[comp.sys.mac] A Finder Possessed: Booting without a System Folder!

bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) (08/10/89)

I recently came across a VERY strange problem here.

Last night I set up a GCC Technologies FX/20external HyperDrive on a Mac
Plus.  I copied five folders onto it from the Apple HD SC 40 that had been used
with that Plus before.  The installation went without a hitch.

The next morning, two folders were missing.  One contained important documents.
The other was the System Folder.

The machine still boots, although there is no trace of the System Folder.
I searched for invisible files, but there are none - the three folders are
all that can be found, and they have only documents in them (the System Folder
isn't hiding a few levels down anywhere).

DiskTools II DA can find the System file, in the System Folder in the root
directory.  There is no System Folder in the root directory, visible or
invisible, although there should be.

Files can be drag-copied to the root window of the FX/20, and they can be
manipulated and even opened from there, but once that window is closed and
reopened the files are once again nowhere to be seen.  Not invisible - GONE.

I dragged a System and Finder file fresh onto the root window of the FX/20
and rebooted.  The machine ignored them, ate the System file, and booted off
its quasi-files that I can't find.  When the desktop came up, the new Finder
was sitting in the FX/20's window, but it could be thrown away (it wasn't the
active Finder).  The new System was gone.

Both the machine's original System and the one I tried to use to save the drive
were version 6.0.3.

This drive worked flawlessly (or so it seemed) last night.  I don't know
whether the problem lies in the drive, the computer, or the software.
(BTW, everything is very well-ventilated.)

Any ideas?  Anyone?  Anyone?


-- 
| Brian S. Kendig       |  I feel more like I   | bskendig                   |
| Computer Engineering  |  did when I got here  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU     |
| Princeton University  |       than I do now.  | @PUCC.BITNET               |
| Systems Engineering, NASA Space Station Freedom / General Electric WP3     |