[P1] Utilities to run on ibook

[david]

On 12/15/03 8:03 AM, "Erin Randel" <bluelight at en.com> wrote:

> Have any of you had problems with norton utilities, like it causing
> bigger problems? I've heard vague rumors about this, but not enough to
> base a decision.
>
I bought Norton's SystemWorks 2 precisely because it was (supposedly)
rewritten for OS X compatibility. The package automatically installed
everything (I saw no choices) and required a restart. My completely stable
machine restarted into kernel panics. Thankfully I had a second bootable
partition so I booted up. After numerous talks with technical (non)support I
removed the entire package which restored by computer's stability. The
problem was caused by FileSaver.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn from my first problem and a few weeks later
when Apple Disk First Aid found a problem on my external drive it couldn't
repair (containing backup data and mp3 files) I booted with the Norton
Utility disk and ran the repair. It completely corrupted the drive and it
wasn't able to undo the damage. Thankfully most of my data was on CDs.

It was about this time that usenet news and forum reports began to surface
with experiences similar to mine. Since I work part time for a local Apple
reseller I asked the head tech his opinion which was: "Norton Utilities
makes a nice frisbee disk." Perhaps the newest version of NU is better but
the company won't get another penny out of me.
> 
> I have a 900 ibook in need of some third-party repair utility,
> according to applecare. The persistent problems disk first aid finds
> are missing thread count and invalid volume file count.
> 
> They said I could use Diskwarrior, Drive 10 or Norton Utilities.
> 
> Macmall says they all do the same thing, small dog said diskwarrior's
> good but found they don't carry it anymore. I can get norton system
> works for about $30 with a rebate at the local wholesale club, but how
> do I find out whether it can help me?
>
DiskWarrior won't fix all problems but what it does it does better than any
other disk utility. Drive 10 is pretty decent (but slow). TechTool is
finally out and first reports are somewhat mixed but it repaired my
desktop's redundant drive (albeit slowly) when Disk First Aid couldn't.
> 
> Am i supposed to run a utility every day or week to keep my ibook
> healthy?
>
I generally run DFA once a week to repair permissions and once a month to
check out the drive's health.

Cheers
david