saeta@husc4.harvard.edu (peter saeta) (11/05/86)
Newsgroups: mod.mac,net.micro.mac Subject: Finder catastrophe Reply-To: saeta@husc4.UUCP (peter saeta) Followup-To: Distribution: net Organization: Harvard Science Center Keywords: In order to minimize my frustration in trying to navigate a certain adventure type game which constantly accesses the floppy disk, I tried copying it to my SCSI hard disk, putting it neatly in a folder. No luck. It asked for the floppy disk and then completely ignored the copy on the hard disk. Then I tried copying the program to the "root" directory of the hard disk (the lowermost one). As there are many files to copy, this became very confusing for the Finder (5.3). I began receiving error messages (Oh! if I had just written them down...) about running out of space, or too many files, or something of that sort. Each error message sported a cheery "OK" button but no "PANIC" button, as best I recall. So I warily "OK"ed until violent, irreversible (?) damage had been done. When the operation was finally over, all the custom icons were gone! After some piddling around, I shut it down and started up again. Some of the icons were back; a second round trip brought all of them back. But, a greater problem remains. When I try to launch an application by double clicking from the Finder, it can take several seconds before the application begins loading. It never used to do this. Furthermore, if a document file created by any of the applications I commonly use (LightspeedC, OverVUE, etc.) is double-clicked, I get the annoying error message "An application cannot be found to open that document." Prior to the above-described catastrophe, regardless of the search path for an application, any document created by an application resident on the hard disk would open without significant delay, whether that document was on the hard disk or a mounted floppy. Apparently, some kind of applications list has become severely fragmented if not destroyed. When an application calls SFGetFile, however, it has no problem posting the files and folders in any given directory. Can some kind soul help me figure out HFS and what has gone awry? or must I reformat my hard disk and try again???? Please reply to Peter Saeta at UUCP: saeta@molphy ARPA: molphy!saeta@harvard.HARVARD.EDU BITNET: harvard!molphy!saeta@HARVUNXT.BITNET USPS: 327 Gordon McKay Lab, 9 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138 ATT: 617-495-9616; 5-3357 Peter Saeta UUCP: saeta@molphy ARPA: molphy!saeta@harvard.HARVARD.EDU BITNET: harvard!molphy!saeta@HARVUNXT.BITNET USPS: 327 Gordon McKay Lab, 9 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138 ATT: 617-495-9616; 5-3357
dgold@apple.UUCP (David Goldsmith) (11/06/86)
It sounds like your DeskTop file is corrupted. The next time you boot your system, hold down the option and command keys simultaneously after the "Welcome to Macintosh" message (or equivalent) appears. When the Finder asks you if you want to rebuild the desktop on your hard disk, click OK. If you still get the "can't find an application to open this document" message, try opening the folder the application is in and closing it. If you still have problems, drag the application to the desktop and then drop it back in the folder. By the way, rebuilding your DeskTop file will cause all your Get Info comments to be lost, but has no other side effects. -- David Goldsmith Apple Computer, Inc. MacApp Group AppleLink: GOLDSMITH1 UUCP: {nsc,dual,sun,voder,ucbvax!mtxinu}!apple!dgold CSNET: dgold@apple.CSNET, dgold%apple@CSNET-RELAY