[P1] Defragmentation Method?

[e.mkeene]

> You are implying that I recommended that people use it when all I did
> was correct a miss statement by someone about Disk Warrior not
> optimizing a drive.

Jack, I did not intend to imply that you were recommending the use of 
DiskWarrior for defragmentation. My issue with this topic is that Disk 
Warrior is a utility that is restricted to the directory and as a 
consequence CAN NOT DEFRAG OR OPTIMIZE HARD DRIVE FILES.

The optimizer app is called PlusOptimizer and it is included on the 
Disk Warrior 2.1  as a bonus from Alsoft but IT IS NOT DISK WARRIOR. A 
copy of it is included on the DW 2.1 CD. Plus Optimizer is restricted 
to defragging or optimizing hard drive files.

According to the website, it is possible to use PlusOptimizer from a CD 
booting from OS 9 or from a partition or HD that boots from OS 9. When 
you do that, you are working on OS X files using OS 9. This is the same 
way that Norton Speed Disk optimized OS X files. How many of you 
remember what a catastrophe that was?

According to some OS X programming geeks whose experience and wisdom 
have saved many of us from horrible disasters, it is possible to work 
on OS X files using OS 9 if you don't mind running the risk of totally 
messing up your files and OS. You will have beautifully optimized files 
but your OS X will run the risk of getting royally screwed up. If you 
feel that is a worthwhile trade off, that's great, go for it..

An analogy would be trying to remove a malignant tumor the size of a 
pencil eraser from the deepest recesses of the brain using a butcher 
knife and swearing there is no risk of causing brain damage.

If the surgeon is very lucky and inserts the knife carefully, he may be 
able to miss most vital structures so no obvious damage will be noted. 
However, if he moves the knife even a hair, he risks causing brain 
damage.

If he does not move the knife and thereby causes no obvious brain 
damage, how will he be able to cut the tumor out? If he twists the 
knife or moves it in any direction to remove the deadly tumor, he risks 
major brain damage.

If he simply inserts the knife, does not remove the tumor and is lucky, 
he will not pierce the tumor and seed it to other parts of the brain. 
But if he misses, hits the tumor and seeds it, instead of one small 
deadly tumor, there are now many small but deadly tumors.

As I said the odds are up to each individual. For those who prefer to 
play it safe, there is a safe, OS X dedicated application that will do 
the whole job from OS X without risk to the OS. It is Drive 10 which 
was written from the ground up just for OS X by MicroMat who many of 
you may remember is the same company who wrote Techtool, the freeware 
app we used for so many years on OS 7.5 up to 9. They also wrote 
TechTool Pro, the utility that most techs use to diagnose problems in 
both hardware and software. In fact, they even wrote a special version 
called TechTool Deluxe that Apple uses on the AppleCare CD to diagnose 
problems by phone.

If you go to this link, there is a great deal available from MicroMat.

http://www.micromat.com/micromat_store/micromat_store.html

If you buy Drive 10 now, they will give you a free copy of TechTool Pro 
4 when it ships later this month. If you have AppleCare, you can call 
them on the 800# and give them the agreement# and they will only you 
charge you the side grade fee for Drive 10 so you end up getting both 
products for the price of the side grade $53  + S/H instead of the full 
price of $98 for both.

TechTool Pro 4 will have a feature called "edrive" which lets you 
create an emergency bootable volume to an existing volume without 
having to initialize the current volume. You will then be able to do 
all recovery from the edrive. It will also be able to scavenge for 
files when all else fails.

Now call me crazy but this sounds like a much better solution to me 
than using the butcher knife to take chances performing delicate 
surgery with yesterday's OS 9 on today and tomorrow's OS X. Drive 10 
will defrag or optimize OS X booting from X in addition to a bunch of 
other diagnostics and repairs for OS X.

Mac Computer Show and Sale December 13th
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