Re: More HFS FST problems

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

AHML Patron <ahmlpub@ahml.lib.il.us> wrote:

> > This has happened to me on ProDOS volumes too.  I do not know the full
> > cause, but if you delete the Finder.data and Finder.root files, the
> > missing folder should show up again.
> > 
> > The two files tell the Finder what to make of things and for some
> > reason, that means not putting the folder's icon on the desktop.
> > If the volume was a ProDOS volume, you could find out by using
> > ProDOS 8.  Since it is HFS, you can't, but nonetheless, it is still
> > there.  There is nothing damaged about the folder, btw.
> > 
> > -Scott G.
> 
> I am fairly certain that I deleted those files before posting the
> message. I WILL DOUBLE CHECK, but I normally have the "save finder
> information onto volume" option unchecked, and well as "hide invisible
> files", and routinele delete the files from the root directories
> whenever I overide the option.

In any case, Finder's .root and .data files do not explain the absence
of the folder in the Standard File dialogs.  My first suggestion would
be that the "invisible" flag has been turned on somehow.  This is
bypassable in Finder by turning off the preference for hiding invisible
files, but as you say, you can see Finder's droppings files, so you must
have this preference turned off.

My next suggestion is that the file system may be corrupted in a way
that allows the folder to be located by name, but it is not found when
scanning the directory.  This doesn't seem very likely, but isn't beyond
the bounds of possibility, given that HFS uses a B-Tree structure for
its catalog.  (It still doesn't seem very likely, as the entries for the
parent folder should be adjacent in the same node of the catalog tree.)

My third suggestion is a bug in the HFS FST that is causing the file to
be missed somehow when doing a catalog of the parent directory.  It
might be something obscure like the exact positioning of the filename
entry in the appropriate block within the catalog tree, for example.

A combination of the last two seems most likely.  Are you using the HFS
FST patch?  If not, your catalog file may be corrupted in a strange way.

Adding this patch after you've created an HFS volume on the IIgs is a
bad idea, as it will not be able to correctly access files that have
already been written incorrectly to the drive.   The best solution is to
copy the files to a ProDOS volume with an unpatched version of the FST,
then install the patch, wipe the HFS volume, and copy everything back.
Even then, you may have corrupted files, because the unpatched FST
miscalculates the disk location of allocation blocks.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand