Creation date of files

vox barbaravox barbara
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hello folks,



well, i just performed a CMD-F search (i was looking about a file, that

i knew it was created before 1995). So my search criteria was just

"Creation date before 1995".



Surprisingly the search presented a lot of files, which creation date

was/is set in the 1970s, some in the 1904s. A lot of Jpgs, which i got from PC

owners. But the point, that scares me a lot is that there are a huge number

of system files set back to the 1970s or 1904s respectively.





Example:

DirectoryService (folder inside sys pref.)

unix.showq

unix.local

unix.cleanup

(name of 2. Partition)

hostconfig~

hostconfig

master.pid

locate.database

authorization

(name of 1. Partition)



Something to worry about?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    No. January 1, 1904 is the null date in classic Mac OS; January 1, 1970 is the equivalent for Unix.



    Meaning, files that have that as their date actually have no known creation date at all.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    QUOTE=Chucker]No. January 1, 1904 is the null date in classic Mac OS; January 1, 1970 is the equivalent for Unix.



    Meaning, files that have that as their date actually have no known creation date at all.[/QUOTE



    Alright. Anyway, what worries me a lot is the fact, that no other Mac, which i can have

    my hands on, has such peculiar creation date settings. I can't believe that my HD got 1976

    as creation date and that this isn't something to worry about. How could this possibly happen?
  • Reply 3 of 4
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    If the machine is offline from the Time server (time.apple.com), and the battery on the mobo dies, then the PRAM cannot tell what time it is and the OS will assign the "null date" to everything. As noted, this is either 1970 or 2001 depending on which routine was in charge of getting the date.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lundy


    If the machine is offline from the Time server (time.apple.com), and the battery on the mobo dies, then the PRAM cannot tell what time it is and the OS will assign the "null date" to everything. As noted, this is either 1970 or 2001 depending on which routine was in charge of getting the date.



    Thank you for pitching in lundy.

    battery on the mobo dies, what does that suppose to mean?

    I am talking about a PowerBook G4 1Ghz, date of purchase Oct. 2003,

    no battery on the mobo, at least this is what everybody tells me.

    Apples online DB is somewhat unspecific regarding battery on the mobo.

    The PB manual doesn't mention a battery, too. I am confused.



    So, there is a battery on the mobo, which can die, right?

    I can possibly change it, can i not?
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