Copyright ゥ1996-97, by Aladdin Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
How do I use ShrinkWrap?
Drag and Drop:
You will probably find that the most efficient way to use ShrinkWrap is via the drag and drop interface. By placing the ShrinkWrap application or an alias to ShrinkWrap on your desktop, you can have quick access to almost all features just by dragging files, folders or volumes onto the ShrinkWrap icon.
1. The default actions for drag and drop are as follows:
- Image files: These are mounted on the desktop just as if you had used the Mount Image command from the Image menu and selected each file individually.
- Disks: Exact copies of these volumes are created and saved as disk image files, just as if you had used the Create Image from Disk menu command and selected each volume.
- Folders: A new image file is created, mounted and filled with the contents of the folder, just as if you had selected the New Image from Folder menu command for each folder.
>> Note: Any combination of file, folders or disks can be dropped onto ShinkWrap, but the order in which they are processed can be unpredictable. <<
2. Modifier keys can be held down while you drag and drop an icon or group of icons onto ShrinkWrap to change the behavior:
- Shift: Holding down this key will cause disk image files to be mounted as unlocked disks so that write operations are allowed.
- Command: Holding down Command will cause disk images to be written back to disk. In the case of disk image files, this is the same as the Write Image back to Disk menu command. For disks, this is equivalent to the Duplicate Disk command.
- Control: Holding down Control will calculate 32-bit checksums for the selected disk images, just like the Verify Image and Verify Disk menu commands.
- Shift-Control: Holding down Shift and Control will convert image files of all readable types to the current writable image format as selected in Preferences, just like the Convert Image menu command. For example, if ShrinkWrap Self-Mounting is selected in the Floppy pop-up menu under メSave disk image files as:モ, dragging a selection of image files or folders containing disk image files onto ShrinkWrap while holding down Shift-Control will convert each of these disk image files to a self-mounting image file.
- Option: Holding down the Option key will bring up a one-time Preferences dialog that will allow you to make temporary changes to your Preference options. These changes will stay in effect until you quit the application or enter the Preferences again and press OK.
>> Note: When the Command, Control or Shift-Control modifiers are used on a selection that contains folders, ShrinkWrap will process all the disk image files contained within the selected folders. <<
>> Note: In order for ShrinkWrap to tell that you've held down a modifier key, you must keep it depressed until the progress dialog appears. <<
3. All options in Preferences are also in effect for drag and drop. For example, if the メAutomatically decode and expand archivesモ option is enabled (as it is by default), archived and encoded files will be handed off to the StuffIt Engine for preprocessing and the files that the StuffIt Engine returns will be handled by ShrinkWrap. If a folder is returned, its entire contents will be searched to find image files that can be processed.
Show Log:
The ShrinkWrap Log is a report of all operations that have been conducted since the beginning of the session, including dates and times, detailed information on the disk images processed, checksums and errors. You can view the log at any time by selecting the Show Log command from the Edit menu. The contents can be copied to the clipboard or saved to disk as a SimpleText document using the standard Save or Save As menu commands in the File menu. If you close the Log windows later or quit, you will be prompted to save the log file.
>> Note: If you decline to save a log, you can always reopen it later. The log is created on launch and runs continuously until you quit the application. By selecting the Show Log command or Close, you just control when it's visible. <<
>> Note: The Verify Image and Verify Disk commands will automatically open the log when they complete so that you can examine the results of the verification and record checksum values. <<
Preferences:
1. The group of four メDestination:モ radio buttons indicate where the image files and StuffIt archives created by ShrinkWrap should be stored. Selecting メSame as ShrinkWrapモ will use the folder where the running ShrinkWrap application currently resides. Selecting メSame as originalモ will use the folder (or desktop) that contains the original image file or disk. Selecting メPrompt for destinationモ will prompt you for a destination with a standard file dialog at runtime. Finally, selecting メUse:モ 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 メSelectモ button allows you to choose 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 メAutomatically decode and expand archivesモ 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 if you have StuffIt Engine 3.5 or later installed on your computer.
4. Checking the メDelete archive after expandingモ 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 メAutomatically launch installerモ check box will cause ShrinkWrap to scan each disk that it mounts for the presence of an Apple, Aladdin or MindVision software installer application. If an installer is found, it is automatically launched after all the image files are mounted.
>> Note: If you drag and drop a group of disk image files on ShrinkWrap with this option enabled, only the first installer found is launched. <<
6. Checking the メAutomatically compress image filesモ check box will cause all image files created with ShrinkWrap to be automatically compressed into their own StuffIt archive.
7. Checking the メDelete original after compressingモ check box deletes the original image file from the disk after it has been compressed into an archive.
8. Checking the メEncrypt archives with passwordモ check box will encrypt all image file archives created with ShrinkWrap using a password of your choice or a randomly generated password.
>> Caution: Make sure to remember your password! You will need it to expand any encrypted images in the archive. Aladdin has no specialモkeyモ to recover an image if the password is forgotten. <<
9. Checking the メMake archives self-extractingモ check box will create self-extracting archives that anyone can decompress, even without a StuffIt product.
10. Checking the メAutomatically encode in BinHex formatモ check box will create a BinHex version of the final file that will preserve the resource fork, file type and creator, and Finder attributes when transferred over the Internet.
11. Checking the メDelete image files after conversionモ check box deletes the original disk image files after they have been converted to a new image file format by ShrinkWrap. This will automatically clean up the old image files during batch conversions, freeing up space on your hard drive for the new images. Use this feature carefully.
12. The メFile Formatモ pop-up menu indicates what image file format should be used when creating or converting new disk image files. Disk image files are generated using the New Image, New Image from Folder, Create Image from Disk, and Convert Image commands, or the equivalent modifier keys when used via drag and drop.
13. The メCompressionモ pop-up menu indicates what compression method should be used when creating or converting new disk image files. If the file format youユve selected doesnユt support compressed disk images, this pop-up will be disabled.
Here is a quick description of the compression types available:
- None: No compression is used. Same as DiskCopyユs Read/Write option.
- Simple: Removes blank blocks. Doesnユt require Component Manager. Same as DiskCopyユs Read-Only option.
- DiskCopy: Uses DiskCopy 6.1 compression. Same as DiskCopyユs Read-Only Compressed option.
- StuffIt: Uses StuffIt compression. Not supported by DiskCopy, but saves about 30% more space.
>> Note: Compressed image files canユt be mounted as unlocked volumes. For this reason, the New Image and New Image from Folder commands will always create uncompressed image files, regardless of the current compression setting. After youユve unmounted the disk image file, you can then convert it to a compressed image file using the Convert Image command. <<
14. The メEncryptionモ pop-up menu indicates what encryption method should be used when creating or converting new disk image files. If the file format youユve selected doesnユt support encryption, this pop-up will be disabled. If you enable StuffItユs RSA-compatible 40-bit encryption, ShrinkWrap will encrypt new disk image files using a password of your choice or a randomly generated password. Encrypted disk image can be compressed or uncompressed and mounted as locked or unlocked volumes.
>> Caution: Make sure to remember your password! You will need it to access the encrypted disk image file. <<
15. Checking the メKeep mounted images in RAMモ check box will instruct the ShrinkWrap driver to load mounted images completely into RAM, provided there's enough free memory available.
Here is a quick review of the advantages of each method:
a. Mounting images into RAM:
- Images mounted in RAM are lightning fast (just like a RAM disk).
- Images mounted in RAM never require any free hard drive space.
- The original images are less susceptible to corruption if your computer crashes.
b. Mounting images directly from the hard drive or server:
- Each mounted image requires <1K of RAM.
- Mounting images occurs much faster, since the entire image file need not be immediately loaded into memory.
- The maximum number of mounted image files is not limited by available RAM.
16. Checking the メMount images unlocked by defaultモ check box will cause ShrinkWrap to reverse the normal behavior of the Shift key, causing image files to be mounted as unlocked volume normally and to be mounted as locked volumes if the Shift key is held down.
17. Checking the メAuto-size mounted foldersモ check box will cause ShrinkWrap to skip the New Image dialog when creating the image file to mount a folder and use the suggested size that is normally displayed as the default value in the edit box. This value is calculated to take into account the allocation block size of the new volume, overhead for the Boot Block, Master Directory Blocks, Volume Information Blocks, Catalog Tree and Extents Tree. However, the means of determining the probable size of the desktop database on the new volume is just an educated guess based on the number of files contributing bundles to the database. You will likely have a few K left free on the new volume and there is the potential that there may not be room enough on the drive to build a full desktop database.
18. Checking the メVerify mounted image checksumsモ check box will cause ShrinkWrap to verify the checksums of each image file prior to mounting it on the desktop. This provides a means of confirming the data integrity of the image file prior to it being mounted, although at a noticeable performance cost. If you mount images from a network, floppy or CD-ROM, the verification process can take several seconds.
19. Checking the メVerify tag checksumsモ check box will cause ShrinkWrap to verify checksums of the tag data, if it exists for an image. Tag data is the extra 12 bytes of "scavenger" information present on 400K and 800K Macintosh floppies. Since Apple no longer uses or supports tag data, it is no reflection of the actual integrity of your data. Additionally, DiskCopy 4.2 will occasionally calculate a different tag checksum for 400K and 800K images than that generated by ShrinkWrap, DiskCopy 6.1 and DART, causing the image to fail checksum verification and be rejected, despite the fact that the actual data is uncorrupted. Unchecking this option will allow those image files to be processed, despite the tag checksum discrepancy.
20. Checking the メVerify destination disk checksumsモ 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.
21. Checking the メConfirm overwriting destination diskモ check box will cause a confirmation dialog to be displayed each time you are about to overwrite a formatted floppy disk.
22. Checking the メMinimize ejects by caching to hard driveモ check box will allow ShrinkWrap to use free space on your hard drive as temporary storage when duplicating removable media like Zip, Jaz and Syquest cartridges. Since more free space is generally available on your hard drive than in RAM, enabling this option can reduce the number of times youユll need to swap media considerably.
23. Checking the メBatch Floppy Modeモ 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 the disk images or verify the disks. When you're done, just press Stop.
Menu Commands:
New Image - To create and mount a new blank disk image file on the desktop, do the following:
1. Select the New Image command from the Image menu.
2. Type in the name of the volume, or accept the default name メUntitledモ.
3. Select the radio button to indicate whether you want to create a floppy disk image or larger volume.
4. If you chose the Floppy option, select the size and file system from the pop-up menu.
5. If you chose the Other option, type in the size of the volume you wish to create in K.
6. Hit the OK button.
Mount Image - To mount a disk image file on the desktop so that it acts like a virtual floppy disk, do the following:
1. Select the Mount Image command from the Image menu.
2. Select the image file or folder containing image files you wish to mount from the standard file dialog.
3. Check the option to mount as unlocked on the bottom if the image files are uncompressed and you need read/write access to the mounted disk.
4. Hit the Select button.
>> Note: Image files can be mounted only if they are located on local Macintosh disks or AppleShare servers. If you attempt to mount an image file that is on a PC disk or mounted image, you may receive an error. <<
New Image from Folder - To create and mount a new disk image file with the contents of a folder from within the ShrinkWrap application, do the following:
1. Choose the New Image from Folder command from the Image menu.
2. Select a source folder using the standard file dialog.
3. If the メAuto-size mounted foldersモ option is set in Preferences, you're done. Otherwise you'll see the New Image dialog.
4. Type in the name of the volume, or accept the default name from the folder.
5. Select the radio button to indicate whether you want to create a floppy disk image or larger volume.
6. If you chose the Floppy option, select the size and file system from the popup menu.
7. If you chose the Other option, type in the size of the volume you wish to create in K or accept the default value to size the new volume to the contents of the folder.
8. Hit the OK button.
>> Note: If you select a size for the new volume that is too small for the folder contents, a メDestination disk is fullモ error will result and the contents of the folder will be incompletely copied. Under certain circumstances, the Finder may not allow you to unmount a completely full mounted image file by dragging it to the trash. If this is the case, you will need to restart your Mac. <<
Unmount Image - To unmount image files in the Finder, just drag the mounted volumes to the trash. To unmount from within the ShrinkWrap application, do the following:
1. Choose the Unmount Image command from the Image menu.
2. Select the disk image volume to unmount using the standard file dialog.
>> Note: Ejecting a mounted image file will only cause it to be automatically メreinsertedモ. This prevents you from being prompted to reinsert the ejected volume later, a task that's almost impossible to accomplish from the system modal dialog. <<
Create Image from Disk - To make an image file of a floppy disks, CD-ROM, hard disk, removable or mounted images, do the following:
1. Choose the Create Image from Disk command from the Image menu.
2. Select the disk to copy using the standard file dialog.
3. 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 don't wish to create any more image files.
Write Image to Disk - To write a disk image file back to disk, do the following:
1. Choose the Write Image to Disk command from the Image menu.
2. Select the image file to copy using the standard file dialog.
3. Insert a destination disk or select the destination volume in the standard file dialog.
4. 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 don't wish to make any more copies.
>> Caution: The unlocked floppy disk that you insert or destination volume that you select will be totally overwritten with the contents of the image file. For an additional layer of protection, enable the option to confirm overwriting the destination disk in Preferences. <<
Duplicate Disk - To duplicate disks, do the following:
1. Choose the Duplicate Disk command from the Image menu.
2. Select the floppy disk volume to duplicate using the standard file dialog.
3. Insert a destination disk or select the destination volume in the standard file dialog.
4. 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 don't wish to make any more copies.
>> Caution: The unlocked floppy disk that you insert or destination volume that you select will be totally overwritten with the contents of the image file. For an additional layer of protection, enable the option to confirm overwriting the destination disk in Preferences. <<
Convert Image - To convert any readable disk image file format to the image file format chosen in Preferences, do the following:
1. Choose the Convert Image command from the Image menu.
2. Select the image file or folder containing image files to convert using the standard file dialog.
Verify Image - To verify image files and display their 32-bit checksums, do the following:
1. Choose the Verify Image command from the Image menu.
2. Select the image file or folder containing image files to verify using the standard file dialog.
>> Note: If the original image file format contained archived checksums and these don't match the calculated values, an alert will be displayed and the values will be shown in the ShrinkWrap Log. <<
Verify Disk - To verify a volume or mounted image:
1. Choose the Verify Disk command from the Image menu.
2. Select the disk to verify using the standard file dialog.
Scripting Support:
ShrinkWrap supports a custom AppleEvent suite which gives you the ability to control and automate almost all of the functions within the application. The most common usage of these advanced capabilities is through OSA compliant scripting systems such as AppleScript or UserLand Frontier. In order to facilitate your use of ShrinkWrap with scripting systems, ShrinkWrap includes an 'aete' resource which details the full complement of AppleEvents and AE objects supported. To examine the 'aete' resource, open Apple's Script Editor, choose Open Dictionary from the File menu and then select the ShrinkWrap application. Sample scripts are included in the AppleScriptェ Examples folder.
Important Tips
Do you have enough available RAM?
The ShrinkWrap driver has two modes, RAM-based and file-based. When you select the option to メKeep mounted images in RAMモ and there is enough free memory available, the driver mounts an image file by creating a RAM disk the size of the disk image file, copying the contents of the image file to RAM, and then mounting the disk image directly from RAM. Consequently, to mount an image file in the RAM-based mode, you must always have enough free RAM to load the disk image file completely into memory. (Sorry! Virtual memory doesn't count.)
>> Note: 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. So don't be surprised if your system heap doesn't immediately shrink back to its original size. <<
Do you have enough free space on your startup disk?
When the メKeep mounted images in RAMモ option is disabled, the driver mounts disk image by mapping their blocks directly from the hard disk or network share. Unfortunately, compressed DiskCopy 5.0d1 image files canユt mounted this way and require ShrinkWrap to convert them to a temporary scratch file which is stored within the invisible Temporary Items folder on your startup disk and then directly mounted with read-only access. Consequently, to mount this image file format in the file-based mode, you must have as much free hard drive space as disk capacity you wish to mount.
>> Note: If you should experience a crash when an image file is mounted, any scratch files used for temporary storage of the mounted image will be automatically recovered by the system to the メRescued itemsモ folder in your Trash. If an image file was mounted unlocked, it may contain checksums that were never updated to reflect changes you made before the crash. To fix this, disable the メVerify mounted image checksumsモ option, mount the suspect image file, then drag the mounted volume onto ShrinkWrap. A new image file will be created from the mounted volume that has valid checksums. <<
ShrinkWrap Disk Image Files vs. DiskCopy:
The ShrinkWrap 3.0 image file format is identical to the DiskCopy 6.1 New Disk Image Format (NDIF) except in the following ways:
- ShrinkWrap image files are saved with ShrinkWrap's creator code.
- ShrinkWrap image files support StuffIt 40-bit encryption.
- ShrinkWrap image files support StuffIt compression, which on average saves over 30% more space and compresses in less than half the time.
If you would like to batch convert a folder of disk image files to ShrinkWrap 3.0 disk images, do the following:
- Drag the folder containing the disk images onto ShrinkWrap while holding down the Shift, Control & Option keys.
- Select メSame as originalモ as the destination option.
- Disable option to メAutomatically compress image filesモ (since compression is integrated into NDIF image files).
- Enable option to メDelete image files after conversionモ (if you want the old image files removed).
- Select メShrinkWrap 3.0モ in the File Format pop-up.
- Select メStuffItモ in the Compression pop-up (or メDiskCopyモ to create image files that DiskCopy 6.1 can open).
- Select メNoneモ in the Encryption pop-up.
- Hit OK.
ShrinkWrap will then recursively navigate all the folders contained within the folder you selected, identify valid image files, and convert them to the new format.
>> Note: A sample AppleScript applet called Make StuffIt Compressed has been provided in the AppleScriptェ Examples folder to automate this conversion process. <<
ShrinkWrap Self-Mounting Image Files:
Self-mounting image files are essential for distributing disk images to people who donユt necessarily already have a copy of ShrinkWrap or DiskCopy. Theyユre mounted by simply double-clicking on their icon, not unlike how youユd double-click a folder to access its contents. The basic overhead for making a disk image file self-mounting is <10K. Choosing compression and/or encryption can add an additional 2-25K, since the components for these features must also be included. Unlike mounting image files with the ShrinkWrap application, an uncompressed self-mounting image will always mount as unlocked when double-clicked. Modifier keys and ShrinkWrap application preferences have no effect.
Component Manager:
Just like QuickTime, ShrinkWrap uses Component Manager 3.0 to implement PowerPC and 68K compression and encryption methods in the ShrinkWrap application, driver, and self-mounting image files. If you have a system older than System 7.1 and donユt have QuickTime 1.6 or later installed, the Component Manager will not be available and you wonユt be able to process compressed or encrypted image files.
DiskCopy 6.1.x:
The latest versions of DiskCopy fully support ShrinkWrap 3.0 image files and DiskCopy 6.1 image files created with ShrinkWrap 3.0, provided that you donユt choose StuffIt compression or any encryption. ShrinkWrap Self-Mounting image files can be read and mounted by DiskCopy under the same conditions, but compressed image files may unexpectedly show up as unlocked volumes when mounted. Since any changes you make will not actually be saved, we recommend you avoid processing ShrinkWrap Self-Mounting image files with DiskCopy.
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.
Hard Disk Toolkit:
If you format removable media with FWBユs HDT driver and enable the メPhysical eject on unmountモ option, the drive will unexpectedly eject the media when ShrinkWrap unmounts the volume in preparation to write an image back to disk. You should disable this option by launching Hard Disk Toolkit, double-clicking the ejectable drive, selecting the active SCSI driver, hitting the Configure Driver button, and then disabling the check box for this option.
Anti-Viral Utilities:
Some anti-viral utilities may consider ShrinkWrap's activities to be メsuspiciousモ 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.
Background Compression Utilities:
ShrinkWrap usually can't mount image files that have been compressed with background compression utilities such as StuffIt SpaceSaver, AutoDoubler or More Disk Space unless they are mounted in RAM.
Hardware Accelerators:
ShrinkWrap will not run with some types of processor accelerators since certain required floppy driver support is not provided. To use ShrinkWrap, first restart with the accelerator disabled.
MFS Disks:
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.
Old Macs:
Some older Macs (Mac 128K, 512K, 512KE & Plus) will be unable to create, verify or copy disk images with ShrinkWrap since their floppy disk drivers do not support the necessary control calls. However, disk image files can still be mounted, converted and verified on these machines.