Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!unixhub!slacvm!esr
From: ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Hard disk problem
Message-ID: <90310.124607ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 6 Nov 90 20:46:07 GMT
References: <17100072@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <56991@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
 <90309.104113ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Lines: 43

In response to:

>>From: cncst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Christophe N. Christoff)
>>Subject: Hard disk problem
>>Date: 4 Nov 90 22:17:52 GMT
>>
>>
>>I have PC/AT compatible machine with Seagate hard disk paritioned
>>into drive C and drive D.  I ran Norton speed disk for both drives
>>and I was successful on drive C, and got message saying something
>>like "incomplete....., run Norton Disk Doctor".  Then, I ran
>>Norton Disk Doctor on drive D.   What happened was NDD was trying to
>>read forever, and never return the control back to DOS.  I had to
>>................

I replied (in part)

>I have also had some recent problems with Norton (4.5) Speed Disk.  It
>totally lunched the files in one directory on the D partition (FDISK from
>DOS 3.3).  I had files with 0 length and all sorts of errors with
>cross-linked files and clusters not attached to files.  I finally erased
>the whole mess and restored from a backup.  I couldn't tell if it was
>Norton alone or because I forgot to turn off the PC-CACHE from PCTOOLS
>before running Speed Disk.  In any case, I usually use the compress
>function of PCTOOLS because I have had a couple of suspicious things
>with Norton (no proof, just suspicions).


I apologize for casting aspersions on Norton.  My problem also had nothing
to do with the use of a disk cache (although that may sometimes cause
problems).  The problem is that the file menu in the PCTOOLS shell tries
to be efficient by not re-reading the directory tree automatically but
keeping information about it in a disk file.  (One of the menu items on
the OPTIONS menu allows you to tell it to re-read.)  Thus, if one goes from
the PCTOOLS file menu to the applications menu and invokes ANY disk
defrag (including the one from PCTOOLS), returns to the file menu, and then
does something (stupid) like changing file attributes without having told
the shell to re-read the directory tree, there is an EXCELLENT chance of
screwing up your directory entries, getting cross-linked files, etc.

Thus, my problem was not remembering to re-read the directory after doing
a defrag/compress and before diddling file attributes.  This also had
nothing to do with the original post.