Disk Operations 117
What probably happens when this procedure
is
performed
is
that
the application
is
loaded into the Mac's RAM. Applica-
tions generally occupy a large portion
of
memory. The result
is
that the portion
of
the RAM which holds the disk recognizing
information
is
written over by the application.
If
we
were
to
open a Mac Write document from the second
disk while it was still
an
Alternate disk, the Mac would load the
MacWrite application from the
System disk. In this case the
System disk would not
be
replaced.
In
fact the Alternate disk
would be banished when
we
returned
to
the Desktop.
The second method
of
changing the disk hierarchy
is
to
turn off the Mac. When that occurs, the
RAM
is
erased. Now,
when the Mac
is
turned on again, the first system disk
to
be
inserted will assume the throne and become king.
Data Placement Strategies
Due
to
the limited size
of
our
magnetic medium,
we
can-
not indiscriminately load data, system files, and applications
on any disk
and
expect smooth, efficient operation. Develop-
ing a sound
data
handling strategy will greatly aid the Mac's
efficiency.
In
this section
we
will review some
of
the various
data
placement options and the advantages
and
disadvantages
of
each. The basis for our discussion will be, as before, the
concept
of
operational disks, data disks, and applications
disks.
SINGLE DISK OPERATION
In
one of the previously discussed scenarios,
we
used the
operational disk as the working disk.
Under this organizational
strategy,
we
place the needed applications upon the operations
disk and use all other disks as holding areas for unused
data
files.
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