that actually make use of the cache and will run much faster when it's turned than when it's off. Thus I recommend setting your cache to 64K, turning it on, and forgetting about it. I hope that in 1993 most Macintoshes have enough RAM that they don't need to worry about losing 64K. If, however, your Mac is a IIsi running a color monitor from the internal video, then you may possibly speed up your Mac with an appropriate cache setting. The IIsi and the IIci use system RAM to store the video image on your screen. (Other Macs with internal video have video RAM separate from the main system RAM so this trick doesn't apply to them.) The internal video competes with the System for use of this RAM, and that competition slows down your Mac like two children fighting in the backseat of your car adds an hour to the time it takes to get to the beach. To stop the fighting a smart parent will put one child in the front seat and one in the back. A smart Mac owner will put the internal video in the front seat and the system in the backseat. To push the system out of the front seat set a IIsi's cache to 384K which will take up all the space in the front seat not occupied by the internal video and force the system to sit in the back. =============== SYSTEM SOFTWARE (3.0) =============== WHY DOES APPLE CHARGE FOR SYSTEM 7.1? (3.1) Apple is charging for System 7.1 because Apple's policy makers suspect they'll make more money by charging for it than by not charging for it. Apple is a publically held corporation in a capitalist economy where the law requires corporations to make reasonable attempts to maximize profits. To give away something Apple could make more money by charging for would be a breach of the fiduciary responsibility of Apple's Board of Directors and actionable by Apple stockholders in a court of law. WHAT DOES SYSTEM 7.1 GIVE ME FOR MY $35 THAT SYSTEM 7.0 DOESN'T? (3.2) Not much. System 7.1 provides a base for many planned enhancements to the MacOS. These include a new printing architecture, an advanced version of QuickDraw, and easy localizability into foreign languages. All of these will be separate, optional add-ons which may or may not cost more money. (Actually most people at Apple and elsewhere say these will be free, but that's what they said about system software before 7.1 was released for $35. After 7.1 was released a lot of them started backpedalling and claiming that no official promises of free upgrades were ever made. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.) The only added feature of System 7.1 that you can use now is the ability to store fonts in a Fonts folder rather than the System file. For this Apple wants $35. There are also about a thousand various bug fixes over System 7.0. (i.e. 7.1 shipped with only about 400 known bugs instead of the 1400 of System 7.0.) Some of these fixes were included in the various System 7 tuners. The most significant bug fix not present in System 7 Tuneup fixes the Quadra 950's SCSI manager. If you have a Quadra 950, you need System 7.1. Otherwise you probably shouldn't waste your money. WHERE CAN I GET SYSTEM 7.1? (3.3) Apple rationalizes its decision to charge for System 7.1 by claiming that most people have been unable to get System Software updates from online sources or authorized dealers (and of course they rationalize their refusal to authorize low-price mail order dealers by claiming that Macs require dealer support) and by claiming that charging for system software will make software retailers more willing to stock Apple system software and thus make it easier to obtain. This denies the reality that System 7.0 was in fact readily available from the primary sources of payware Mac software as well as being freely available online. And I doubt that it costs Apple any more to pay for a full-page ad in the software catalogs for System 7.0 than for System 7.1. This rationalization also ignores how previously in large organizations only one person needed to be able to get the System software from a dealer, online, or bundled with a new CPU before others could freely and legally copy it. So, despite Apple's protests to the contrary, it is now harder to get a current copy of the system software thus creating a FAQ where there was none before. If you want the manuals as well as the disks (high density only) for System 7.1, you can order the entire package including a copy of At Ease for about $79 from the usual mail-order houses such as MacConnection (1-800-800-2222) or MacWAREHOUSE (1-800-ALL-MACS). If you only want the disks you can upgrade from System 7.0 by calling Apple at (800)769-APPL and asking for the 7.1 upgrade. To "verify" that you already own System 7.1, you'll be asked what's in the right hand corner of your menu bar. The answer is of course Balloon Help and the application menu. The disk only upgrade costs $34.95 plus $3 for shipping and handling plus local sales tax. If you bought a non-bundled copy of System 7.0 on or after September 1, 1992 (or if you have a scanner, an old software receipt, and some familarity with a photoretouching program) you can upgrade for $3 by sending your dated proof of purchase, a check for $3, and your name and address to Apple Computer Attn: Free Upgrade P.O. Box 720 Buffalo, NY 14207. Alternatively you can fax that information and a credit card number and expiration date to Apple at (716)873-0906. HOW CAN I USE SYSTEM 6 ON A MAC THAT REQUIRES SYSTEM 7? (3.4) The PowerBook 100, Classic II, LCII, Performa 200, and Performa 400 all work with System 6.0.8L, a special foreign version of System 6.0.8 that was hacked together because these machines beat many of the internationalized versions of System 7 to market. System 6.0.8L is available for anonymous ftp from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the pub/mirrors/rascal.ics.utexas.edu/support-of- products/Apple/sys.soft/6.0.8L directory WHERE CAN I GET NON-U.S. SYSTEM SOFTWARE AND SCRIPTS? (3.5) For a company that's as hip to the international marketplace as Apple, it sure has a difficult time comprehending that their customers might need to work with more than one language. Most pre-7.1 international software except Chinese-Talk and Kanji-talk is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.apple.com in /dts/mac/sys.soft. Your best chance to get Chinese or Japanese system software is to have a friend in China or Japan mail you the software. Apple has not yet revealed how or even if it intends to distribute System 7.1 script systems outside their native countries. WHAT IS SYSTEM 7 TUNEUP? DO I NEED IT? (3.6) If you use System 7.0, 7.0.1, or the System 7.0 printer drivers, you need System 7 Tuneup. The tuneup includes a number of fixes and enhancements to System 7, including substantially faster printer drivers, a StyleWriter driver that supports background printing, a fix that saves several hundred kilobytes of memory on non-networked Macs, and, most importantly, a vaccine for the disappearing folders bug. These fixes and many others have been rolled into System 7.1 so the tuneup does nothing for Macs running 7.1. WHY DO MY DA'S DISAPPEAR WHEN I TURN ON MULTIFINDER? (3.7) You need to put the file "DA Handler" in your System Folder. It should be on one of your System 6.0.x disks. Under Finder the Desk Accessories load into the memory provided by your application. Under MultiFinder they load into their own memory space provided by DA Handler. DO I NEED SYSTEM 7.0.1? (3.8) Officially if you don't have a Quadra or PowerBook, you don't need System 7.0.1. Unofficially some changes were made that speed up SANE (numerics) operations on 32-bit clean Macintoshes with a floating-point coprocessor. These include all IIci's and IIfx's plus LC's and IIsi's that have had a coprocessor specially installed. (Neither of the latter machines ships with a coprocessor.) HOW CAN I GET SYSTEM 7.0.1 ON 800K DISKS? (3.9) You can't because all machines that gain any benefits from 7.0.1 come equipped with high density floppy drives. You can however use the utility MountImage to mount the images of the 1400K System 7.0.1 disks (available from ftp.apple.com) on your hard drive and install from the image rather than a floppy. Be warned, however, that MountImage is notoriously unreliable when doing installs. Be sure you make a complete backup of your hard disk and have a set of System disks on genuine floppies before attempting to install from mounted images. ========================================== HARD DISK PROBLEMS AND THE FILE SYSTEM (4.0) ============================================= HELP! THE FOLDER CONTAINING ALL SOURCE CODE FOR MY COMPANY'S BIG PROJECT JUST DISAPPEARED FROM OUR SERVER; WE HAVEN'T BACKED UP IN A WEEK; AND IF I CAN'T GET IT BACK I'LL BE FIRED AND MY COMPANY WILL GO BANKRUPT! (4.1) Try a Find on the missing filenames; and, if they turn up, move them to the desktop. In the meantime grab Disk First Aid 7.1 from ftp.apple.com which should be able to fix this problem. WHY CAN'T I THROW AWAY THIS FOLDER? (4.2) Possibly the folder contains items that are locked or in use and can't be thrown away. Turn off file-sharing (if it's on) and quit all applications. Then try to throw the folder away. If that doesn't work and you're using System 6, hold down the option-key and drag the folder into the trash; or, if you're using System 7, hold down the option key while selecting "Empty Trash" from the special menu. Holding the option key down lets you throw away locked items. If that doesn't work restart the computer, hold down the option key, and try again. If you still can't throw away the folder, try throwing away the items in the folder (if any) one by one until you find the ones giving you trouble. Remove them from the folder, and then throw the folder away. If you still can't throw the folder away, you've discovered a "Folder from Hell." Create an empty folder on ANOTHER disk with the same name as the Hell Folder. Then copy the new folder onto the same disk in the same folder as the Hell Folder. Click "Yes" when asked if you want to replace the Hell Folder. Now you should be able to throw the just copied folder away. WHY CAN'T I SHARE MY SYQUEST DRIVE? CD-ROM? BERNOULLI BOX? ETC.? (4.3) Apple originally planned to treat removables like floppies rather than hard disks for file-sharing. At the requests of beta testers file- sharing on removables was hacked into System 7.0 at the last minute. However, since file-sharing was originally to be implemented only on fixed drives, no means were created for the host Mac to tell other Macs when a new volume went on or off-line. Therefore sharing a removable volume requires that the disc or cartridge be inserted and mounted when filesharing is turned on. Turn filesharing off and on with the drive powered up and the cartridge inserted and you should then be able to share the removable. WHY CAN'T I EJECT THIS SYQUEST CARTRIDGE? CD-ROM? FLOPTICAL? ETC.? (4.4) Once file-sharing gets its hooks into a disk it doesn't like to let go. Turn off file-sharing; then drag the volume icon to the trash. WHY CAN'T I RENAME MY HARD DRIVE? (4.5) Turn off file-sharing as described above. If the disk you can't rename is not shared, Kazu Yanagahira's freeware utility Unlock Folder will also unlock your hard disk so you can rename it. MISCELLANEOUS (5.0) WHAT DOES SYSTEM ERROR XXX MEAN? (5.1) Typically it means nothing at all of any use to you. Your time is much more productively spent trying to figure out what actions in which application caused the crash so that you can avoid them in the future rather than deciphering system error numbers. After all, knowing that Error 16 means a math coprocessor is not installed doesn't help you much in fixing the problem. Knowing that this happens in Quark XPress 3.0 every time you try to link two text boxes on a master page when copies of those text boxes already contain text does. (And in this case the error message isn't even accurate.) If you really want to know what that number means, get Dr. Pete Corless's System Error 7.0.1 utility available in the usual places. WHAT IS A/ROSE? (5.2) Apple's Realtime Operating System Extension is not needed by 99.9% of the people who stumble across it. Feel free to trash it at your leisure. EASY ACCESS: ONE ANSWER, MANY QUESTIONS (5.3) Easy Access is a WONDERFUL system extension from Apple, useful for far more than its intended purpose. Unfortunately it's also the source of a lot of confusion and strange behavior on many Macs. It's even been suggested that anti-virals should detect and report the presence of Easy Access since it produces more false virus alarms than any other software in Macintosh history. Easy Access has two pieces, Sticky Keys, which is turned on by hitting the Shift key five times in a row without moving the mouse, and Mouse Keys which is turned on by hitting Command-Shift-Clear. Sticky Keys lets you type things like Command-Shift-Clear without doing the Rose Mary Wood shuffle. When Sticky Keys is turned on an icon appears in the menu bar to the right of the application icon/menu. Mouse Keys lets a numeric keypad substitute for the mouse. This is especially useful for making precision, single-pixel adjustments in drawing and painting programs. ============================ PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE (6.0) ============================ You wouldn't drive your car 100,000 miles without giving it a tuneup. A computer is no different. Regular tuneups avoid a lot of problems. Although there are Mac mechanics who'll be happy to charge you $75 or more for the equivalent of an oil change, there's no reason you can't change it yourself. The following nine-step program should be performed about every three months. TRASH UNNEEDED FILES (6.1) Many of the operations that follow will run faster and more smoothly the more free disk space there is to work with. So spend a little time cleaning up your hard disk. If you're at all like me, you'll find several megabytes worth of preferences files for applications you no longer have, archives of software you've dearchived, shareware you tried out and didn't like, announcements for events that have come and gone and many other files you no longer need. If you're running System 7 you may also have several more megabytes in your trash can alone. Throw them away and empty the trash. RETHINK YOUR EXTENSIONS (6.2) Some Macintoshes attract inits like a new suit attracts rain. Seriously consider whether you actually need every extension in your collection. If you don't use the functionality of an extension at least every fifth time you boot up, you're probably better off not storing it in your System Folder where it only takes up memory, destabilizes your system, and slows down every startup. For instance if you only read PC disks once a month, there's no need to keep AccessPC loaded all the time. Cutting back on your extension habit can really help avoid crashes. REBUILD THE DESKTOP (6.3) The Desktop file/database holds all the information necessary to associate each file with the application that created it. It lets the system know what application should be launched when you open a given file and what icons it should display where. Depending on its size each application has one or more representatives in the desktop file. As applications and files move on and off your hard disk, the Desktop file can be become bloated and corrupt. Think of it as a Congress for your Mac. Every so often it's necessary to throw the bums out and start with a clean slate. Fortunately it's easier to rebuild the desktop than to defeat an incumbent. One warning: rebuilding the desktop will erase all comments you've stored in the Get Info boxes. Under System 7 Maurice Volaski's freeware init CommentKeeper will retain those comments across a rebuild. CommentKeeper also works with System 6 but only if Apple's Desktop Manager extension is also installed. To rebuild the desktop restart your Mac and, as your extensions finish loading, depress the Command and Option keys. You'll be presented with a dialog box asking if you really want to rebuild the dektop and warning you that "This could take a few minutes." Click OK. It will take more than a few minutes. The more files you have the longer it will take. If you're running System 6 you may want to turn off MultiFinder before trying to rebuild the desktop. ZAP THE PRAM AND RESET THE CLOCK (6.4) All Macs from the original 128K Thin Mac to the Quadra 950 contain a small amount of battery powered RAM to hold certain settings that properly move with the CPU rather than with the disk such which disk to boot from. Unfortunately this "parameter RAM" can become corrupted and cause unexplained crashes. To reset it under System 7 hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys while restarting your Mac. Under System 6 hold down the Command, Option, and Shift keys while selecting the Control panel from the Apple menu. Click Yes when asked if you want to zap the parameter RAM. Since you've erased almost all the settings in the general Control Panel, you should now reset them to whatever you want. The one setting that zapping the PRAM does not erase is the date and time; but since the internal clock in the Macintosh is notoriously inaccurate you'll probably want to take this opportunity to reset it anyway. REINSTALL THE SYSTEM SOFTWARE (6.5) System files can become corrupt and fragmented, especially if you've stored lots of fonts and desk accessories inside them. Merely updating the System software will often not fix system file corruption. I recommend doing a clean reinstall. Here's how: 1. Boot from the installer floppy of your System disks. 2. Use Font/DA Mover to copy any non-standard fonts and desk accessories out of your System file into a temporary suitcase. 3. Trash the System file on your hard disk. Also trash the Finder, MultiFinder, DA Handler, and all other standard Apple extensions like Control Panel and Chooser. These will all be replaced in the new installation. If you're running or installing System 7, move everything in the Extensions, Control Panels, and Preferences folder into the top level of the System Folder. 4. Rename the System Folder. Any name other than System Folder is fine. 5. Double-click the installer script on your System disk. Then choose Customize... Select the appropriate software for your model Mac and printer. You could do an Easy Install instead but that will only add a lot of extensions and code you don't need that waste your memory and disk space. 6. Once installation is finished, move everything from the temporary folder you created in step 4 into the new System folder. If you're asked if you want to replace anything, you forgot to take something out in step 3. You'll need to replace things individually until you find the duplicate piece. 7. Reinstall any fonts or DA's you removed in step 2. 8. Reboot. You should now have a clean, defragmented System file that takes up less memory and disk space and a much more stable system overall. DISK UTILITIES (6.6) Much like system files hard disks have data structures that occasionally become corrupted affecting performance and even causing data loss. Apple includes Disk First Aid, a simple utility for detecting and repairing hard disk problems with its System Disks. Run it on all your hard disks. Several companies have released payware disk utilities that detect and repair considerably more problems than Disk First Aid though, interestingly, none of them detect and repair everything that Disk First Aid does. The two most effective for general work are Central Point's MacTools Deluxe 2.0 and Symantec's Norton Utilities for the Macintosh 2.0. A department or workgroup should have both of these as well as Disk First Aid since none of them fix everything the others do. For individuals MacTools ($48 street) is almost half the price of Norton ($94 street) so, features and ease of use being roughly equal, I recommend MacTools. All of these products occasionally encounter problems they can't fix. When that happens it's time to backup (6.7) and reformat (6.9). BACKING UP (6.7) This is one part of preventative maintenance that should be done a LOT more often than every three months. The simplest backup is to merely copy all the files on your hard disk onto floppies or removable media. If you keep your data files separate from your application and support files then it's easy to only back up those folders which change frequently. Still every three months you should do a complete backup of your hard disk. A number of programs are available to make backing up easier. Apple included a very basic full backup application with System 6. With the Performas Apple ships a new Apple Backup utility that can backup the entire disk or just the System folder onto floppies. The previously mentioned Norton Utilities for the Mac and MacTools Deluxe 2.0 include more powerful floppy backup utilities that incorporate compression and incremental backups. Finally if you're lucky enough to have a Tape Drive, network server, or removable media device to use for backups, you should check out the more powerful payware utilities Redux ($49 street, doesn't support tape drives) and Diskfit Pro ($74 street). There are NO freely available backup utilities other than the old HD Backup from System 6. DISK DEFRAGMENTATION (6.8) As disks fill up it gets harder and harder to find enough free space in the same place to write large files. Therefore the operating system will often split larger files into pieces to be stored in different places on your hard disk. As files become more and more fragmented performance can degrade. There are several ways to defragment a hard disk. The most tedious but cheapest method is to backup all your files, erase the hard disk (and you might as well reformat while you're at it. See question 6.9.), and restore all the files. A number of payware utilities including Norton Utilities for the Mac and Mac Tools Deluxe can defragment a disk in place, i.e. without erasing it. Although the ads for all these products brag about their safety, once you've bought the software and opened the shrinkwrap they all warn you to back up your disk before defragmenting it in case something does go wrong. There are NO freeware or shareware disk defragmenters so please don't annoy the net by asking for one. REFORMAT YOUR HARD DISK (6.9) Just as a floppy disk needs to be initialized before use, so a hard disk must be formatted before it can hold data. You don't need to reformat every three months; but when your system is crashing no matter what you try, reformatting is the ultimate means of wiping the slate clean. Unlike floppies hard disks need a special program to initialize them. Most hard disks come with formatting software. Apple's disks and System software ship with HDSC setup, a minimal disk formatter which will format Apple brand hard drives ONLY. Most other manufacturers ship appropriate formatting software with their hard drives. Normally this will be all you need to reformat your hard drive. A number of general-purpose formatters are also available which go beyond the bundled software to include features like encryption, password protection, multiple partitioning, faster disk access, System 7 compatibility, and even compression. Two of the best are the payware Drive7 and Hard Disk Toolkit Personal Edition ($49 street for either). While there are one or two freeware formatters available, none are likely to be superior to the ones bundled with your hard disk. Powerbook users should be sure to turn off Sleep and processor cycling before reformatting their hard drives no matter what software they use. Otherwise disk corruption, crashes, and data losses are a very good possibility. Elliotte Rusty Harold Department of Mathematics elharo@shiva.njit.edu New Jersey Institute of Technology erh0362@tesla.njit.edu Newark, NJ 07102 .