At Ease for Workgroups 4.0.x: Issues Reading DOS Disks

TECHINFO-0020804

TOPIC

I am having problems reading DOS formatted disks using At Ease for Workgroups 4.0.x. When I place a disk into the computer, an error appears stating that the disk is unreadable and needs to be formatted. However, if I have ClarisWorks open, then insert the DOS disk, it works properly. Why?

DISCUSSION

The error message you are seeing only happens with the workgroup being used prohibits access to Control Panels. PC Exchange patches the Disk Init package, and it loads the new package from the control panel file. However, At Ease patches prevent the Finder from opening any control panel when access to control panels is disabled.

Workarounds

Here are some workarounds to prevent this error dialog.

• Enable control panel access in the workgroups that must have PC Exchange access.

• Launch any application and insert the DOS formatted disk while that application is in the foreground. When you quit the application, the disk is still mounted on the desktop (in the Finder).

• Add PC Exchange to the workgroups (as an item) that must have PC Exchange access.

• Place an alias to PC Exchange in the Apple Menu Items folder. This allows access to PC Exchange if other Apple Menu Items are allowed (another option in the Menus pane of the workgroup setup dialog). This alias does not appear in the Apple Menu while in the Restricted Finder, but still allows a DOS formatted disk to be mounted properly.

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