Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!emory!hubcap!ncrcae!oiscola!dbarnhar
From: dbarnhar@oiscola.Columbia.NCR.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Norton v. SUM II (& DeskTop files & ...)
Message-ID: <313@oiscola.Columbia.NCR.COM>
Date: 1 Nov 90 15:45:33 GMT
References: <13738@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <1990Oct30.231854.2545@midway.uchicago.edu> <1182@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> <4267@lib.tmc.edu>
Reply-To: dbarnhar@oiscola.UUCP (David C. Barnhart II)
Organization: NCR/OISD Columbia
Lines: 53

In article <4267@lib.tmc.edu> drg@mdaali.cancer.utexas.edu (David Gutierrez) writes:
>In article <1182@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> nick@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) 
>writes:
>> One problem that's going to crop up - when we're all running Desktop
>> Manager, these optimisers are probably going to break, since D.M. seems
>> to keep its Desktop files open all the time.
>
>That turns out not to be the case. I just optimized three of my partitions 
>using Norton Speed Disk while Desktop Manager was active. No problem at 
>all. It's much better than Disk Express II, which is what I was using. DE 
>II kept reporting disk directory errors that SUM II, NUM and MacTools 
>Deluxe couldn't find. I guess it's time to feed Disk Express to Oscar. He 
>loves trash.
>

Be careful!  I have just talked with Marvin Carlberg (the chief programmer
for Norton Utilities) and there IS at least one directory error that version
1.0 of NU can't find (SUM II and MacTools didn't find it either) that Disk
Express noticed and as a result, refused to optimize the disk.  

I sent the copy of the directory (that FileSaver from Norton makes) to him
and he confirmed that NU 1.0 did not diagnose or fix this problem correctly.
What was interesting, however, was that NU would optimize the disk around
this problem.  The optimization worked fine, and the problem (which is one
of the possible causes of "Folders from Hell") remained.  He sent me a fix
that I had to do by hand (with a disk editor) that worked fine.  My Folder
from Hell went away, and the directory error went away as well.

I would say that a good way to tell if DiskExpress is off-base is to run
DiskFirstAid on the disk.  If it refuses to verify the disk, you know that
DiskExpress is at least telling the truth.  In my case, DiskFirstAid told
me I had the error, and NU 1.0 did not discover it at all.  (Marvin did say
that the problem would be fixed in a future version.)

One thing that should be noted:  I do not own or use Disk Express; I only
borrowed it from a friend to test the disk.  I can't really say whether it
does a better (or worse) job of optimizing or whether it should be put in
the trash.  Disk Express is simply more sensitive about optimizing with
directory errors present, and it looks as if it was the one telling the
truth when it said I had a directory error.  In any case, I do use Norton,
and it did an excellent job of optimizing the disk, even when the error
was present.


Dave Barnhart
NCR Cooperative Computing Systems Division
3245 Platt Springs Rd.
West Columbia, SC  29169    email: uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!secola!oiscola!dbarnhar
-- 
Dave Barnhart
NCR Cooperative Computing Systems Division
3245 Platt Springs Rd.
West Columbia, SC  29169    email: uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!secola!oiscola!dbarnhar