Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!think.com!laird
From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Changing HD icon
Message-ID: <1991Apr4.215147.18117@Think.COM>
Date: 4 Apr 91 21:51:47 GMT
References: <1991Apr02.191258.26623@ariel.unm.edu> <40397@netnews.upenn.edu> <40418@netnews.upenn.edu>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
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In article <40418@netnews.upenn.edu> hseung@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Hyunsuk Seung) writes:
>In article <40397@netnews.upenn.edu> gasser@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Nathan Gasser) writes:
>...
>>They say the icon is stored on the HD's boot blocks (notice it's not in the
>>finder, desktop, or system...)so,  get a visual copy of the icon you have
>>now via a screen dump, etc.  Hex dump it with McSink, etc.
>>Use this hex code as a search pattern in a sector editor (norton, SUM, etc)
>>and replace the found hex with a hex dump from the icon you'd prefer to have.
>...
>
>  The HD icon is stored in HD installer's resource file. Just use
>ResEdit to edit it, and reformat the HD... although that means you
>must make a backup from your HD.
>

Neither of these is necessarily the case.  A drive's icon is a data
structure returned by the driver.  That data structure could come from
anywhere.  It's quite likely that the icon was compiled into the driver, in
which case it would be in line with the driver code on the disk.  Or it
could be written to a special block on the drive by the driver or
formatting software.  Or it could be in line, but patched by the formatting
software.  If the formatting software defines the icon, it could well be in
an ICN# in the formatting application, but that is not the case with most
drivers.  Incidentally, some drivers checksum themselves (or are
checksummed by the Mac) and this could cause a patched driver to fail.

I strongly suggest that you use Facade to redefine your drive's icon.  That
is assuming that your driver doesn't allow you to redefine the drive's
icon, making this whole discussion moot.

- Laird