OS X (and 9) disk utilities

[Jay Boshara]

> Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 22:33:06 -0700
> Subject: [P1] OS X (and 9) disk utilities
> From: David Crump <davecrump at mac.com>
> Message-Id: <B34E9623-0680-11D7-960C-003065CF43FA at mac.com>
> 
> Any word out yet on what disk utility I should get for my Classic iBook
> running OS X.1.5?  I've heard of Drive 10 and Norton SystemWorks.  I
> mainly want to be able to defrag my hard drive, and it would be nice if
> it would also work with OS 8.5 or 9 on my old Performa, but that is not
> crucial.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
> David Crump

I asked this same question on two different lists, and I asked two Mac IT
guys, and they all said the same thing -- get DiskWarrior and PlusOptimizer
from Alsoft (http://www.alsoft.com/index.html).  Their current versions (2.1
& 1.3 respectively) are reported to work significantly better than all the
rest (do not even THINK about getting any Symantec/Norton products), they
are rated as the best by several Mac magazines, and they work on OS 9 and X
(including Jaguar).  They have new versions coming out in January (according
to their latest Customer Service response to my email query), but they are
OS X-native, so I don't know if they will run on OS 9.  I haven't tried
either of these apps yet because I am waiting for the X-native versions, but
the consensus seems to be that the others (Drive10, Norton Utilities,
TechTool Pro) pale in comparison.  Better get it soon before the new
versions supplant the old ones.

Good Luck,
Jay Boshara.