moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (08/29/89)
Well, just went through the process of updating to SUM II. Yes, it has a
lot more facilities features, and now that it's installed I like it. And
the installation was easier than with 1.1 -- but not by much. First, let me
list a few pieces of information/complaints that you should know about
before installing SUM II onto your machine. Then I'll get into the more
general comments.
1) *IMPORTANT* Much of the information in the "Read Me" TeachText document
on Disk 2 should be read before you install SUM II onto your disk,
especially if SUM 1.1 is currently there. There's no mention in the
SUM installation chapter of opening this file. The information there
will be very useful if your hard disk is pretty full and you already
have SUM 1.1 installed on it. The rest isn't that important during
installation (few incompatibilities with other programs), but will be
*vital* down the road. Really, about 1/3 of the information in this
Read Me file should have been in the manual NO MATTER WHAT, e.g. the
fact that SUM Tuneup invalidates the Volume Restore Record and Delete
File Record whenever the disk is optimized. (Yes, this seems obvious
when you think about it, but think of the novice Mac user.) Another is
that using the Erase Free Space option in TuneUp invalidates the ability
to restore deleted files using the Delete File Record. A third is that
one needs to un-mount a disk partition before trying to recover it using
SUM Recover.
My point is, this information should have been apparent when the manual
was being written. At any rate, it should have been in the manual.
2) *MAJOR COMPLAINT/OMISSION* OK, I just mentioned that after you do a SUM
Tuneup, the two invisible files at the root level, the Volume Restore
Record (keeps a copy of the disk directory) and the Delete File Record
(keeps track of deleted files) become useless. I used Disk Clinic to
delete them, as the manual showed. Then I shut the system down,
expecting the SUM Shield Cdev to put news on the disk. Nope. The files
aren't there. I shutdown again. Nada. Well, I seem to remember there
was a way to install them under Disk Clinic 1.1. Nope. So... I have to
use the SUM Install command again.
That's not the complaint, though I think that there should be an option
to install these two important files via Disk Clinic -- otherwise, you
have to have SUM Install on your hard disk along with Disk Clinic
whenever you need to re-create these files. What *is* vital is that the
manual (and, for that matter, the Read Me file) never mentions that you
*need* to reinstall these files after deleting them for the Shield Cdev
to work -- or that you have to use the Sum Install program to do it.
Really major piece of information there.
3) *SUBSTANTIAL* There's an option on the Shield Init that allows you to
make a duplicate backup of the Volume Restore Record on another
volume/disk. However, they should mention that if the other disk is a
floppy disk, and if you have the Shield Init set to save the Volume
Restore Record at Shutdown, that the duplicate VRR isn't saved to the
floppy -- the disk is ejected before it has a chance to make the
duplicate. This needs to be pointed out -- again, the Novice User would
just assume that it was being done. (I was able to check via DiskFit.)
4) *MAJOR OMISSION* While there are Volume Information Files (VIFs) for
almost every drive in existance, including 400K and 800K disks, there is
*no* VIF file for a high-density disk formatted from a SuperDrive! (The
~1.4 MB kind.) What's more, there's no way to make one, either. So
good luck restoring one of them -- the VIF pretty important.
5) *MINOR* In the basic, beginner's guide to using SUM Install, it
mentions that SUM will ask for both SUM disks in the beginning, to check
their contents before proceeding. It doesn't -- or, it didn't for me.
This is confusing, especially to the beginner trying to do exactly what
the manual asks her/him to.
-----
And now, some general comments:
1) HD Tuneup has become SUM Tuneup, and it is *much* improved -- as nice as
DiskExpress, for the most part. It has some features DE doesn't have
(lock out bad sectors, some nice graphics); the one feature it's missing
is (as far as I can tell) DE's ability to put all applications at one
end, and all documents at the other, when doing a disk optimize (i.e.
recontiguating the free space.) This is a really nice feature that I'd
like to see added in the next update.
2) Disk Clinic continues to be good enough for me to avoid the manual when
recovering the disk. Not that that lets the manuals off...
3) The manual's improved -- the addition of a Disk Recovery step-by-step
section is a help -- but it still tends to jumble a lot of things.
Besides the things I mentioned above, they need to emphasize that any
re-formatting of a disk, or re-partitioning of a disk, means that a new
VIF needs to be created for the disk. This is only mentioned once, off
to the side -- there should be a note about this, at least, in the SUM
Partition section. I realize there's a lot of info here, and organizing
it so that everybody can find out what they need is an exceedingly
difficult task -- but there's some vital info here that I almost scoped
over because it was half-hidden. (Or, as I mentioned above, not there
in the first place.)
4) SUM Install worked well -- however, a suggestion: DON'T use the the
Install VIF option -- this takes forever, as 120+ hard disk VIF files
are copied to your hard disk. You only need three or four -- pick and
choose via the Finder.
5) The backup program is nothing to write home about -- better than Apple's
program, has incremental abilities, but is basically Redux whittled
down. If you have a good backup program already, I can't see switching to
this -- but if someone with a new Mac has limited backup needs and wants
to get protection and backup abilities all-in-one, this is a nice deal.
6) Everything else seems to be up to snuff.
-----
In summary, it appears that Symantecs listened to what their users said
about 1.1 and made improvements. This is a very useful set of tools.
Unfortunately, the documentation has again got some glitches that are
serious enough to be a major complaint against the product. I'd recommend
SUM II to anyone with a hard drive who has vital info on it (especially a
beginner with the need for a limited backup package), but I'd mention that
the documentation has some serious flaws.
[I'm mailing these comments into Symantec via my registration card, but they
weren't as detailed as I made them here. If Rich wouldn't mind forwarding
this to the proper people at Symantec, I would appreciate it. (However,
don't worry about it. I'm just damn glad he takes the time to distribute
Think C info and answers on the net...)]
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9. They emptied Al Capone's vault before
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-- Late Night with David Letterman
---
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>mikek@hpvcfs1.HP.COM (Mike Kirkpatrick) (08/31/89)
I just got an 80Meg Cirrus drive which included disk management software called "Silverlining". It provides support for multipartitions, compaction, and backups. No mention was made in the documentation of any hidden management files that like those discussed above. Will someone make comments on the quality and completeness of the package compared to others like the one discussed in the basenote? Thanks, mikek@hpvclmk.hp.com