<<So what are the "rules" for defragging a mac HD -- should you back up everything beforehand & do you lose any of your settings or preferences after the defrag is completed? What utilities do folks suggest for doing a good defrag on these PCI systems? Any info would be muchly appreciated (feel free to e-mail me off-list if it's easier).>>
I use Norton Speed Disk v. 6, which works well. Also, it's fun to watch all the files rearranging themselves. It is important to make sure your HD has no problems before you run SD, so examine your HD with Norton Disk Doctor first. I have never had any problem with SD, but of course it's good to back up your data regularly anyway. It would be bad for anything to interrupt this, so make sure you don't accidentally kick your power plug off while SD is running. ;-) Note: Do *not* use anything earlier than Norton Utilities v.4 on HFS-Plus volumes. SD says it's "optimizing the desktop" after it defrags, so don't know if I have to do this, but I always rebuild my desktop afterwards...got to start up again anyway, since started up with another disk in order to repair/defrag. Forgot to mention that, you probably realized already...you can't defrag your startup disk...you must start up with another HD or external/removeable drive. As for my browser cache: I set a 7mb RAM Disk(plenty for my habits, but you can make it smaller if you don't have a lot of RAM) using the OS's Memory Control Panel, and set my browsers' prefs to put cache in there. Avoids having browser cache files crowd up and defragment my HD, and of course browser runs faster when returning to pages for a second time. This works with Netscape and iCab; IE5 prefs sometimes revert to default, and AOL browser doesn't seem to allow this. Whenever I shut down my computer(not restart), I get a message warning me that everything on the RAM Disk will disappear, and just click "OK" and my cache is removed. Saul Broudy -- 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
