[comp.sys.mac] Symantec Utilities for the Mac

moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (06/28/88)

A little while ago, someone posted that owners of MacZap could upgrade to
SUM (Symantec Utilities for the Mac) $30, as Symantec had bought MacZap for
use in SUM.  Well, to whoever passed that information to the net, thank you!

Got SUM in the mail today, and it is NICE.  First of all, beautiful manual
explaining every step of the recovery process -- this was my biggest gripe
with MacZap, as the "average novice user" needed help with it.  The manual
should be all they help they need -- good use of graphics, showing each step
of the way with screen dumps, etc.  Rather thick -- looks like a learning
guide for Word or something in that realm.

What it comes with:

--  Disk Clinic, which is the equivalent to the "guide program" that MacZap
    had (maybe it was called Disk Clinic too, I don't remember).  Cleaner
    interface.

--  Guardian, which has a number of features.  This is both a program and an
    INIT, and has a number of features.  If you install Guardian on your
    disk, it aids in recovery of your disk in case it crashes.  It has the
    option of keeping a list of files deleted from the disk, so that you can
    quickly and easily recover them (looks like it saves the sectors the
    files were located at).  It also stops any operation which would write
    zeros over the disk's directory.

--  Floppy Recover, HFS Recover and Scanner from MacZap... but with exact
    instructions on how to use them in a number of situations.

--  HD TuneUp, a disk optimizer.  About equivalent to PowerUp, I think --
    very fast, and runs on the startup disk.  It doesn't create one
    contiguous free space like Disk Expre, which is very hand when making
    large disk partitions, but otherwise, really slick... also a VERY fast
    analyzer which gives a fragmentation percentage.

--  HD Partition.  Yup, a disk partitioner DA!  And an automounter INIT!
    Haven't gotten it to work with my tape drive yet (the LaCie drive and
    Rainy Day, which demands that the partition matches the tape partition
    exactly for an image restore -- Hard Disk Partition works with this,
    though), but that's a rather special case.

--  (But wait, there's more!)  QuickCopy, a combination of floppy copier and
    initializer, much like Disk Dup+ and MassInit.

--  Symantec Tools.  File editor tool, like FEdit or MacTools on the Copy II
    Mac disk.

-----

There's probably some other stuff I've forgotten, but cripes!  For a $30
upgrade fee, I got a much clearer, better (I suppose, obviously no disk
crashes yet) program, plus a File Editor, disk partioner, optimizer and disk
copier. Pretty nice...

And I get a free debugger for my Lightspeed C compiler in a couple weeks!
God, I love this country!

[I have no connection with Symantec, other than being either very pleased or
 damned pleased (in the case of Lightspeed C) with their products]

                                "If this is foreplay, I'm a dead man!"
---
                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP:  {uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO:        You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>

gagaku@ucscd.UCSC.EDU (23527000) (06/29/88)

Moriarty glows in his description of the new Symantec Utilities, but omits
any mention of the MacZap Patch utility for removing *&%$! copy protection.

When I called Symantec, theyere not aware of any such thing.  Is it 
conceivable that MacZap was bought out in order to suppress its reasonably
efficient patching facility?

Fred Lieberman
gagaku@ucscc.ucsc.edu

moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (07/02/88)

In article <3964@saturn.ucsc.edu> gagaku@ucscd.UCSC.EDU (Fredric Lieberman) writes:
>Moriarty glows in his description of the new Symantec Utilities, but omits
>any mention of the MacZap Patch utility for removing *&%$! copy protection.
>
>When I called Symantec, theyere not aware of any such thing.  Is it 
>conceivable that MacZap was bought out in order to suppress its reasonably
>efficient patching facility?

I doubt it.  I imagine that Symantec was shooting for a well-documented disk
recovery/repair/maintenance package, decided to buy MacZap package out for
their decent utility programs, and decided that the patching utility was not
within the scope of what they were trying to put out.  Or maybe they decided
that they didn't want to maintain patches for various programs.  Or they
felt that so few "mainstream" programs were coming out with copy protection,
that it wouldn't net them enough profit.

Maybe you should see if you can get a final copy of MacZap, get the patcher,
and then upgrade to SUM for $30?  Seems like a good deal to me.

                        "I see more than you do,
                         child.  I see an end to
                         Hell.  What do YOU see?"
                                                    "I see someone in a lot
                                                     of pain."
---
                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP:  {uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO:        You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>