|
Hi, I just pulled the "official" NEOdesk trashcan accessory off
Terminator. (I have v 2.05 Neodesk)
I am having a major problem completing the installation of the
acccessory. I can install the ACC, and i works well, but I cant turn
the acc box into a new trashcan. I have attached the installation doc
below, and I have indicated where I fail. Please please, if anyone has
done it or can point out where I am going wrong, I will be most
grateful!
Pat K.
NeoDesk Recoverable Trashcan
by
Dan Wilga
Copyright = 1990 Gribnif Software, All Rights Reserved.
This item is "freeware". There is no charge to use it. It is the
property of Gribnif Software and may not be sold, traded, distributed, or
marketed by anyone else without the explicit written permission of Gribnif
Software.
Description
-----------
The NeoDesk Recoverable Trashcan is a special desk accessory which
hooks directly into NeoDesk 2.05 (or later). It adds to NeoDesk a brand
new trashcan which can restore any files that were deleted through it.
This "NeoDesk Accessory" is possible thanks to the new "NeoDesk
Developer's Kit" which lets you write your own new and exciting utilities
which can hook directly into NeoDesk. It can be used to call many of the
NeoDesk functions directly from your own accessories. Some additional
information about the "NeoDesk Developer's Kit" and "NeoDesk Accessories"
is available at the end of this file.
Files in this archive
---------------------
This archive should include the following files. If it does not you
are probably using a modified archive. We recommend you delete it and
attempt to get one which is complete.
1. TRASHCAN.ACC - The Recoverable Trashcan desk accessory.
2. TRASHCAN.RSC - The Recoverable Trashcan's resource file.
3. TRASHCAN.DOC - The documentation file you are reading now.
4. TRASHCAN.NIC - New icon for Recoverable Trashcan.
5. PATCH205.PRG - Program to patch earlier copies of NeoDesk 2.05.
6. NEO_ACC.INF - File that tells NeoDesk what "NeoDesk Accessories"
you are running.
Requirements
------------
To use the Recoverable Trashcan you need NeoDesk 2.05 (or later).
You can see what version you are running by looking under the "About
NeoDesk..." menu entry. If you are running a version older than 2.05 then
you will have to upgrade for the Recoverable Trashcan to work. You can
find more information on upgrading below.
Patching NeoDesk
----------------
****OK I can run CONTROL and print spool and Neotrash no probs****
Some earlier copies of NeoDesk 2.05 are only able to utilize one
"NeoDesk Accessory" at a time. This can easily be fixed by running the
included patch program. The patch program will not affect copies of
NeoDesk that have already been patched (and thus were fine to start with).
Just follow these simple instructions:
1. Make a backup of NeoDesk (just in case something goes wrong).
2. Run the PATCH205.PRG that was included with this archive.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Technical types might be interested in knowing that the patch simply
consist of changing the data in the NEODESK.EXE file at offset 421E from
"0C46 000A 6C0E" to "5246 4E71 4E71", something that you can easily do
with our freeware MEMFILE editor accessory.
Installing it
-------------
To install the Recoverable Trashcan accessory copy the TRASHCAN.ACC
and TRASHCAN.RSC files to your boot disk. A boot disk is whatever disk
you normally utilize to turn on your computer. This could be a hard disk
or a floppy disk. Consult your NeoDesk manual if you have any questions.
You must also copy the included NEO_ACC.INF file to the same
directory where you store NeoDesk. This file tells NeoDesk the filename
of any "NeoDesk Accessories" which you might be running, in this case the
Recoverable Trashcan. If you already have a NEO_ACC.INF file then you
should edit it so that it has the trashcan accessory in it. The
NEO_ACC.INF file stores a list of all the "NeoDesk Accessories" that
NeoDesk should look for.
Once you have installed both the Recoverable Trashcan accessory and
the NEO_ACC.INF file you can then reboot your system and load NeoDesk.
Once loaded you can open a window to your boot disk and drag the
TRASHCAN.ACC file to your desktop. Make sure you place it in a convenient
place on the desktop, since the icon for the Recoverable Trashcan
accessory will now become your new trashcan. You should also make sure
you "Save Desktop" so that the icon will remain there every time you
reboot the system.
****** ALL ABOVE OK neotrash on desktop, works ok, rectangular box
saved***
***** This is the problem area***
Custom Icon
-----------
Now you have to give the trashcan a new custom icon (so that it will
look like a trashcan and not like a desk accessory). You can either edit
your own or use the one we have included.
If you edit your own you must remember that the custom icons in the
icon editor are processed from left to right, top to bottom. What this
means is that if you want to create a custom icon for TRASHCAN.ACC you
must make sure that you place it before the "*.ACC" icon that is already
in there... **** WHERE, When I run the icon editor, I see the usual
default set of icons, floppies, old trash can etc, but no *.acc icon
HOW DO I GET TO IT? ******
....or your new TRASHCAN.ACC icon will be ignored. You can insert a
new icon by dragging the "New Icon" icon and releasing it over any of the
icons inside the icon editor windows.
If you wish to use the icon that we have included you must make sure
that you first create a new icon (before the "*.ACC" icon). Then load the
TRASHCAN.ACC icon from the enclosed TRASHCAN.NIC file. You can then copy
the loaded icon to the new icon you created. Make sure you delete the one
you loaded after you have copied it to the one you created.
Operation
---------
Use the Recoverable Trashcan just like the older standard trashcan.
Any items (files or folders) you drag to it will be deleted from your
windows. It works on hard disks, ram disks, and floppy disks. The big
difference is that these deleted items will still be available "inside"
the trashcan. You can access the trashcan contents by double-clicking on
the trashcan or opening its desk accessory entry under the "NeoDesk" menu.
You may also choose to remove the older trashcan (so you will not get
confused and delete something in the wrong trashcan) by selecting it and
choosing the "Remove" option under the "Install Desktop Icon..." menu
entry.
You CANNOT use this new trashcan to 'remove' desktop icons from your
desktop. That is still a feature of the original trashcan. The
Recoverable Trashcan will attempt to delete the actual item associated with
any icon you drag to it, regardless of whether it is a desktop icon or not.
You can still select any icon from the desktop and remove it using the
"Install Desktop Icon..." menu entry.
The contents of the trashcan are displayed in a special dialog box.
The drive buttons to the right indicate what drive you are presently
looking looking at. The scroll area to the left will list any deleted
items (files or folders) in that drive which can be recovered with the
Recoverable Trashcan. These items are sorted alphabetically by path and
name. Folders will be indicated by the standard "folder character" to the
left of any folder names.
If there are more items than fit in the scroll area you can use the
arrows in the vertical scroll bar to see them. In theory the Recoverable
Trashcan can handle an unlimited number of deleted items per drive. The
horizontal scroll bar lets you read any filenames which (due to their long
path) are too long to fit in the scroll area.
By clicking on the appropriate "d", "t", or "s" button you can change
the display to the right of an item's name to show that item's date, time,
or size.
If any items are displayed with a "gray field" over the filename that
signifies that the items' paths no longer exist. That means that when you
restore them, you will have to create the folders that they require. In
color, this "gray field" is displayed with as a "red field".
There is also an option, to the right, to turn on or off the
confirmation the trashcan gives every time you drag something to it. This
option is permanently saved in the TRASHCAN.RSC file whenever you change
it and then quit out of the trashcan.
You can select any item or group of items by using the mouse. Any
item you select will remain selected even if you scroll the list. You can
use the [Shift] key to add and remove single items from a group of items.
Selecting any item will turn on the two buttons at the lower part of the
dialog box, [Undelete] and [Delete Permanently].
The first option, Undelete, allows you to recover all the items that
you have selected. An item is restored to the same drive and folder as
where it was deleted from. If there already is an item with the same name
as the deleted item you will receive a name conflict box. At this point
you can either rename the file, skip that file, or abort the entire
operation. There is also the possibility that the path of the deleted
item no longer exists. In this case the trashcan will give you the option
to create the folders needed to recover that item (or you can just abort
recovering it).
The second option, Delete Permanently, allows you to delete all the
items you have selected from the Recoverable Trashcan. This is similar to
using the older standard trashcan. Since you will be unable to recover
any items deleted with this option, use it with care. Using this command
will also return any disk space that was used by deleted items.
Usage
-----
You should try to always make it a habit of deleting your files &
folders through the Recoverable Trashcan. That way there is less of a
chance that you will accidentally delete an item that you did not mean to
delete.
It is important to remember that deleted items (which are in the
Recoverable Trashcan) will still consume valuable disk space. You should
check the trashcan at least once a week and delete any items that you are
not planning to recover. If you run out of disk space you should probably
consider emptying out the trashcan.
You might even find it convenient to remove the built-in NeoDesk
trashcan from the desktop so that you do not get confused and delete
something important by accident.
Remember that if you delete permanently a folder full of files
NeoDesk still has to delete every individual file inside of it one by one.
This means that very large folders might take some extra time to delete.
The folder name will remain displayed in the Recoverable Trashcan while it
is busy deleting all of its contents.
The Recoverable Trashcan will temporarily delete any read-only files
without any additional warning. When you select "Delete Permanently" it
will then ask for confirmation before removing any read-only files
permanently.
How it works
------------
Whenever you delete a file or folder the Recoverable Trashcan deletes
that item's name from the "file directory" leaving all of its sectors
marked as "in use" so that no other file will overwrite it. It then
writes to a hidden TRASHCAN.DAT file, in the root directory of that disk,
all the information needed to later recover that "deleted" item. The
TRASHCAN.DAT file holds all the information for all the deleted items in
that particular drive. If you delete or recover the last item in the
trashcan for that drive, the TRASHCAN.DAT file is removed.
By looking for a TRASHCAN.DAT file in any disk, the trashcan is able
to tell if any items have been deleted in that disk (and are waiting to be
recovered). With the data in that file it can then "undelete" any deleted
items. If there are no deleted items in a drive (waiting to be restored)
then there will be no TRASHCAN.DAT for that drive.
To delete an item permanently it actually restores the item first
and then erases it from the disk. The restore stage is needed to insure
that everything is back to normal before it is actually deleted. This
method also assures that the Recoverable Trashcan never has to touch the
very sensitive File Allocation Table (FAT).
Warning!
--------
You should never attempt to reorganize or repair a drive using
programs like TuneUp, DL_II, or ICD CleanUp when you have files in the
Recoverable Trashcan! These programs will interpret any deleted files,
that are still inside the trashcan, as "lost clusters". If you go ahead
and reorganize a disk with one of these programs or "fix" the lost clusters,
any deleted items (waiting to be recovered) will be lost or damaged. Also
the information in the TRASHCAN.DAT file, for that drive, will no longer be
accurate. Only use programs like TuneUp, DL_II, or ICD CleanUp after you
have emptied out the Recoverable Trashcan.
Because all the information for the deleted items of a disk is stored
in a hidden TRASHCAN.DAT file you have to be careful that you do not copy
that file to another drive. For example, the NeoDesk DiskCopy function
will copy the TRASHCAN.DAT if you use the "Files Only" function. The same
effect is caused by dragging a disk icon to any open window. If you
do so, the Recoverable Trashcan information for that disk (the one it was
copied to) will be inaccurate.
You can, however, perform disk copies as long as you use the "With
Format" or "No Format" options. In either case the TRASHCAN.DAT along
with all the deleted items will be copied. This is because those commands
make exact duplicates of the disk (an "image" copy), including all of its
contents.
Under the worst case scenario you will only lose the deleted items
inside the trashcan. You can always restore a drive back to its correct
state (if for some reason the Recoverable Trashcan is not working
correctly) by using a utility like TuneUp or DL_II to restore the "lost
clusters" and by deleting the hidden TRASHCAN.DAT file.
TOS bug information
-------------------
Because the Recoverable Trashcan requires that a "media change" be
executed so that NeoDesk & TOS both realize that files have been deleted
or recovered, there is the possibility that you may run into a nasty TOS
1.0/1.2 bug.
The bug occurs when special circumstances in a drive's file structure
cause the system to crash whenever a media change is executed. NeoDesk
2.05 will execute a media change whenever you press [Esc] on any drive's
window. Thus, you can see if any of your drives have this problem by
pressing [Esc] from NeoDesk 2.05 on each drive's window. This problem can
also be caused if there are more than 98 folders in any directory.
You cannot use the Recoverable Trashcan on any drives showing this
symptom. If you do, the Recoverable Trashcan will attempt to detect this
and tell you, though there is a chance that it might crash. In either
case nothing will happen to any of your files.
This bug is related to the "40 Folder Bug" and is NOT fixed by
FOLDRXXX or any other 40 folder fix. This problem was corrected in TOS
1.4 (and newer ROM versions).
You can try to change "the special circumstances" of that drive by
rearranging the folders in the root directory. There are no real
guidelines for this, it is simply a matter of testing. We found that
moving the first folder in a drive to another drive, placing some odd file
in that drive, and then moving back the folder will usually change the
drive structure enough to fix the problem. (By placing some odd file back
on the disk before you move the folder back to it makes sure the folder
does not end up in the same directory entry).
Disclaimer
----------
As you would expect with software of this nature, we make no
warranties concerning the ability of this accessory to recover deleted
items or to perform as claimed. The software is provided "as is" and you
should only use it at your own risk. We cannot be responsible of any loss
of data that results from the usage of this accessory.
Upgrading NeoDesk
-----------------
If you are running a copy of NeoDesk which is older than version 2.05
you will have to upgrade to be able to use any of the "NeoDesk Accessories".
You can upgrade to version 2.05 (the present shipping version as of
the time this document was written) by:
1. Sending back your original INSTALLED NeoDesk 2.0 disk.
2. Enclosing $5(US) to pay for duplication, postage, and handling.
(European customers should include an additional $3 to
cover additional shipping costs.)
Future version may have slightly different upgrade policies. If you
are not sure, call first.
NeoDesk Developer's Kit
-----------------------
The "NeoDesk Developer's Kit" is a complete instruction guide which
will allow you to develop your own desk accessories which directly hook up
with NeoDesk 2.05 (or later). This allows you to write new features and
utilities for NeoDesk or to use many of the NeoDesk functions in your own
accessories. Both the NeoDesk Recoverable Trashcan and the NeoDesk CLI
were written using this developer's kit.
Knowledge of desk accessory programming, the 'C' language, and
pointers is required. The kit can easily be converted to work with any
higher level language. It includes sample source code, header files,
complete documentation, and sample accessories.
This item is planned for commercial release in early 1990 and
requires NeoDesk 2.05 or later.
NeoDesk CLI
-----------
The NeoDesk CLI is a complete command line interpreter accessory
which works out a GEM window. Includes both MS-DOS and UNIX style
commands and allows for the easy creation of batch files, interactive
menus, and more.
By hooking directly into NeoDesk it is able to keep a relatively
small file size (since it calls many of NeoDesk's functions directly) and
it also gains certain advantages over any other CLI. Among those are the
ability to execute any program directly from a desk accessory.
This item is planned for commercial release in early 1990 and
requires NeoDesk 2.05 or later.
Extra information
-----------------
If you have downloaded this and do not own NeoDesk you can purchase
it directly from us. NeoDesk is a complete replacement to the built-in
GEM desktop which comes with the Atari ST. Unlike other programs which
simply give you one or two features, NeoDesk has hundreds of new exciting
features and comes with a complete 90+ page manual. Contact us for a
flyer or more information.
If you have any other questions or comments, please feel free to
write or call. You may contact us at:
Gribnif Software
P.O. Box 350
Hadley, MA 01035
Main line: (413) 584-7887
Fax: (413) 584-2565
Order line:(800) 999-GRIB <- Orders only! No technical support.
Technical support for the Recoverable Trashcan is only available to
registered users of NeoDesk 2.0 - The Desktop Alternative (version 2.05
or later).
|