Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!drj100
From: DRJ100@psuvm.psu.edu (Daniel R. Jeuch)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Does everybody hate Windows?
Message-ID: <90256.133657DRJ100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 13 Sep 90 17:36:57 GMT
References: <1990Aug27.204452.9786@tc.fluke.COM> <8385@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
 <49394@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 29

In article <49394@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>, news@olivea.atc.olivetti.com (news)
says:
>
>From: tonyb@olivej.olivetti.com (Anthony M. Brich)
>Path: olivej!tonyb
>
>A colleague is in the habit of unfragmenting hard disks from a DOS
>window, using Norton Utilities' Speed Disk.  Seems to work okay,
>though I must admit I was a little skepical.  Are we running any great
>risks with this technique?
>
Yes, very much so... especially when used in conjunction with SmartDRV.SYS
(The cache buffer)  Norton's SpeedDisk program phisically moves the data
from one part of the hard drive to another.  Windows still expects to find
the data in the old place.  Both the Windows manual AND Norton's manual
warn against these practices.  A hard drive write procedure could
potentially destroy the integrity of the File Allocation Table (FAT), and
once that's gone, so is the rest of that drive!

Only programs that use DOS for drive access can be run... Another example
is Spinrite.  Don't run this application under Windows either...

>Tony Brich

-----
Daniel R. Jeuch                   Microsoft Corp. Student Rep.
10 Vario Blvd., Box 185           DRJ100@PSUVM, drj@psuvm.psu.edu
State College, PA  16803          drj@s121.psu.edu (my PC)
(814) 867-4622, (800) 232-5129