Copyright: ® Copyright 1998 REEVEsoft, Inc.


About Button
Click this button to see information about the company that created MacSEE


About MacSEE

 MacSEE 5.0

© Copyright 1998 REEVEsoft, Inc.

by Alan D. Reeve


Copying to the Macintosh
Clicking on the button will transfer the files and directories currently selected from the DOS file list to the currently selected Macintosh disk and folder. If you have not yet selected a Macintosh disk (or volume) to transfer the file to you must first select one by double clicking on the desired volume, otherwise this button will be unavailable. The files/directories will be transferred based on the currently selected translation type.


Copying to the PC
Clicking on the button will transfer the selected Macintosh files and folders to the currently selected DOS disk (and directory). The currently selected translation type will be used.


Creating a new folder/directory
Clicking on the button will allow you to create a new Macintosh folder or a new DOS directory. If you are creating a Macintosh folder you must have already selected a Macintosh volume and you must have one of the items in the Macintosh directory selected. Likewise, if you wish to create a DOS directory you must have one of the items in the current DOS directory selected. Keep in mind that DOS directory names can only consist of 8 characters followed by a 3 character extender separated by a period, and can contain only alphanumeric characters. Macintosh folder names can consist of up to 31 characters.


Creator and Type Fields
A Macintosh file has two additional pieces of information to tell the Macintosh where the file came from and what type of data is contained within the file. These are known as its creator and type. They both consist of four characters. MacSEE will set these appropriately when using MacBinary II, BinHex, and Automatic translations. You can alter these manually, however be careful as if these are not set correctly the Macintosh will not be able to identify the file type and may not recognize your files properly when transferred to the Macintosh.


Deleting files, folders, and directories
Clicking on the button will delete the currently selected files and folders/directories. Deleting a folder/directory will also delete its contents. MacSEE will prompt you verifying the deletion of each file if the Confirm Deletes option is selected in the preferences dialog box.


Exit
Clicking this button will end the MacSEE application


Format_Add
Pressing this button allows you to add a new partition. This option is only available when formatting a hard disk. Up to ten partitions are supported by MacSEE.


Format_Delete
Pressing this button allows you to remove a partition. This is only available when a hard disk device has been selected.


Format_Done
Press this button to exit the Format Disk dialog when you are done formatting Macintosh compatible diskettes.


Format_Drive_Select
Displays the currently selected disk device and allows selection of a different disk device for formatting. Press the down arrow on the right side of the control to list all available devices including any floppy drives, hard drives, and ASPI compliant SCSI drives attached to your computer.


Format_Format
Press this button to initiate formatting the selected device.


Format_Free_Space
Displays the amount of free space (in megabytes) on the currently selected device. Before formatting you must use all available space on the selected device. This will ALWAYS be 0 for floppy disks as they cannot support multiple partitions and MacSEE will use the entire disk by default.


Format_Modify
Press this button to modify the selected partition's name or size. The size cannot be changed if a floppy disk device is currently selected.


Format_Partitions
Lists current partitions that have been added for formatting on the current disk device along with their size (in megabytes).


Formatting/Partitioning Macintosh disks

Clicking on the format button will allow you to format Macintosh disks. This button is only available when at the volume (top most) level in the Macintosh files window. When clicked you will see the MacSEE format/partition dialog box (as displayed below) where you can select a drive to format.

Available devices will include floppy disk drives and hard disks. BIOS (Int 13h) hard disks will be displayed along with a unit number which may make it difficult to determine which one corresponds to an internal hard disk which contains valuable data and a (for example) SyQuest drive. We recommend you note the space available (listed at the bottom on the dialog box) to determine which device is which...an 88 Mb SyQuest drive will have roughly 88 Mb free (it will actually list 84 Mb) and so on...

Formatting Macintosh floppy disks - Floppy disks cannot be partitioned so when a floppy drive is selected all you can do is select a different volume label. When you're ready to format, place a disk in the drive (if one is not already there) and click on format.

Formatting Macintosh hard disks - MacSEE does not really format a hard disk, instead is just lays out partitioning information so that the disk becomes a Macintosh compatible disk. This is why formatting with MacSEE is very fast. Low-level formatting of a hard disk usually takes a long time which is why it is usually done only once (after that the only reason for formatting would be if the hard disk starting having problems). Therefore, be sure your hard disk has already been formatted before using MacSEE to format it (it can be low-level formatted with either Macintosh or DOS formatting software...it does not matter which platform a low-level format is done on). When a hard disk is selected, click on the Add partition button for as many hard disk partitions as you want. Usually you will want just one. Then individually select each partition and click on the Modify button to select the size (in megabytes) of the partition and the volume label you want to assign to that partition. You must use the disk's entire available space before formatting. Click on format when you're satisfied with your choices.

Note: Macintosh hard disks are formatted without a driver. In order for the disk to properly mount on a Macintosh the Macintosh must have a compatible driver loaded. This can be a driver that is loaded at startup or can be loaded from a Macintosh disk that already has a driver on it (i.e place a SyQuest disk in the drive that has a driver on it prior to using the disk formatted by MacSEE that does not contain a driver). Once a driver has been loaded then Macintosh disks formatted with MacSEE will be mounted properly.


Getting Started

MacSEE provides two main operations and those are copying files from a DOS disk to a Macintosh disk and copying files from a Macintosh disk to a DOS disk. Both of these tasks are easy to accomplish and are done as follows:

Copying a File from a Macintosh disk to a DOS disk

1) Be sure that both the Macintosh disk you want to copy files from and the DOS disk you want to copy files to are in their respective disk drives. Usually you'll be copying files to your PC's hard disk which is inside the computer and cannot be inserted or removed, but the Macintosh disk will be removable whether it is a CD-ROM, 1.44" MB floppy disk, or a SyQuest cartridge (among other disk types). Be sure it has been inserted into your system's disk drive.

2) Using the DOS file selector box (on the right side of the MacSEE main window) you must locate the DOS directory into which you want to copy your Macintosh file. Above the DOS file selector box is the current path. When MacSEE starts up it will usually be your MacSEE directory, however you can change this by double-clicking on the drive letters and directory names within the file selector box. DOS drive letters are in square brackets surrounded by a dash (e.g. [-A-] for drive A), DOS directory names are in square brackets (e.g. [DIRECTRY]), and [..] means go to the parent directory. Once you have selected the directory you want to copy your Macintosh files into you can proceed to step 3.

3) Using the Macintosh's file selector box (on the left side of the MacSEE main window) you must locate the Macintosh file you want to copy. Initially this list will display all of the Macintosh volumes that MacSEE could find. If you inserted your Macintosh disk in step 1 then you may wish to click on the rescan button on the toolbar (it is the button that looks like a hard disk that is farthest to the right in the first group of buttons) allowing MacSEE to find your newly inserted Macintosh disk. Macintosh volume names will be displayed for all types of disks except for floppy disks where only the PC's drive letter followed by the word 'Volume' will be displayed. Double-click on the volume containing the Macintosh file you wish to copy.

4) Proceed to navigate through the folders on your Macintosh disk until you are in the folder containing the file you wish to copy. To go into (open) a folder simply double-click on it.

5) Click on the file you wish to copy to select (highlight).

6) Click on the Copy to PC toolbar button...it looks like a little PC with the Windows logo on its screen. MacSEE will then proceed to copy the selected file to your DOS disk and you'll be all done!

Copying a File from a DOS disk to a Macintosh disk

1) Be sure that both the DOS disk you want to copy files from and the Macintosh disk you want to copy files to are in their respective disk drives. Usually you'll be copying files from your PC's hard disk which is inside the computer and cannot be inserted or removed, but the Macintosh disk will be removable whether it is a CD-ROM, 1.44" MB floppy disk, or a SyQuest cartridge (among other disk types). Be sure it has been inserted into your system's disk drive.

2) Using the Macintosh file selector box (on the left side of the MacSEE main window) you must locate the Macintosh folder into which you want to copy your DOS file. When MacSEE starts up it will list available Macintosh volumes, however if you just inserted a new Macintosh disk then that volume will not be listed and you'll have to click on the rescan toolbar button so that MacSEE can find your newly inserted Macintosh disk. Double click on the volume that you want to copy your DOS file to.

3) Go into the folder you want to copy your DOS file to by double-clicking on folder names .

4) Now, using the DOS file selector on the right side of your MacSEE main window you must locate the DOS file you wish to copy. You can navigate among the DOS drives and directories by double-clicking on them. The current path is listed above the DOS file selector. DOS drive letters are in square brackets surrounded by a dash (e.g. [-A-] for drive A), DOS directory names are in square brackets (e.g. [DIRECTRY]), and [..] means go to the parent directory.

5) Once you've located the directory your file is in click on the file to select (highlight) it.

6) Click on the Copy to Macintosh toolbar button...it looks like a little Macintosh with the Apple logo on its screen. MacSEE will then proceed to copy the selected file to your Macintosh disk and you'll be all done!


HQX
HQX is usually appended to BinHex files so that they can be identified as BinHex files by their filename


Help
Clicking this button activates the help system you are currently using


MacSEE

MacSEE will allow you to copy files from a Macintosh disk to a DOS disk and back. It will also allow you to rename and delete files, create and remove folders/subdirectories and more.

It automatically detects all 3.5" 720K, 1.44 Mb, and 2.88 Mb high density disk drives (MacSEE does not support the older 800K Macintosh floppy disks), Macintosh compatible hard disks including SyQuest and Bernoullis, and CD-ROMs on your system with Macintosh disks in them (the disk containing Macintosh data MUST be in the drive before starting MacSEE as MacSEE will search your system for Macintosh compatible disks).

MacSEE supports many different types of file translation including support for MacBinary and BinHex files as well as moving text, Postscript, EPS, GIF, TIFF, JPEG, Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, QuarkXpress, and many more different types of data files between platforms.

Topics

Getting Started

MacSEE Main Window

MacSEE Toolbar Buttons

Navigating the Macintosh File System

Navigating the DOS File System

File Translation Types

What's New in this version?

About MacSEE


MacSEE - DOS Bytes Free
This displays the amount of space remaining on this DOS disk drive. The Macintosh Files Window (to the left) has a similar feature that is displayed below the Macintosh files window once you are inside of a Macintosh volume. In this screen you are at the volume level so no such number appears.


MacSEE - DOS Files Window
This window displays all files in the selected DOS path. Subdirectories also appear in brackets (e.g. [subdir]). To select a file or subdirectory for transfer simply click on it and it will become highlighted. To open a subdirectory (and make it the active directory) double-click on it.


MacSEE - DOS Path
This is the current DOS path. It tells you what DOS disk drive you are currently in as well as what directory you are currently in, and is where any files/folders will be transferred to when copying from a Macintosh disk to your PC.


MacSEE - Mac Files Window
This window displays your Macintosh volumes (which end in <VOLUME>) or Macintosh files and folders. The topmost level is what you see here and is referred to as 'volume level'. To open a Macintosh volume simply double-click on it. You cannot copy any Macintosh files until you are inside a Macintosh volume. To select Macintosh files or folders simply click on them. Double-clicking on folders allows you to see what they contain much like double-clicking on a volume name.


MacSEE - Status Bar
This is the status bar and displays various messages to keep you informed about what MacSEE is doing. Moving the mouse cursor over an available (non-grayed) button while using MacSEE will display a message in the status bar telling you what the button does.


MacSEE - Tool bar
This is the MacSEE tool bar. It contains several buttons that allow you to perform file operations, set preferences, or access this help file. If your mouse cursor is on one of these buttons then a text description will appear in the status bar at the bottom of this window (if the button is active and not grayed). Click on any of these buttons to find out what they do.


MacSEE Command Buttons
MacSEE Toolbar Buttons

Delete a file or a folder/directory

 View/Change attributes (i.e. name, types, ...)

 Create a new folder/directory

 Resource Inspector

 Rescan for Macintosh volumes

Format/Partition a Macintosh disk

 Set Preferences

 Help System

 Exit MacSEE

Main Window Buttons for file transfers

 Copy a DOS file to a Macintosh disk

 Copy a Macintosh file to a DOS disk


MacSEE Main Window

This is the MacSEE main window and is what you see when you first load MacSEE. Click on an area to find out what it does.


Navigating the DOS File System

When MacSEE is started, the DOS file window will show the current DOS directory above it and a listing of all files/directories in the current DOS directory along with all other DOS compatible drives. If you wish to go into another DOS directory, change to a different DOS drive, or go to the previous (parent) directory (designated by [..]) simply double click on the desired item. If you want to select or deselect a DOS file or directory just single click on it and the DOS file or directory will be highlighted.


Navigating the Macintosh File System

The Macintosh file system is somewhat different from the DOS file system. For starters each Macintosh disk has a name and is referred to as a volume (while a DOS disk is not required to have a name [which is referred to as a label]). When MacSEE is started it will search your system for Macintosh volumes on hard drives/CD-ROM drives, and for any 3.5" floppy disk drives attached to your computer. All volumes found are listed in the Macintosh files window (on the left side of the MacSEE window). A Macintosh disk in a 3.5" disk drive will not have a volume name reported, but rather a DOS drive letter, because the disk in the drive may be changed.

Initially the list of available MacSEE volumes will appear in the Macintosh file's window and you will be able to double click on a volume name with the mouse to open that volume and see what files/folders and contained within it. The volume list is considered the topmost level of the Macintosh file hierarchy that comprises the Macintosh file system.

Once inside a volume you can select a file or a folder by clicking on it, or you can double click on a folder to go into that folder and see what it contains. Double clicking on the <..> item will take you to the previous (parent) folder and eventually back to the topmost list of Macintosh volumes.


Preferences

Pressing the preferences button accesses the MacSEE Set Preferences dialog box. These preferences can be categorized into two categories: General preferences and Translation preferences.

General Preferences

Confirm Deletes - Selecting this button will cause MacSEE to prompt you when deleting a file. If you are deleting more than one file then MacSEE will prompt you once for each item being deleted. When not selected MacSEE will just perform the delete operation (which can be dangerous as accidentally pressing this button means whatever files are selected will be gone)!

Confirm Formats - Selecting this button will cause MacSEE to prompt you whenever you're about to format a disk. Formatting a disk erases any data currently stored on the disk so it's usually a good idea to have this option turned on.

Automatic file naming - The Macintosh file naming conventions are much more flexible than DOS's. When transferring files for a Macintosh to a PC MacSEE attempts to generate a DOS compatible file name. When this option is turned on MacSEE will use this name without asking if you'd prefer something else. When off MacSEE will allow you to change this name to something more desirable.

DOS File Extenders - The Macintosh file system is not as restrictive as DOS when it comes to file names. MacSEE tries to extract as much of the Macintosh file's name during a transfer. MacSEE can either append a DOS extender based on the file type being transferred (the default) which is what happens when this box is checked, or it can use the DOS extender to contain a few more characters from the Mac file's name which is useful if your Macintosh files have valid DOS file names like TEXTFILE.TXT.

Note: This option is not present on the Windows '95 version of MacSEE as Windows '95 supports long filenames and has no problems with a 32 character filename.

Overwrite duplicates - When transferring multiple files to a DOS disk it is possible that Macintosh files will be converted to have the same DOS name. If this option is on then MacSEE will overwrite (deleting) the file that is currently there in favor of placing the new file on the disk. When this option is turned off MacSEE uses an incremental naming approach of turning the last character of the filename to a 1, 2, 3...allowing them all to coexist peacefully on the disk.

Translation Preferences

A translation type is used to determine how you want MacSEE to transfer your data. MacSEE offers four basic translation types:

MacBinary II - This translation type is used to keep both the data and resource forks of a Macintosh file together so that files can be transferred to a non-Macintosh system and when copied back to a Macintosh disk the file will remain intact. When downloading Macintosh files on a PC generally they will be in MacBinary II format so you can use this translation mode to copy those files over to a Macintosh diskette.

BinHex - Similar to MacBinary II, but this translation was created for those that only have 7-bit text transfer options available. These files frequently have an HQX extension applied to the file's name.

Auto-Detect - When this is enabled MacSEE will attempt to determine the type of file being transferred and to translate it accordingly. Use this when you're not sure what type of file your transferring, but you want to use the file (e.g. moving a TIFF picture from a Macintosh disk to your PC) on the other platform.

Manual - Sometimes MacSEE does not correctly guess the correct translation type to be used. Use this to override what MacSEE would pick. When using this mode you must manually pick among the translations listed to the right of this option from the combo-box.


Renaming files and folders
Clicking on the rename button will allow you to see a file's name, size, creation date, and type (as MacSEE sees it). If the file is a Macintosh file the size will be broken into both the Data Fork and a Resource Fork. In addition to this MacSEE allows you to modify the creator and type fields of a Macintosh file. Renaming a file/folder/directory is done by modifying the name in the Name box and clicking OK. Likewise changing the creator and type fields of a Macintosh file is done in a similar manner. Click Cancel if you're unsure of the changes you've made.


Rescan for Macintosh volumes
Clicking the rescan button will cause MacSEE to rescan for Macintosh volumes. This button is only available when you are at the volume (topmost) level in the Macintosh file window, and is useful (for example) if you insert a new Macintosh compatible hard disk or CD-ROM while MacSEE is running.

Note: This is not useful for Macintosh compatible floppy disks as MacSEE does not verify the presence of a Macintosh floppy disk in a floppy disk drive when scanning for Macintosh compatible disks, but rather the presence of the floppy disk drive.


Resource Inspector

Macintosh files keep much of their data in the resource fork. This includes sounds, pictures, fonts, and even actual program code. MacSEE now allows you to inspect this portion of a Macintosh file and extract its pieces. This offers MacSEE much flexibility!

Clicking on the resource inspector button will give you access to the resources contained in a Macintosh file. This button is only available when a single Macintosh file is selected. After scanning the resource fork of the selected Macintosh file, MacSEE will display a list of resources in the following format:

Resource Name (Resource Type-# of this resource type)

If the resource has no name then its resource name will be listed as 'Unnamed'.

When you have picked a resource to copy over to your PC just click the Get Resource button, supply a filename, and the resource's contents will be transferred.


Translation Types
File Translation Types

The are many different types of files such as pictures, word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, programs/applications . . . etc. It would be nice if MacSEE allowed you to transfer these files from a Macintosh into some format usable on a PC and vice versa. This is why file translation is necessary. MacSEE supports several different file formats such as Postscript, EPS, TIFF, MacPaint-PCX, Text, and more. Some of these file translations involve minimal changes to the data file and some involve complex breakdowns and reconstructions so that the resulting file makes sense to the other computer.

Macintoshes also have a very different file structure from that of a PC. PCs have just one chunk of data associated with a file, but Macintoshes have two chunks of data (known as a data fork and a resource fork). Sometimes it is desirable to transfer a Macintosh file to another system that has a file system more like a PC, and then transfer it back without any loss of information. Macintosh users have adopted two such formats for this purpose known as MacBinary and BinHex. MacSEE supports both of these translation types and you can select among them in the preferences menu.

Assuming that you've clicked on the preferences button to get to the Preferences dialog box you can select a translation by simply clicking on the desired choice from among the four selections listed. MacBinary II and BinHex translations are for MacBinary II and BinHex (HQX) files. Auto-detect and Manual are used when the transferred file is going to be used, edited, and or modified (and possibly transferred back) on the other platform (e.g. you have a TIFF picture on a Macintosh disk and you want to transfer it so that it can be modified and used on the PC). Auto-detect attempts to automatically detect the type of data file being transferred and selects the appropriate translation type, and Manual allows you to select the type of translation to be used.

When MacSEE automatically detects the type of translation to be used the Macintosh file's creator and type fields and the DOS file's extension will be set appropriately. Sometimes this information may be incorrect (particularly in the case of DOS extensions) which is why it may be desirable to choose Manual at times. The four manual translation modes are:

Data Fork - Transfers to and from the Macintosh file's data fork verbatim.

Resource Fork - Transfers to and from the Macintosh file's resource fork verbatim.

Text - Transfer to the data fork, but makes the needed adjustments to convert between a Mac's carriage return character to the PC's line feed/carriage return sequence. This translation ignores the resource fork.

MacPaint/PCX - Transfers MacPaint files from a Mac into PCX format on the PC and vice versa. This translation only affects the data fork on the Macintosh and leaves the resource fork empty.


What's New

Version 5.0 of MacSEE adds:

Support for non-floppy devices that do not have a partition table (i.e. 21 MB floptical disks)

Additional file translations for Word Perfect documents and Targa images

Support for tagged (multi-file) transfers and deletes

Eliminates the need for WinASPI drivers when using ASPI hard disks

The Macintosh Resource Inspector

The ability to change Mac hard disks/CD-ROMs and mount them without restarting MacSEE

Formatting/Partitioning of Macintosh compatible hard disks

The ability to manually change the creator and type of a Macintosh file

A 'Set Preferences' dialog box with several additional options

A new 3-dimensional look

Improved SCSI hard disk compatibility

Fixes a bug when writing to a Mac disk without enough free space

New 'DOS File Extenders' option in Preferences

Improved device descriptions when formatting

Software is both smaller and faster

Allows FORMATTING of 720K and 2.88 MB Macintosh floppy disks

Fixes a bug with reading Macintosh hard disks that used the old Mac partition table

Windows version now opens folders with non-alphanumeric names properly

Fixes a bug with identifying QuarkXpress files

Identification and translation of Freehand and QuickTime movie files

Fixes a file system bug with names that have non-standard characters in them

Fixes a bug with BinHex file translation

Improved error checking for out of memory error conditions

A fix for divide by zero errors when some SCSI drives are connected and no disk is in the drive