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Troubleshooting with System 7

  • (40) If you use the normal method of copying a disk in Finder 7 with the Install 1 disk it will not be bootable. Instead, copy the disk under System 6 or use Apple’s DiskCopy application.
  • (41) If you hold down the shift key at startup, System 7 will not run any extensions or startup items. Make sure the Caps Lock key isn’t down and be aware that some third party keyboards may not work. This is an extremely handy way to test a potential bug without the interference of your extensions and the wait for extensions and startup items to load.
  • (42) You may have noticed that extensions no longer load in the same order as they did in System 6. That’s because System 7 scans the Extensions folder followed by the Control Panels folder and then the root level of the System Folder. Inside each folder the order is alphabetical.
  • (43) Watch out for 400K disks. The old MFS format prevents New Folder from working correctly because under this format folders weren’t really folders – all 51 (the maximum) files were all at the same level on the disk, and the folders were just pictures. The HFS operating system can’t create this kind of bogus folder. You can force the Mac to format a 400K diskette with the HFS format by holding down the shift key throughout the entire Erase Disk process – this will allow you to create real folders. Under 7.0 you cannot rename a 400K disk.
  • (44) If you have the 800K disk set, the Disk Tools disk is a System 6 boot disk. Use it to reboot under System 6.
  • (45) Sometimes the Finder runs out of memory in System 7. To edit the amount of RAM allocated to the System 7 Finder, boot up under System 6 and change the memory size in the Get Info box for Finder 7. If your machine won’t run under System 6 you’ll have to make a copy of your Finder and hack the SIZE resource with ResEdit.
  • (46) With Apple HD SC Setup you can see some information about the hard disk driver. Click Partitions, click Custom, and then click Details. There is usually unused space on hard drives – you will see gray space in the bottom of your partition map with the size to the left if you click the Details button. You can use Silverlining to increase the partition size on an Apple HD SC formatted drive without either installing Silverlining or reinitializing (but backup first!).

    Some people prefer to keep their Apple drives Apple-formatted. If you don’t have Silverlining and are willing to reformat your hard drive you can use this unused space. Back up your files, open Apple HD SC Setup, click Partition, select your main Macintosh volume and delete it, click Custom, click and drag from just below the top partition all the way to the bottom, select Macintosh volume in the resulting dialog, and then you will not be wasting any space on your hard drive.

  • (47) And one last troubleshooting tool; holding down the command key at startup will bypass Virtual Memory (and probably some extensions as well).

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