jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) (01/03/89)
Last night I got some very flaky results from my file system -- alert boxes
with error numbers (-39, -45 I think) that made me fearful my file system
wasn't consistent. I looked up these error numbers in Inside Macintosh, so I
have a rough idea what it was telling me. In one case it wouldn't let me move
a file to trash from MultiFinder claiming another application had it open.
Well, this was just plain false! Can a hosed file system get names/icons
incorrectly linked??
I rebooted a couple of times, rebooted with Finder, etc. Everything seems to
be fine now, but I'm still nervous. As a long-time UNIX user and Mess-DOS user
only when I have to, but as a relative newcomer to the Mac world (7 months or
so) I find the lack of an out-of-the-box utility for checking the health of the
file system pretty galling. Does the finder check the consistency of the file
system when the machine boots? If it boots OK can I assume a consistent file
system? (I sure doubt it!!).
What is the best program to simply check the consistency of the file system?
Symantec SUM? Is there anything PD? Please respond by mail; I don't get a
full feed of this group. Thanks in advance for any help.
--
Jim Rosenberg
CIS: 71515,124 decvax!idis! \
WELL: jer allegra! ---- pitt!amanue!jr
BIX: jrosenberg uunet!cmcl2!cadre! /jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) (01/04/89)
In article <442@amanue.UUCP> I write: >I find the lack of an out-of-the-box utility for checking the health of the >file system pretty galling. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Tell you all what. Can I just pronounce myself flame-worthy once and be done with it? :-) Someone was most kind with me (not even a mild flame) in pointing out that by golly, there *is* a utility right there in my distribution, Disk First Aid. Live and learn. I ran Disk First Aid and it did say my hard disk needed repair. With heart in mouth I said to go ahead. It did a *TINY* amount of disk access and then said the disk was clean. Not knowing HFS internals, I'd bet it was reclaiming some lost blocks that the bitmap said were used but that didn't belong to any file. This sort of thing happens on almost every operating system I've ever laid my hands on. Still, it would be nice to be *told* what Disk First Aid was doing to me as it did it. -- Jim Rosenberg CIS: 71515,124 decvax!idis! \ WELL: jer allegra! ---- pitt!amanue!jr BIX: jrosenberg uunet!cmcl2!cadre! /
hammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Robert J. Hammen) (01/05/89)
In article <443@amanue.UUCP> jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) writes: >I ran Disk First Aid and it did say my hard disk needed repair. With heart in >mouth I said to go ahead. It did a *TINY* amount of disk access and then said >the disk was clean. Not knowing HFS internals, I'd bet it was reclaiming some >lost blocks that the bitmap said were used but that didn't belong to any file. >This sort of thing happens on almost every operating system I've ever laid my >hands on. Still, it would be nice to be *told* what Disk First Aid was doing >to me as it did it. Aha, it's time once again to reveal the Disk First Aid secret hidden trick. After you have selected the disk you want to examine, but before you click on the start button, do a Command-s (making sure your caps lock key is not down). It will put up a second window below the first that will give you some of the details of what it is doing. I have always found Disk First Aid's "Repair" option to work well; it never leaves a disk in worse shape than it started. It is not a disk recovery utility like SUM, however, so for damaged disks you should look at that. Jim is exactly right about DFA reclaiming free space that was still marked as allocated. I usually find that running Disk First Aid once a week is a good way to make sure the HFS data structures on my hard disk are OK. Coupled with DiskExpress (which is primarily a disk optimization utility, but also has the capability to examine every block on the disk for read/write errors), you can make sure your disk is in good shape and optimized for performance. > Jim Rosenberg /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Robert Hammen | hammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu | AppleLink: D0940 / / Delphi: HAMMEN | GEnie: R.Hammen | CI$: 70701,2104 | MacNet: HAMMEN / / Design North, Inc.| 8007 Douglas | Racine WI 53402 | (414) 762-1320 (w) / / 3839 N. Humboldt #204 | Milwaukee WI 53212 | (414) 961-0715 (h) / ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////