1. To create DiskCopy™ disk images quickly and efficiently:
Using ShrinkWrap™, you can create DiskCopy™ disk images by simply dragging and dropping your floppy disk icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon.
2. To provide a convenient and reliable means of mounting multiple disk images on the desktop:
Like Apple's MountImage™ control panel, ShrinkWrap™ will mount image files on the desktop that to the system will appear identical to the original floppy disks. However, since ShrinkWrap™ is an application, it will never cause INIT conflicts and will never require any memory until it's actually run. To mount image files, simply drag and drop the image file icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon. Image files can even be mounted as unlocked disks by holding down the Shift key during launch.
3. To seamlessly handle image files in their archived form:
ShrinkWrap™ will automatically compress and decompress archived image files on-the-fly with Aladdin's StuffIt Engine™. Now that the StuffIt Engine™ has been released as shareware with the DropStuff with Expander Enhancer package, you don't even have to own StuffIt Deluxe™ to take advantage of these convenient compression features.
4. To provide a freely distributable alternative to Apple's DiskCopy™, DART™ and MountImage™:
These products cannot yet legally be licensed for redistribution. Apple Computer, Inc. is working to create a license, but until that time, you may not legally redistribute it once you receive a copy from an authorized Apple source.
Version History
---------------
Version 1.2 - 20 Dec 94
- Uses new proprietary image driver that supports mounting images by loading them into RAM (like MungeImage) or by using an invisible scratch file on your hard drive (like virtual memory). Users will now no longer be limited in the number of disks they can mount based upon the amount of free RAM they have available.
- Displays one-time Preferences dialog if you hold down the Option key on launch. (Note: Holding down Shift now mounts images as unlocked volumes.)
- New Batch Floppy Mode allows you to efficiently conduct batch operations on large quantities of floppy disks. Just keep feeding in disks and ShrinkWrap™ will continue to create image files, duplicate a disk image or verify the disks. No need to touch the keyboard or mouse until you're done.
- Uses temporary memory for I/O buffers, reducing the application’s minimum memory partition to only 256K.
- Automatically decodes/decompresses ALL the formats currently supported by StuffIt Expander™ (.hqx, .uu, .bin, .cpt, .pkg, .zip, .arc, .gz, and .Z).
- Creates self-extracting archives.
- Creates and mounts new blank image files.
- Creates and mounts an image with the contents of a folder.
- Duplicates, verifies and creates image files from mounted images as if they were actual floppy disks.
- New destination option “Same as source”.
- New option to confirm overwriting destination disks.
- Asks for destinations disks of the required media type.
- New Preferences dialog.
- All dialogs now fit on 512 x 342 screens.
Version 1.1.2 - 03 Oct 94
- Adds full support for machines with 256K ROMs. Now runs on anything newer than a Plus.
- Provides checksum data when you verify image files.
- Adds DiskCopy™ resource to allow you to view checksums in the Finder's Get Info dialog.
- No longer chokes on unformatted disks.
Version 1.1.1 - 23 Sep 94
- Adds option to Preferences that controls whether mounted images are compressed in RAM.
- Deals with bad destination disks more gracefully.
- Correctly handles floppy disks inserted before ShrinkWrap™ requests a destination disk.
- Prevents File Manager from updating VIB with old data when ejecting disk after copy.
Version 1.1 - 28 Aug 94
- Full DART™ support (read, convert & mount).
- Includes MungeImage 1.2 image driver which compresses read-only images in memory.
- Copies image files back to floppy disk.
- Copies images disk-to-disk.
- Extensive image file verification options.
- Prettier and smoother progress box.
- Eliminated temporary folder while decompressing image archives.
Version 1.0 - 31 Jul 94 Initial Release
Installation
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Install ShrinkWrap™ by decompressing the StuffIt™ archive and dragging the ShrinkWrap™ application to a convenient location on your hard drive. You may need to rebuild your desktop if ShrinkWrap™ will not initially accept drag and drop files. Hopefully, you already have the StuffIt Engine™ installed in your Extensions folder. If not, you should obtain Aladdin's StuffIt Deluxe™ or DropStuff™ with Expander Enhancer and install the software.
System Requirements
-------------------
ShrinkWrap™ is a System 7-only application. It is AppleEvent aware, 32-bit clean, Power Macintosh, AV, ’040 cache and virtual memory compatible.
Why do we need to deal with disk images?
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Although there is some similarity between disks duplicated from disk images and disks copied by dragging icons, the results are not identical. Floppy disks created from image files are exact duplicates, including the exact icon placement, appearance of all windows, and the correct name of the disk. In addition, with disk images you have the added assurance that all the files have been duplicated correctly and completely. More importantly, Apple's Installer will not recognize disks copied by dragging icons, even if they appear identical in every way.
Some convenient uses for disk images:
-------------------------------------
1. Backing up your original floppy disks to removable media:
A Magneto-Optical or SyQuest drive can serve as an excellent means to back up your software. When disk image files are stored in compressed form, they are space efficient but still easily accessible with ShrinkWrap™. Just drag the compressed image onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon and the file will be uncompressed and immediately mounted on the desktop.
2. Installing Apple's System Updates and System Software Extensions:
Since most of Apple's System Software, System Updates and System Extensions (CD-ROM Setup, Network System Installer, printer drivers, etc.) are distributed online in image file format, it would be convenient to be able to mount the images and run the Installer without ever having to copy the images back to floppy disk. Unfortunately, MountImage™ has a serious bug that causes data corruption when installing from mounted disk images. ShrinkWrap™ does not suffer from this problem.
3. Distributing multiple disk images on floppies:
Using ShrinkWrap™ and the StuffIt Engine™, you can achieve adequate compression to store three or more 800K disk images on a 1.44 MB HD floppy.
4. Mounting HD floppies on older Macs without a SuperDrive™:
For older Macs not equipped with a SuperDrive™, ShrinkWrap™ provides a cost-effective and convenient means of mounting HD floppies on the desktop.
5. Creating “instant” RAM disks:
Just drag a folder onto ShrinkWrap™ and a new RAM disk will be created with the contents of that folder. You don’t even need to reboot.
Using ShrinkWrap™
=================
New Image:
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To create and mount a new blank image file from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose “New Image” from the File menu.
Mount Image File:
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DiskCopy™, DART™, DiskMaker™, DiskDup+, DropDisk, Norton Floppier™ , MacTools FastCopy™ (uncompressed) and ShrinkWrap™ image files can be mounted by dragging their icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon:
1. In the Finder, select one or more image files that you want mounted.
2. Drag them over the ShrinkWrap™ icon until it is highlighted.
3. Let go of the mouse/trackball button.
ShrinkWrap™ will open and you’ll see a progress box. When everything is mounted, ShrinkWrap™ automatically quits.
>> Note: When mounting DiskCopy™ and ShrinkWrap™ disk images via drag and drop, you can mount the image files as an unlocked disks by holding down the Shift key as ShrinkWrap™ launches. <<
If you prefer a “manual” way to mount image files:
1. Double click the ShrinkWrap™ icon to open the application.
2. Choose the “Mount Image...” command from the File menu.
3. Select the desired image file to mount in the standard file dialog.
4. Check the Mount as Unlocked Disk option if you desire read/write access to the mounted image file.
Mount Folder:
-------------
Folders can be mounted as images in the Finder by dragging one or more folder icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon:
1. In the Finder, select one or more folders that you want mounted.
2. Drag them over the ShrinkWrap™ icon until it is highlighted.
3. Let go of the mouse/trackball button.
ShrinkWrap™ will open and you’ll see a series of progress boxes. When each new image has been mounted and the contents of each folder have been copied, ShrinkWrap™ automatically quits.
To create and mount an image with the contents of a folder from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose “Mount Folder...” from the File menu.
2. Select a source folder using the standard file dialog.
>> Note: If you select a folder that is too large for the new image media type that you've selected in Preferences, a “Destination disk is full” error will result and the new mounted image will be empty. <<
Unmount Image:
--------------
Image files can be unmounted in the Finder by dragging one or more mounted image file icons to the Trash.
To unmount image files from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose “Unmount Image...” from the File menu.
2. Select the disk image volume to unmount using the standard file dialog.
>> Caution: Do NOT eject a mounted image file. It is very difficult to “reinsert” an ejected disk image file when the system requests it later. <<
>> Note: If this happens to you, press Command-. to cancel the reinsert requests. <<
Create Image from Disk:
-----------------------
Image files can be made of floppy disks or mounted images by dragging their icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon:
1. In the Finder, select one or more disks that you want copied.
2. Drag them over the ShrinkWrap™ icon until it is highlighted.
3. Let go of the mouse/trackball button.
ShrinkWrap™ will open and you’ll see a progress box. When all the disks have been read and image files saved to the destination folder, ShrinkWrap™ automatically quits.
If Batch Floppy Mode was enabled in the Preferences dialog, you will be prompted to enter another floppy disk when the first copy is complete. Press Stop when you wish to create no more image files.
To create image files from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose the “Create Image from Disk...” command from the File menu.
2. Select the disk to copy using the standard file dialog.
Write Image to Disk:
--------------------
Image files can be copied back to floppy disk by dragging their icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon while holding down the Command key:
1. In the Finder, select one or more image files that you want copied to disk.
2. Drag them over the ShrinkWrap™ icon until it is highlighted.
3. While holding down the Command key, let go of the mouse/trackball button.
ShrinkWrap™ will open and you’ll see a progress box. At this point you may release the Command key. When each disk image has been read and checksums verified, you will be prompted to insert a unlocked destination disk into any floppy drive.
>> Caution: The unlocked floppy disk that you insert will be totally overwritten with the contents of the image file. <<
If Batch Floppy Mode was enabled in the Preferences dialog, you will be prompted to enter another floppy disk when the first copy is complete. Press Stop when you wish to make no more copies and ShrinkWrap™ will go on to the next image file in the queue.
To write image files to disk from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose the “Write Image to Disk...” command from the File menu.
2. Select the image file to copy using the standard file dialog.
Duplicate Disk:
---------------
Floppy disks or mounted images can be duplicated by dragging their icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon while holding down the Command key:
1. In the Finder, select one or more disks that you wish to duplicate.
2. Drag them over the ShrinkWrap™ icon until it is highlighted.
3. While holding down the Command key, let go of the mouse/trackball button.
ShrinkWrap™ will open and you’ll see a progress box. At this point you may release the Command key. When each disk has been read and checksums calculated, it will be ejected and you will be prompted to insert a unlocked destination disk into any floppy drive.
>> Caution: The unlocked floppy disk that you insert will be totally overwritten with the contents of the original disk. <<
If Batch Floppy Mode was enabled in the Preferences dialog, you will be prompted to enter another floppy disk when the first copy is complete. Press Stop when you wish to make no more copies and ShrinkWrap™ will go on to the next disk in the queue.
To duplicate disks from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose the “Duplicate Disk...” command from the File menu.
2. Select the floppy disk volume to duplicate using the standard file dialog.
Convert Image:
--------------
DiskCopy™, DART™, DiskMaker™, DiskDup+, DropDisk, Norton Floppier™ , MacTools FastCopy™ (uncompressed) and ShrinkWrap™ image files can be converted to the image format and archive type specified in the Preference dialog by dragging their icons onto the ShrinkWrap™ icon while holding down the Control key:
1. In the Finder, select one or more image files that you want to convert.
2. Drag them over the ShrinkWrap™ icon until it is highlighted.
3. While holding down the Control key, let go of the mouse/trackball button.
ShrinkWrap™ will open and you’ll see a progress box. At this point you may release the Control key. When each disk image has been converted and checksums verified, ShrinkWrap™ will automatically quit.
To convert image files from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose the “Convert Image...” command from the File menu.
2. Select the image file to convert using the standard file dialog.
Verify Image:
-------------
To verify image files from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose “Verify Image File...” from the File menu.
2. Select the image file to verify using the standard file dialog.
>> Note: If the original image file format contained checksums and these match the calculated values, the message “Checksums matched” will be displayed at the top of the verification dialog. <<
Verify Disk:
------------
To verify a floppy disk or mounted image from within the ShrinkWrap™ application:
1. Choose “Verify Disk...” from the File menu.
2. Select the disk to verify using the standard file dialog.
Here are some details about the Preferences dialog:
1. The group of four “Destination:” radio buttons indicate where the image files and StuffIt™ archives created by ShrinkWrap™ should be stored. Selecting “Same as ShrinkWrap™” will use the folder where the running ShrinkWrap™ application currently resides. Selecting “Same as original” will use the folder (or desktop) that contains the original image file or disk. Selecting “Prompt for destination” will prompt you for a destination with a standard file dialog at runtime. Finally, selecting “Use:” will allow you to specify a folder of your choice. Note that you should always choose your destination folder to be located on an unlocked volume with plenty of free disk space.
2. The “Select” button allows you to chose a specific folder as the destination folder. If ShrinkWrap™ for some reason can't find this folder on startup, it will default to the startup volume desktop folder.
3. Checking the “Automatically decode and expand archives” check box will cause any archive format currently supported by the StuffIt Engine™ (.hqx, .uu, .bin, .sit, .sea, .cpt, .pkg, .zip, .arc, .gz, and .Z) to be automatically expanded to locate image files.
4. Checking the “Delete archive after expanding” check box deletes the archive from the disk after it has been expanded into its original image file. Use this feature carefully.
5. Checking the “Automatically Stuff™ image files” check box will cause all image files created with ShrinkWrap™ to be automatically compressed into their own StuffIt™ archive.
6. Checking the “Delete original after compressing” check box deletes the original image file from the disk after it has been compressed into an archive.
7. Checking the “Make archives self-extracting” check box will create self-extracting archives that anyone can decompress, even without a StuffIt™ product.
8. The group of two “New image default media type:” radio buttons indicate what size of floppy disk image should be created for the “New Image” and “Mount Folder...” commands.
9. Selecting the “Create DiskCopy™ image files” check box will cause ShrinkWrap™ to create disk images with DiskCopy™'s creator signature and the DiskCopy™ resource that lets you view checksums in the Finder's Get Info dialog. This may seem trivial, since the actual file format is unchanged, but DiskCopy™ rather arrogantly refuses to use Apple disk images created by any other application but itself.
>> Note: If you intend to use DiskCopy™ to copy ShrinkWrap™ disk images back to floppies, be sure “Save as DiskCopy™ image files” is checked. <<
There are, however, advantages to saving a disk image with ShrinkWrap™'s creator signature:
a. ShrinkWrap™ image files will be instantly mountable by just double-clicking the image file icon.
b. ShrinkWrap™ image files get a cool new icon with racing stripes in the upper-left hand corner.
c. DiskCopy™ image files will be stuck with a generic icon if a copy of DiskCopy™ is not located somewhere on the destination disk.
d. ShrinkWrap™ image files are about 4K smaller on a typical hard drive.
10. Checking the “Keep mounted images in RAM” check box will instruct the ShrinkWrap™ driver to load mounted images completely into RAM rather than store the images in a temporary scratch file on your startup volume.
Here is a quick review of the advantages of each method:
a. Keeping mounted images in RAM:
- Images mounted in RAM are lightening fast (just like a RAM disk).
- Images mounted in RAM require no free contiguous hard drive space.
- Images can be mounted if your startup volume is read-only or a floppy.
b. Storing mounted images in a temporary scratch file:
- Each mounted image requires <1K of RAM.
- Number of mounted images is limited only by free hard drive space.
- If a crash occurs when an image is mounted, you can recover changes.
11. Checking the “Confirm overwriting destination disk” check box will cause a confirmation dialog to be displayed each time you are about to overwrite a formatted floppy disk.
12. Checking the “Verify destination disk checksums” check box will provide an additional verification pass when copying image files to disk or conducting disk-to-disk copies to verify that checksums on the destination disk match the original. This verification pass is in addition to sector-by-sector verification already done by the driver.
13. Checking the “Batch Floppy Mode” check box will allow you to efficiently conduct batch operations on large quantities of floppy disks. Just keep feeding in disks and ShrinkWrap™ will continue to create image files, duplicate a disk image or verify the disks.
Important Tips:
===============
Make sure you have enough available RAM:
----------------------------------------
1. ShrinkWrap™ 1.2 no longer uses the MungeImage driver to mount image files. The new driver has two modes, RAM-based and file-based. Basically, when you select the option to “Keep mounted images in RAM”, the driver mounts disk images by creating a RAM disk the size of the floppy, then copying the contents of the image file to the RAM disk. Consequently, to mount an image in the RAM-based mode, you must always have as much free RAM as disk capacity you wish to mount. Virtual memory doesn't count.
2. The system heap will expand when memory blocks are allocated to the ShrinkWrap™ driver to mount disk images in RAM. When you unmount disk images, the corresponding memory is freed. However, the system will not compact and resize the system heap until the free memory is required by another application.
Make sure you have enough contiguous free space on your startup disk:
1. When the “Keep mounted images in RAM” option is disabled, mounted image files will be stored in a scratch file contained within the invisible Temporary Items folder on your startup disk. Since the scratch file is allocated from only contiguous free space, the driver does not have to deal with fragmented image files (the source of the MountImage™ corruption problem). However, to mount an image in the file-based mode, you must always have as much contiguous free hard drive space as disk capacity you wish to mount. If you don’t have enough contiguous free space, an error dialog will instruct you to free up more drive space, defragment your drive or switch to RAM-based mode.
2. If you should experience a crash when an unlocked disk image is mounted, the original disk image will be untouched. However, any changes made while the image was mounted will not have been saved back to the original file. Instead, the scratch file used for temporary storage of the mounted image will be automatically recovered by the system to the “Rescued items” folder in your Trash. Just drag the scratch file from the Trash, then mount the scratch file by dragging it onto ShrinkWrap™. You can recover any changes made to your original mounted image by copying the individual files from the mounted scratch file or by dragging the mounted scratch file onto ShrinkWrap™ to create a new image file.
Advantages over DiskDup+ and DropDisk:
--------------------------------------
Since DiskDup+ and DropDisk operate on the original image files, if a crash occurs when an unlocked disk is mounted, there is a significant possibility that the original image file will be corrupted. Additionally, any checksums in the image file will be out of date so that most utilities will consider them corrupted and refuse to write them back to floppy disk.
RAM Doubler™:
-------------
Connectix RAM Doubler™ and ShrinkWrap™ will work fine together, PROVIDED that there is enough real memory for the images to be mounted in RAM. When real memory gets sparse, most of the smart tricks used by RAM Doubler™ to increase memory won't work (re-allocating memory, compressing memory blocks, etc.) because there simply isn't any free memory to play with. RAM Doubler™ then falls back on standard virtual memory and the system will slow to a crawl.
Anti-Viral Utilities:
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Some anti-viral utilities may consider ShrinkWrap™'s activities to be “suspicious” in nature and will stop processing to warn you of some events. If this happens to you, I recommend switching to a less invasive anti-viral utility such as John Norstad's Disinfectant.
MFS Disks:
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ShrinkWrap™ is unable to create image files of Mac 400K disks due to restrictions on MFS disks introduced with System 7. All other features, however, are fully supported with disks of this type.
Accelerator Cards:
------------------
ShrinkWrap™ will not run with some Radius and Daystar accelerator cards. Unfortunately, most of these are incompatible with DiskCopy™ as well. If this is your situation, I recommend trying DART™, Norton Floppier™ or MacTools FastCopy™.
Old Macs:
---------
Some older Macs (Mac 128K, 512K, 512KE & Plus) will be unable to created, verify or copy disk images with ShrinkWrap™ since their floppy disk drivers do not support the necessary control calls.
ShrinkWrap™ is Freeware
=======================
Freeware is software freely distributed via local bulletin board systems (BBS), commercial on-line services, user groups, and between friends. You are allowed to use freeware as much as you like for as long as you like, as long as you say good things about the author. I ask for no monetary compensation. (I would only use the dough to pay for wasteful things like volumes of Inside Macintosh and PowerPC compilers.)
Please share this software with every Mac user you know!
Keep in mind, however, that ShrinkWrap™ is still copyrighted and that you do not have the right to sell or alter it in any way without my written consent. I also will not be liable for any damages, including lost of data, lost profits, cost of cover or other special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages arising from the use of this program.
