[comp.sys.mac.misc] Check floppy drive on startup?

lawlor@edinboro.edu (Andrew Lawlor) (10/16/90)

We run a number of computer labs on campus and with the PC type 
(standalone hard disk PC XTs), we use what we call an activator disk,
which on boot up, asks for a disk from the user before it displays the
menu system students use to access applications.  The activator disk has a
hidden file on it (unique to each PC) which is checked before proceeding 
but it actually boots from the hard disk.  Although you may consider this 
type of arrangement extreme, it allows us to control traffic in the lab
and insure that someone off the street doesn't walk into one of our labs
and start using it. 

I would like to do the same for Macs, but since there are no such thing as 
batch files on the Mac, I am stuck.  I imagine I would need an INIT that 
would wait for a disk to be inserted in the drive that would have that 
unique hidden file as we do with the PC.  We have these connected to an 
Appleshare network if that helps.

Any suggestions?  No one here has done any programming for the Mac, so I 
hope there is something out there already or a fairly painless solution.

Please reply via email and I will summarize responses.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew
			__________________________________________
			Andrew Lawlor
			Coordinator of Academic Computing/Research
			Edinboro University of PA
			Internet: lawlor@edinboro.edu
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