Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero-c!brad
From: brad@aero.org (Bradley A. West)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Disabling the trashcan
Message-ID: <1991May8.202811.2793@aero.org>
Date: 8 May 91 20:28:11 GMT
References: <1991May8.014221.1@hmcvax.claremont.edu> <1991May8.142845.16194@umbc3.umbc.edu> <1991May8.163306.17667@engin.umich.edu>
Sender: news@aero.org
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Lines: 24

In article <1991May8.163306.17667@engin.umich.edu> davids@mondo.engin.umich.edu (David Snearline) writes:
>An alternative method to disabling the trash can would be to "soft lock"
>the hard disk volume.  This entails setting bit 15 of the volume attrbiutes
>flag and requires direct disk driver calls.  (Or at least to unset the
>flag.)  This is fairly equivalent to placing a big write protect switch
>on the drive.
>
>There are drawbacks to this approach though.  First, it does mean that
>nothing can be deleted at all until you "unlock" the volume.  Second,
>certain applications and desk accessories choke on a write protected
>boot volume.  The Chooser DA is a good example of this.  So this is more
>of a last resort method.

Just in case anyone's interested in doing this, I wrote a utility called
FloppyUnlocker that does this.  It's available free from sumex and works
quite nicely!  It locks & unlocks floppies readily, but doesn't seem
to lock hard disks; although it does.  For the reasons mentioned
above, I made it more difficult. To lock hard disks, type the
following key sequence:
	 <caps-lock(engaged)><shift><option><command><"L">
not a likely combination to be accidently hit!
Just be sure to unlock the disk before you want to do any real work.

Brad