Initializing rebuilds the directories on the hard drive and erases the data to clean off a hard drive. (That's like taking everything from a messed up file cabinet and tossing it into the trash.) Formatting is similar, but also electronically cleans out the drawer and evidence of its old file folders to make the drawer almost spotless before putting in the new files.
Optimizing finds all of the fragments of each file, which could be scattered all over the drive and recombines them into single file in its original order. (That's like filing everything in that same file cabinet in its proper order.) Optimization also results in the unused areas of the hard drive being combined into one continuous unused area so that new files written to the drive will have less fragmentation. (Instead of having many empty spots in the file cabinet and files scattered between them, all files are in the front and the rear is empty awaiting new files to be added to the cabinet.) You need an optimization application such as Norton's Speed Disk (part of Norton Utilities) or its like, which was designed to do the optimizing. Asking which is the best Optimization application on this list is a good way to start a war. Everyone has a personal favorite that works well for him/her. I've even got a copy of the old MacTools, that works great on OS 7.6.1 or earlier. (The optimizer will still work with OS 8.1, but the repair program finds nonexistent problems due to changes in the way the OS manages some functions.) It is the application acquired by Norton which became the basis for Norton Utilities. The downside of optimizing is that the application will warn you that data could be lost during the optimization process. I've never lost any data, but I can see where a lock up during optimization could possibly lose the data that was copied to RAM , but hadn't been rewritten to the drive yet. David Allen Kevin Willis wrote: > > > What is the difference between initializing and optimizing? How do you > optimize? -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
