[HM] Extra files & docs

[Duane Murphy]

--- At Sat, 1 Mar 2003 09:34:38 -0500, Nancy J. Ayers wrote:

>Duane, They are in document folders.  I'm looking, as I'm writing 
>here, in folders of things created in system 9 before I upgraded to 
>X. In each folder there is at least one FINDER.DAT and one ICON and a 
>RESOURCE.FRK.  Each RESOURCE.FRK folder has "documents" that seem to 
>relate somehow to files outside of the RESOURCE.FRK folder--Some are 
>Word files, some are just "document."  But there is not a one to one 
>relationship.  There are many more files in the larger folder than in 
>the RESOURCE.FRK  FOLDER. The names of the files each have a dash and 
>a number.  The more I look, I think it's a Microsoft Word thing. 
>Maybe "the previous saved" versions...something that was hidden in os 
>9.  The extra files that don't match up in the RESOURCE.FRK are 
>non-Word files.  So I guess I'm answering my own question...  Word is 
>still doing it...giving me extras I don't care to know about or see! 
>Nancy

That's an interesting observation, but why would Word name something
FINDER.DAT? Here are some questions that might help:

- How is this volume formatted? Is it a standard HFS volume or is it a
DOS formatted volume?

- Where did the Documents in the folder come from? Did you create them or
are they from a download or received from someone else? Copied from a
server possibly?

A little Google research shows that these files and folders are typically
created by Mac OS when it encounters DOS formatted volumes. If you copied
these files from a DOS volume potentially from a server then these files
would appear. I believe these files and folders are hidden by the DOS
file system manager so when you move these files to another volume they
are no longer hidden.

These files should not have appeared by simply copying the files over.
The file system would ensure that the files were correctly copied over
intact. These could have come from a stuffit file or zip file for example.

If this is a DOS volume, then OS X is doing thing different from OS 9
which is highly likely. Potentially, these files are not useful at this
point. Basically any information stored in the resource fork has been
disconnected from the file. If the resource fork file size is 0 then
you're ok (most of them are probably 0).

The answer, I believe is in the source of the files or the format of the
volume.

>At 6:27 PM -0800 2/28/03, Duane Murphy wrote:
>>--- At Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:13:46 -0500, Nancy J. Ayers wrote:
>>
>>>Having just upgraded my Wallstreet to OS X, I'm puzzled by all the
>>>occurrences of docs, in and out of folders, called "FINDER.DAT,"
>>>"Icon," and "RESOURCE.FRK."  What are these? Can I delete them (some
>>>I already have with seemingly no ill effects)?  Or is there a way to
>>>hide them?
>>
>>Can you expand on this information? Where are you seeing these files
>>Everywhere is not a good answer. I would like some more specifics. Are
>>they spelled as you have indicated?
>>
>>Deleting the resource.frk file will almost certainly be a problem. Icon
>>files are usually custom icons for files or folders.
>>
>>Quite honestly, you _should_not_ be seeing any of these files.

 ...Duane