This is not how I understand it. I believe a good defragging package is better than format and reinstalling.
<< Ok, back to that defrag thing... Lifting every block of data off your disk drive, with a "defrag" utility, then dropping it onto a different sector is the LAST thing you ever want to do. This isn't "repairing" anything! This is taking the existing corruptions and just moving them around or even replicating them! If the corruption was due to a slightly degraded sector in a file's data then the next file that gets put onto that sector will also become corrupted! If the corruption was in the HFS/HFS+ indices, then you might end up loosing access to more files!!!!>> True. Defragging is not repairing. However, formatting isn't either. If a file itself is corrupted, yes, you are just moving the corrupted file to someplace else on the drive. However, if you have a slightly degraded sector, depending on how good the defragger is written, you may actually save the data from that sector to a good sector. If it is a good defragger, it won't write to the degraded sector, and map it out. <<What you need to do is *repair* the volumes on the drive. That's done with Disk First Aid, Disk Warrior, Disk Doctor, etc. NOT with a defragger.>> Yes, you need to repair the drives. Nortons, repairs the drives during the defragging process. In fact it does a surface scan first. I am assuming it is doing this to map out degraded/bad sectors. Of course none of this can fix a bad file. <<Disk defragmenter/optimization programs were originally pushed for the PC market because the DOC/Winblows file system really sucks and tends to fragment files so badly that PCs grind to a halt. Yes, the MacOS' file system does fragment files, but not nearly so badly as Win AND it's designed to handle it properly!>> Very true. Worse yet is that Windoze used to access the hard drive all the time, whereas the Mac usually only accesses the hard drive during booting, loading a program or file, etc. That's why hard drive seek times were so important to PC users. <<Really, the best way to optimize a drive is to initialize it, then refill it from scratch from a full backup. That way you get a *new* *clean* file system built!>> While you may think it's the best way, I don't. It's more costly, WAY more time consuming, and less likely to be done by the average user. Let's take a typical possible scenario. You save some semi important data, and haven't backed it up yet. Let's say that the new data is on a degraded sector. If you format and reinstall your last backup, you lost that latest data. If you repair/defrag, it's still there. Plus a good defragger will put more often used files where they can be retrieved quicker, something that a reinstall can't do. <<FWIW, I dispise defraggers so much that I absolutely won't use them on my own or on my client's systems.>> Too bad. It makes my computing life easier and faster without spending more money or time. STeve -- 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
