DisKeeper may think two identical files are different if they contain multiple resources with the same resource type and ID. This is impossible, just like more than one person having the same social security number is impossible. However, a game called “Pirates” creates these corrupt files. Incidentally, ResEdit gets confused by these files as well.
One user who has over 30,000 files reports that it stops running during the preliminary duplicate scan, but I have not been able to duplicate this problem since I don’t have that many files. This was probably due to opening a bad resource file and should therefore be a non-issue for versions 1.8 and later.
NOTE: If you do run into this problem, type “DBUG” while in the Setup window, run DisKeeper again, and e-mail me the output file. This “debug” mode will slow things down considerably and write some “extra junk” to the output file. I’d also appreciate knowing if you scan tens of thousands of files and all goes well.
DisKeeper will not detect errors in writing to the output file. Actual I/O errors are extremely rare, but be advised that it will keep going if the disk that the output file is on becomes full. Make sure there is plenty of room for the output file before running DisKeeper.
EXCUSE: DisKeeper DOES check for errors everywhere else, so the only bad thing that could happen would be that the output file might be incomplete.
DisKeeper does not save the settings of checkboxes into its settings file. In other words, you must (un)check them when you run DisKeeper again. The only things that are currently saved into the (default) settings file are the output TEXT file creator and any “special” file types that you have defined.
You can’t select the System 7’s Desktop Folder or Trash folders to be scanned individually, because I haven’t figured out how to get them to appear in the Standard File dialog box.
NOTE: One exception: selecting the Desktop itself will scan the Desktop Folder of the boot disk. I think.
DisKeeper may create a small file in your System Folder that contains the “Output TEXT File Signature” that it will use when creating its files. This file also points to the location on your disk of another (optional) file that contains the “special types” definitions.
NOTE: If you use the “default” settings for these, DisKeeper will not create these files.
DisKeeper may not be able to scan files that other programs are currently using.
DisKeeper will complain (with a message in the output file) if a file’s length has changed since it first saw it. This is caused by other applications changing files. Again, the solution is to run DisKeeper by itself.
DisKeeper will try to create a unique trash folder for each item in the Disk Picker window. If “DisKeeper Trash” can’t be created, it will try “DisKeeper Trash A” … “DisKeeper Trash Z” then “DisKeeper Trash AA” and so on.
NOTE: If you scan a folder and the disk that contains it, or more than one folder on the same disk, DisKeeper may create more than one trash folder on that disk.
A type or creator code which contains unprintable characters will be printed as an integer. The problem is that it might be a four-digit integer, which would look like a legitimate creator code. However, this will probably never, ever happen. But there’s probably some joker out there who will create a file of type “6666” or 6666, just to prove me wrong. Avoid these people.
Once in a very blue moon, DisKeeper will grind to a halt or crash for no apparent reason. Before you go accusing DisKeeper of having a bug, try to find out what it was doing just before it bombed. I have seen cases where a bad sector on a disk causes the System (and therefore, DisKeeper) to crash. Some brands of hard disks will refuse to do anything until they are turned off and on again. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to determine exactly what DisKeeper was doing, since the last part of the output file may not get written to disk before the crash. If it was examining a particular file, try to duplicate the file with the finder. If this works, use DisKeeper to compare the original with the new copy. DisKeeper also has an annoying (but useful) habit of finding bad spots on the directory. Often these bad directory areas will go unnoticed for a long time - especially if they are hiding in the “forgotten corners” of the disk - everybody has files that they haven’t touched in months or years. A disk diagnostic program like SUM II or Norton Utilities or Disk First Aid will probably show that DisKeeper is not imagining things. If all else fails, report the problem to the address below.
MAJOR IMPROVEMENT: DisKeeper 1.8 and later incorporates code (donated by John Norstad from Disinfectant) to verify that a resource fork is not damaged before trying to look inside. This will prevent a lot of crashes.
When DisKeeper is trying to compare individual resources and does not have enough memory left to load a (large) resource, it won’t be able to finish the comparison. Sound resources and Microsoft PCOD resources can be huge, for instance. The solution is to increase DisKeeper’s memory partition size by using the Finder’s “Get Info” command, or just don’t use MulitFinder. Versions of DisKeeper before 1.9 had their resources locked - if you attempted to increase the memory size, the Finder couldn’t do it. But it also wouldn’t tell you that - a System 7 feature.
NOTE: When a resource is too big to load-in for comparison, DisKeeper will try to match the resource forks as byte streams.
DisKeeper is fully compatable with 68040-based Macintoshes. Stay tuned for more System 7-savvy features.
DisKeeper is (and always was?) 32-bit clean. I’m working on the 78-bit clean version.
PRE-SYSTEM 7 ISSUES
The Mac OS may crash if it tries to open a file whose name starts with a period. A work-around has been provided in System 7.0, which DisKeeper will use, if possible. To avoid this problem entirely, don’t name files with a period in the beginning. If you don’t believe me, rename a file to “.boom” and duplicate it with a pre-System 7 Finder.
DisKeeper will not run on a 64K ROM machine because it needs HFS. Get an upgrade. I think it should be compatable with System 4.2 and later. It successfully bombed on a 512K Mac running System 1. :-) Seriously, everyone’s been running System 7 for over four years now, right?
Turning your disk cache on speeds things up. 32K should be sufficient.
