Re: Little "shadow" versions of .doc files transferred to Windows??

From: John McGhie (john_at_mcghie.name)
Date: 12/05/04 

Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 17:12:36 +1100

Hi Bill:

He needs to read the documentation from Apple on High Performance File
System "Plus" -- HFS+, which is the most common file system on Macs.

In this file system, each file is actually two components, the "Resource"
fork and the "Data" fork. See
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1150.html#HFSPlusBasics

In Windows XP, the pair should appear and be managed as only one file, as
they do on the Mac. In older versions of Windows, you will see the two
components as separate files.

The reason you need to delete them is that, if Windows deletes the Data
fork, it is now dissociated from the Resource fork, which will then hang
around forever. On Windows XP, each file will occupy a single block of disk
space and Windows does not know to delete it so it never will.

Hope this helps

On 5/12/04 3:38 AM, in article BDD727F5.1E534%bill@nospam.net, "Bill
Weylock" <bill@nospam.net> wrote:

> Could one of you MVPs please confirm what I once read in a support file and
> cannot now find again?
>
> When I use a synch utility to synchronize a Mac folder to a Windows XP folder,
> Windows generates little 4k shadow versions of each .doc or .xls file. There
> will be OriginalMacFile.doc, which I can open and use with no problems, and
> also ._OriginalMacFile.doc, which cannot be opened and has no information
> OfficeXP can read.
>
> My recollection is that these little files are Windowıs way of handling
> ³resource² information in Mac files.
>
> I also believe that, once generated, they are useless to both Windows and
> Macs. The only thing to be done with them is throw them away.
>
> Iım asking because the very nice young guy who is writing Synk does not want
> to include a deletion mechanism for these little boogers until he has
> confirmation that they are useless from someone with more creds than I have.
>
> Is there anything to be said for NOT deleting those little guys? For instance,
> could they have some residual utility if returned to the Mac side? I doubt it,
> but I guess Iıd have the same scruple if I were writing software.
>
> A link to an MVP file or MS support file would be terrific of course. My
> searches have not got me anywhere.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> Best,
>
>
> - Bill
>
>
> Panther 10.3.6
> Office 2004
>
> 

-- 
Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.  Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie <john@mcghie.name>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

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