Creating GEOS Work Disks

by Dick Estel

In helping folks figure out GEOS, I've observed that the ones who have the most trouble creating work
disks were all using one-drive systems. Possibly Berkeley Softworks had an interest in encouraging
people to buy a second disk drive; at any rate, it is tedious and discouraging to use the program with
only one drive. And making work disks is especially difficult and confusing for new users.

For anyone using GEOS who has this problem, here is a step-by-step tutorial, as well as some
DON'Ts. These instructions are the best procedure in my opinion, and in some cases conflict with the
gospel according to Berkeley.

First, DON'T copy your system disk or application disk for use as a work disk (DO copy it as a
backup, and put it away). 

1. Format a disk for each major application. I suggest one for geoWrite and one for geoPaint to start. If
you have a 1571 drive, use double-sided format.

2. Open GEOS. You must use the system disk (also known as the boot disk) to load GEOS. At this
point you are looking at the Desk Top. The rectangle in the middle of the screen with eight little pictures
(icons) on it is referred to as the note pad. At the top of the screen is a menu bar. Below the Desk Top
is the border. On the right side of the border is the waste basket. On older versions of GEOS there is a
picture of a printer next to it. On newer versions the printer is on the left side. DON'T confuse this
printer icon with the printer DRIVER icons on the desk top. I will refer to this icon as the printer
command icon and the others as drivers. At the lower left corner of the note pad is a turned-up corner.
Clicking on either part of this changes to the next or previous page of the Desk Top. You can also just
press the number keys to go to a specific page number. To the right of the note pad is an icon that
looks like a disk. It should be black, and will have a name under it, something like System or System
Backup. This icon shows whether the drive is active or not (in a multiple-drive system there can be up
to three icons here).

3. Go through the pages and find the printer driver icon for your printer. Move the pointer over it, and
click once. The printer icon colors should be reversed. Now click on it again. A white outline of the
icon should appear, and will become attached to the pointer. Move this "ghost icon" to the border and
click once. The icon will disappear from the note pad and appear on the border. If you have a 1571
drive, repeat the process with the file named Desk Top. 

4. Remove the source disk (your System disk at this point) and insert your work disk. Move the pointer
over the disk icon to the right of the note pad and click once. The display will change to show what is
on your work disk (a blank note pad if it's a newly formatted disk).

5. The printer driver icon that you moved to the border should still be visible. Move the pointer over it
and click once; then click again. A ghost icon should appear. Move it to the note pad and click once.

6. You will now be prompted to insert the source disk. After you have done so, move the pointer to the
box next to OK and click once. The program will now start to read the printer driver file.

7. Next you will be prompted to insert your work disk. Do so and click on OK. The driver file will be
written to your work disk. Repeat steps 5 though 7 with the Desk Top file if you have a 1571 drive.

8. Remove your work disk and insert the disk with geoPaint on it. (At this point the disk you copy from
will change depending on what version you are using. For the old 64 it will be the system disk. For the
old 128 it will be the back of the system disk. For all 2.0 versions it will be the Applications Disk.

9. Repeat the process of moving the files to the border as described in Step 3. You should move
geoPaint, the Photo Manager, and the desired fonts to the border (note that fonts may not be on the
same disk with geoPaint and Photo Manager).

10. When you have moved all desired files on a particular disk, repeat the copying process described in
Steps 4 through 7. 

11. Repeat the process to create a geoWrite work disk, substituting geoWrite for geoPaint. If you are
using a 1541 drive, be conservative in selecting your fonts. You have very little room to work,
especially for your geoPaint disks.

12. Now, you are probably eager to start using geoPaint or geoWrite. DON'T.

13. Get out of GEOS and get out your best whole-disk copy program (Maverick or Fast Hack'em are
fine). Make several copies of your work disks. The purpose of this is to have basic work disks ready
when you start a new project, so you don't have to go through the hassle of file-copying to make work
disks. You can always delete some fonts and replace them with others, or change printer drivers if you
have more than one printer.

14. If you are having a problem creating a work disk, re-read all the instructions from start to finish
without doing anything; then try it a step at a time. If that doesn't do it, send Email to DickEstel@att.net.

(From The Interface, newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group, 12/90; via the Commodore
Information Center, http://home.att.net/~rmestel/commodore.html)