Where is the Desktop Folder?

[macuserman]

Alright so this is a dumb question, but I'm trying to access the desktop directory of an OS 9 drive from another machine and for the life of me I cannot figure how how to pull it up. Usually, I'm booting from the drive but in this case, I want to retrieve some files from the desktop and I can't figure out where the blazes that resides.

Can someone point me in the right direction here? I feel incredibly dumb for asking, but dang if I can't find it.

Thanks!

 

[joshc]

I think the contents are stored in a hidden/invisible folder. Something like Norton FastFind or FileBuddy might be able to see it.

 

[macuserman]

I think the contents are stored in a hidden/invisible folder. Something like Norton FastFind or FileBuddy might be able to see it.

Ah drat, this drive is not bootable currently I messed it up but I'd really like to grab the contents of the desktop folder before wiping it.

 

[joshc]

You said you've got it hooked up to another Mac? Which Mac? Can you use one of the utilities I mentioned to see what's on it?

 

[macuserman]

You said you've got it hooked up to another Mac? Which Mac? Can you use one of the utilities I mentioned to see what's on it?

I have a variety of machines at my disposal so I can put it in anything, I can even put it in one of my G4 towers if needed and look at it with OSX if that gives me better tools.

 

[Crutch]

At the root level of the drive there should be a folder called “Desktop Folder”. Your stuff is in there.

 

[LaPorta]

Is this over a network, or how are you accessing this “other drive”?

 

[macuserman]

Is this over a network, or how are you accessing this “other drive”?

I just put in a second bootable drive to access the hardrive this was in an 8600. I foolishly put it into a 68k machine and it screwed up the boot drive so now it throws an error everytime it tries to boot. Unkown file system or unknown resource or something like that. Anyhow I just want to recover the files before I try to fix the drive. I've been using 8.6 and the drive I want to recover is 9.1 but i didn't think that would matter.

 

[macuserman]

I just put in a second bootable drive to access the hardrive this was in an 8600. I foolishly put it into a 68k machine and it screwed up the boot drive so now it throws an error everytime it tries to boot. Unkown file system or unknown resource or something like that. Anyhow I just want to recover the files before I try to fix the drive. I've been using 8.6 and the drive I want to recover is 9.1 but i didn't think that would matter.

I suppose more clarity is in order, specifically, I have a SCSI2SD that had multiple boot volumes on it in my 8600, 9.1, 8.6. 7.5 etc. I put it into a Quadra 700 thinking I could use the older boot drive like 7.5 but when I did it tried to boot the OS9 volume and screwed it up somehow. So I can still boot off the other volumes from the SCSI2SD and see the 9.1 volume. Or I can use a second drive, install CD, or put it in a G4 with a pci scsi card and see it there in OSX. Lots of options to mount and look at the volume, just couldn't find the stinking desktop folder.

 

[LaPorta]

The desktop folder is an invisible folder stored at the root level of the hard drive. You could make it visible by using ResEdit to get info on it and remove the “invisible” flag and save it.

 

[Crutch]

So I can still boot off the other volumes from the SCSI2SD and see the 9.1 volume. Or I can use a second drive, install CD, or put it in a G4 with a pci scsi card and see it there in OSX. Lots of options to mount and look at the volume, just couldn't find the stinking desktop folder.

If you can boot into any version of classic Mac OS and mount the volume, everything on the desktop (i.e. in the Desktop Folder) in that (and every) mounted volume should just magically appear on your desktop. If it doesn’t, I suspect the things you are looking for are not in the Desktop Folder.

 

[LaPorta]

That is true, thanks crutch

 

[macuserman]

If you can boot into any version of classic Mac OS and mount the volume, everything on the desktop (i.e. in the Desktop Folder) in that (and every) mounted volume should just magically appear on your desktop. If it doesn’t, I suspect the things you are looking for are not in the Desktop Folder.

Well that is something new I never knew that. In any case I was able to open the drive with File Buddy on my quicksilver G4 and see the files that way. It would be quite funny if I never looked on the desktop because I didn't think they were there and they were actually visible the whole time

 

[joshc]

Nice one. FileBuddy is a great tool.

 

[Crutch]

Well that is something new I never knew that. In any case I was able to open the drive with File Buddy on my quicksilver G4 and see the files that way. It would be quite funny if I never looked on the desktop because I didn't think they were there and they were actually visible the whole time

Understandable and for sure not the best aspect of classic Mac OS — typical user would have many Finder windows open and desktop icons would inevitably end up buried beneath some of them, often not visibly appearing anywhere when you insert or mount a disk for that reason.

I implemented Exposé for classic Mac OS to help address this problem - currently stuck in late-beta-version limbo but download one of the attachments linked to this thread sometime and try it out: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/idea-dream-wish-exposé-for-classic-mac-os.39438/