Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!think!ephraim
From: ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Hard disk problem -HELP!
Keywords: HD crash Desktop Manager
Message-ID: <21416@think.UUCP>
Date: 31 May 88 12:53:03 GMT
References: <8805271324.AA13160@decwrl.dec.com> <340@faui10.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Sender: usenet@think.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@vidar.think.com.UUCP (ephraim vishniac)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 33

In article <340@faui10.informatik.uni-erlangen.de> msurlich@faui10.UUCP (Matthias Urlichs) writes:
>In article <8805271324.AA13160@decwrl.dec.com> hunt@atse.dec.com (Phil Hunt) writes:
>> Well, it finally happened.  My Mac II internal hard disk has a directory
>> structure error.  It is a PCPC IHD144 meg disk that had 13meg free on it,
>> so it is pretty full.

>> ... (putting files onto the HD, opening folder, CHASH) ...

>The Desktop file is a resource file. A resource file holds a limited number
>of resources. Every icon and Creator is a resource.
>Therefore, when you opened your new folder, the Finder tried to put some
>more icons into the Desktop file. An overflowing resource file results
>in a spectacular crash on any Mac (APPLE: THIS IS A BUG!).

While the limit on the number of resources in a file is a bug, it's
almost certainly not *this* bug.  Macintosh Technical Note #141
"Maximum Number of Resources in a File" explains that a resource file
can hold 2727 resources.  A typical bundle consists of six resources:
the BNDL, signature, two FREFs and two ICN#s (your mileage may vary).
2727/6 gives about 454.  Do you have over four hundred programs with
different icons on your disk?  Very unlikely, unless you're running a
BBS, and unlikely even then.

Still, there are other reasons that Apple should break up the DeskTop
file.  Most important is the ridiculous amount of time required to
update a populous resource file.


Ephraim Vishniac					  ephraim@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

     On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put
     into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"