[TLA]

I need to set up a CD for duplication that includes auto-run files, this I have under control, my only problem is that I need to be able to make them hidden so that the user can't see the .inf or .exe file when they look at the CD contents. This is a piece of piss on a PC, simply click the radio button in the properties pop up box. I cant figure out though, how to achieve the same result on a mac, os9 or osX. I need to make the CD a hybrid mac + PC format and burn it from Toast 5, like I said this is easy to do from a PC but the CD burning software I have access to doesn't support hybrid discs.
Can anybody help?

[Applefreak01]

Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 handle hidden files differently. In Mac OS X any filename that starts with a dot (.) is hidden. Under Mac OS 9 all filenames that start with a dot are visible. There are several ways to get around this.

Mac OS X:
1. Open the Terminal in your Utilities folder
2. Open the folder where the files you want to make hidden are so you can drag them into the Terminal window so you don't have to change your directory and type all that stuff out
3. Type mv followed by a space (drag the file you want to be hidden only one file at a time) followed by another space (now type the new name of the file but make sure it starts with a . for it won't work) and press Enter
example of terminal line: mv myfile.txt .myfile.txt
Your file is now invisible to Mac OS X users.

Mac OS 9
1. Go to http://www.resexcellence.com/support.../resedit.shtml and download ResEdit 2.1.3
2. Open ResEdit and click Cancle (you don't want to open a file this way)
3. Under File choose Get File/Folder Info...
4. Open the file you want to be hidden
5. Under File Flags put a check in the check box next to Invisible to make the file invisible to Mac OS 9 users and save the changes.
6. Repeat steps 1-6 for each file you want invisible
Your files are now invisible to Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 users.

The only problem I see you having is with the Windows part. If you make a hybrid CD in Toast both Mac and Windows users will be able to see the CD. Windows handles hidden files differently than Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 again. I can't remember but I'm sure you can't use a dot (.) as a character in Windows filenames. This shouldn't be a problem unless you think people will take the CD and put it in a Mac and copy the Windows files so they can use them on a Windows computer later on without the CD (I'm not sure why someone would do this but if you are worried about that possibility then you should be).

I would do a multi-session CD. The first session can be either the Mac or Windows format. I would do Mac. Burn your hidden files for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 and call it good for the Mac. Then do another session for Windows only. Burn your Windows hidden files and call it good. Now when a Windows user puts the CD in they only see the Windows compatible partition on the CD and the Mac user will only see the Mac compatible partition on the CD.

Hope that helps. Kind of long in step since you have to do each file one by one. But in the end you should have exactly want you need. Good luck.

[ginoledesma]

Note that prefixing a dot (.) to file names will only make it invisible to Mac OS X and other Unix-like Operating Systems. If you just want to hide it from view for both Mac OS 9 and X users, you can use FileBuddy to modify the file's attributes to make it invisible. Simply drag the file over FileBuddy, check on Invisible, and that's that.

If you want to do it the "neat" way (e.g. hybrid CDs for Windows/Mac), where Windows PCs only see the Windows portion of the disc, and Mac users see only the Mac portion of the disc, you can indeed use Toast to do that. An example neat CD is Blizzard's Diablo II or Warcraft III, which has an HFS+ layer AND an ISO9660/Joliet layer, which are mounted depending on which OS handles the CD. I forget the instructions on how to do it exactly (the step on creating a "shared" layer), but I think Google or MacOSXhints will turn it up.

[philzilla]

sudo SetFile -a V /path/to/file

[ginoledesma]

What perfect timing. Ted Landau of MacFixIt just wrote an article about it.

Tutorial: Now you see 'em, now you don't: Invisible files in Mac OS X

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