Mac Disk Utilities
Everybody with a computer should know that hard disk maintenance is essential, regardless if you have a Windows or Mac based PC. The most common disk problem by far is the fragmentation of files on your hard disk. The more you install and delete applications\files, the greater your hard drive can become fragmented. The effects of severe fragmentation is reduced computer performance as your OS struggles to read and write files from different areas of the disk. The solution to this problem is to periodically run a disk defragmenter application. Although Windows comes with a free defrag utility, OS X does not and therefore it is necessary to purchase a third party application. Some of the more popular disk utilities for OS X are Alsoft DiskWarrior, Micromat Drive 10, and Speed Disk which comes with Symantec 's Norton Utilities 8.0 for Macintosh. In addition to degfragmenting hard drives, these utilities also come with other functions like UNIX permission repairs and scan disk checking.
There is a major problem with these utilities though as they only work with specific versions of OS X and specific models of Mac's. Most of the time the latest and greatest version of OS X or Mac will render the utility useless. With Apple on an aggressive schedule of releasing operating systems, and with new hardware being introduced you may be stuck waiting for these companies to come out with compatible software.
Recently I needed to defrag my hard drive as I wanted to capture DV video using Final Cut Pro and therefore needed a clean contiguous disk so I wouldn't drop any frames. I had a copy of Norton utilities 8.0 for the Mac so I tried using SpeedDisk but it complained that it couldn't defrag any of my system files unless I booted from the CD. I popped in the CD restarted my Mac holding down the C key as the computer booted up. It caused my G5 to turn on all its fans full blast while a grey screen appeared. After waiting about 15 mins I realized that this CD was never going to boot so I went online looking for some help. I came across this support article from Symantec. Basically it says that I needed a new CD (version 8.0.2) in order for Norton utilities to recognize my new G5. Symantec wasn't very clear about it but they appear to charge for this CD unless you just recently bought the older version. Even then there is another article which talks about waiting up to 20 mins for the CD to boot with these new models. Not very efficient if you ask me.
Symantec's workaround for this problem is to connect a second Macintosh to the first using FireWire's Target Disk Mode. Since my iMac G3 is very portable, I was able to do this, however moving my iMac next to my G5 every time my disk needs defragging is very inefficient to say the least. The final straw for Symantec was when I found out they are discontinuing their disk utilities products for the Mac platform.
It was time to look at the competing products to see if they were any better. Alsoft's DiskWarrior product has been heavily advertised in publications like MacWorld so I checked out what their website had to say. It turns out that they also need a updated CD to boot the latest Mac hardware, however they offer a software download that will allow you to create an updated CD (providing that you have a CD burner) so you don't have to pay for upgrade (providing that you already own a fairly current version). Their latest version (3.0.2) will only allow you to boot Mac's up to the 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 models. Looking for info on the 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 model I found this on their support web page.
Note: The current DiskWarrior CD may not start up the new Dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac models. Once these models have begun shipping, we will know if the current CD will start up these models or if an updated DiskWarrior CD will be necessary. We will post a notice on this page once we know if an updated CD will be necessary for these Macs.
It's been several weeks since they posted that and still no word on the PM 2.5 GHz compatibility. Time to look elsewhere.
Micromat is best known for their TechTool Pro products which includes all the functionality of their standalone disk utility, Drive 10. Rather than use the CD to boot, Drive 10 recommends installing a utility drive called eDrive onto your hard disk and then booting off of that when defraging and scanning your system disk for errors. This is probably the best solution as it prevents you from having to update your utility CD every time Apple releases a new OS. I look forward to installing this application, if all works well then TechTool Pro/Drive 10 will become a permanent part of my OS X software library.
There is a major problem with these utilities though as they only work with specific versions of OS X and specific models of Mac's. Most of the time the latest and greatest version of OS X or Mac will render the utility useless. With Apple on an aggressive schedule of releasing operating systems, and with new hardware being introduced you may be stuck waiting for these companies to come out with compatible software.
Recently I needed to defrag my hard drive as I wanted to capture DV video using Final Cut Pro and therefore needed a clean contiguous disk so I wouldn't drop any frames. I had a copy of Norton utilities 8.0 for the Mac so I tried using SpeedDisk but it complained that it couldn't defrag any of my system files unless I booted from the CD. I popped in the CD restarted my Mac holding down the C key as the computer booted up. It caused my G5 to turn on all its fans full blast while a grey screen appeared. After waiting about 15 mins I realized that this CD was never going to boot so I went online looking for some help. I came across this support article from Symantec. Basically it says that I needed a new CD (version 8.0.2) in order for Norton utilities to recognize my new G5. Symantec wasn't very clear about it but they appear to charge for this CD unless you just recently bought the older version. Even then there is another article which talks about waiting up to 20 mins for the CD to boot with these new models. Not very efficient if you ask me.
Symantec's workaround for this problem is to connect a second Macintosh to the first using FireWire's Target Disk Mode. Since my iMac G3 is very portable, I was able to do this, however moving my iMac next to my G5 every time my disk needs defragging is very inefficient to say the least. The final straw for Symantec was when I found out they are discontinuing their disk utilities products for the Mac platform.
It was time to look at the competing products to see if they were any better. Alsoft's DiskWarrior product has been heavily advertised in publications like MacWorld so I checked out what their website had to say. It turns out that they also need a updated CD to boot the latest Mac hardware, however they offer a software download that will allow you to create an updated CD (providing that you have a CD burner) so you don't have to pay for upgrade (providing that you already own a fairly current version). Their latest version (3.0.2) will only allow you to boot Mac's up to the 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 models. Looking for info on the 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 model I found this on their support web page.
Note: The current DiskWarrior CD may not start up the new Dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac models. Once these models have begun shipping, we will know if the current CD will start up these models or if an updated DiskWarrior CD will be necessary. We will post a notice on this page once we know if an updated CD will be necessary for these Macs.
It's been several weeks since they posted that and still no word on the PM 2.5 GHz compatibility. Time to look elsewhere.
Micromat is best known for their TechTool Pro products which includes all the functionality of their standalone disk utility, Drive 10. Rather than use the CD to boot, Drive 10 recommends installing a utility drive called eDrive onto your hard disk and then booting off of that when defraging and scanning your system disk for errors. This is probably the best solution as it prevents you from having to update your utility CD every time Apple releases a new OS. I look forward to installing this application, if all works well then TechTool Pro/Drive 10 will become a permanent part of my OS X software library.
posted by Marcos at October 04, 2004
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