spry@uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu (12/03/86)
<Line Eater, Line Eater, There ain't no Line Eater! <Chomp Chomp ...
What follows is a very bizarre bug!?!
<Twilight zone theme please>
First the system and disk setup I was using.
I have a 512k "classic" Mac (64K ROMS), and two disk drives. I run
the latest version of the System (3.2), and the corresponding HD20 file so I
can use the hierarchical file system. My system disk holds the System,
Imagewriter driver, HD20, a MiniFinder, MacWrite (4.5), MacDraw, and the
Clipboard. I generally use my internal drive for the system disk and my
external drive for one of my data disks. I have multiple data disks all with
the same HFS directory tree on them which I use for organizing my work.
(Boy do I need a hard disk!)
One other point is important. I have modified my MacWrite (using
ResEdit) so I can change fonts with the <command>1 through <command>4
keys (Times, Symbol, New York, and Chicago in order).
Now the preceding events and the bug. <More theme music please.>
While in MacWrite I needed to copy some information from a document on
a different data disk than the one I was currently working on. From within
MacWrite I closed the current document and used the minifinder to eject the
data disk and open the desired document. After copying the information to the
clipboard I reopened the original disk (again using the eject button to remove
the disk from the external drive). I pasted my information and continued
editing.
At a later time to change a font I inadvertently hit <command><shift>1
instead of <command>1 and ejected my system disk. I immediately reinserted it
and did the font change (via the <command>1). The system disk which I had just
reinserted poped out and the "Please insert System Disk" dialog appeared.
I obliged. Immediately the disk poped back out and I got the same dialog.
Yes, this is an infinite loop of insert disk dialogs. For some reason the
system couldn't recognize the System Disk!!
The only recourse left was to reboot the system. (Glad I am used to
saving my editing often!) After hitting the reset button the Mac tried to
reboot using the "System Disk" disk and immediately crashed! I then booted the
Mac using a different disk and inserted the questionable "System Disk" and got
a repair message. I said, "Good, I hope that fixes my system!" and clicked
"Ok". A short while later the disk Icon appeared and it had the name "Ph.D.
Notes #3" and the contents that appeared in the windows are the data files that
were on the data disk! The "Ph.D. Notes #3" was the last data disk I had
ejected via the minifinder's eject button! Of course clicking on any of the
documents on the "System Disk" alias "Ph.D. Notes #3" disk resulted in a crash
since they were not really there!
I sighed and rebuilt the "System Disk."
Now a question.
Any idea what happened to the directory on the System Disk? I haven't
tried to duplicate the problem but I wouldn't be surprise if I couldn't, since
I had been editing for a while and had done other things before opening
MacWrite. Since I have basically fixed the problem it caused (by rebuilding
the wasted disk) I don't need a fix. I am just curious about what might have
happened.
Thanks, Andrew J. Spry
Disclaimer: Heck, there ain't any claims in the above. Are there?
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| The above opinion is mine only and subject |
| change with the amount of sunshine. |
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| I can be reached at: |
| arpa spry@b.cs.uiuc.edu |
| or spry@uiuc.ARPA |
| csnet spry@uiuc.csnet |
| usenet uiucdcsb!spry |
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