lou@flipper.Corp.Sun.COM (Lou Ordorica - SunU Field T & D) (03/15/91)
Has anyone had any experiences with the B.A.D disk optimizer? I'm considering optimizing my Supra hard drive with it. Thanks, Lou
harding%b56vxg.dnet@kodak.com (JON HARDING) (03/15/91)
In article <3592@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM>, lou@flipper.Corp.Sun.COM (Lou Ordorica - SunU Field T & D) writes... >Has anyone had any experiences with the B.A.D disk optimizer? > >I'm considering optimizing my Supra hard drive with it. > I've been using B.A.D. for about two years and haven't had a problem. It does make a astonishing difference in performance. Another tool for the same purpose is the QuarterBack Tools product: also very good. BUT, as with all programs that diddle with the file system, protect yourself with a backup before you compress your disk. N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J | Jon Harding, N2KZJ email: harding%b56vxg.dnet@Kodak.COM | | * I don't represent KODAK by word or deed. * | N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J N 2 K Z J
dsg@cci632.UUCP (David Greenberg) (03/16/91)
If you are going to use B.A.D. Be real careful! I tried it on my C.Ltd Kronos / Seagate 80 meg drive, which used the main partition as the boot partition. B.A.D. Optimized my non boot partition (10 meg) fine....but trashed my main (70 meg) boot partition!!! Since then I go with a 1 meg boot partition, 70 meg work, and 10 backup partition. (I don't optimize the boot partition!) Dave ps. MAKE A BACK UP BEFORE YOU OPTIMIZE!!!!!
jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Darc Tangent) (03/16/91)
In article <3592@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM>, lou@flipper.Corp.Sun.COM (Lou Ordorica - SunU Field T & D) writes: > Has anyone had any experiences with the B.A.D disk optimizer? > > I'm considering optimizing my Supra hard drive with it. > > Thanks, > > Lou I have seen B.A.D. have problems previously, finding bad blocks on a friend's hard drive where there were none (DiskErr and QB Tools reported no bad blocks). The hard drive was an ST-506 43M Rodime drive with an A2090a controller on an A2500/20. The only other problem I know of is the enormous amount of RAM, B.A.D. requires to operate (it seems to need about 1 MB of RAM per 20 MB of disk space). Personally, I use QB Tools which does the job for me very well, costing a bit more than B.A.D. but providing much more in the package (it's the best and most complete disk repair package I've seen for the Amiga). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darc Tangent "I want to look at life - jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu in the available light" - RUSH
david@starsoft.hou.tx.us (Dave Lowrey) (03/16/91)
In article <3592@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> lou@flipper.Corp.Sun.COM (Lou Ordorica - SunU Field T & D) writes: > > Has anyone had any experiences with the B.A.D disk optimizer? > > I'm considering optimizing my Supra hard drive with it. > > Thanks, > > Lou I can't say anything about B.A.D. (altho I have heard tales of it hosing up disks). I can, however, recomend QuarterBack Tools. Not only does it re-org disks, but it will repair bad ones also! It has "saved my life" several times now. One thing I found real interesting.....When amigados writes to a empty drive, the files can still get fragmented! I assumed that they would be in one piece. However, I ran QBT against a newly restored pack. While there was only one "extent" used, many of the files were fragmented. QBT "un fragments" the files when it re-organizes the drive. One word of warning.....BACK UP THE DRIVE BEFORE REORGANIZING THE DRIVE. Should QBT have a problem, or your kid turns your computer off, or some such disaster, the drive WILL be hosed! Dave Lowrey ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- These words be mine. The company doesn't care, because I am the company! :-) Dave Lowrey | david@starsoft.hou.tx.us Starbound Software Group | Houston, TX | "Dare to be stupid!" -- Weird Al Yankovic
sschaem@starnet.uucp (Stephan Schaem) (03/17/91)
I try B.A.D some time ago.You need megs and megs of memory for even small partition (is it changed?). It dont seem to buffer anything! and move block by block!!! (My hitachi seemed to make PopCorn for 15 minuts:-) The result? I dont care mutch about WB, and for file access I have alsot of small file, and I prefere having the data near the header than header to header... For floppy its should be great! for HD more or less ,it depand. When its got really bad, I backup to another partition.format. copy back, the best I have experience for access performance.
labc-1id@e260-1b.berkeley.edu (Joe Chung) (03/17/91)
I've read more than enough complaints about B.A.D. not being able to optimize a boot partition without trashing it, that I feel compelled to set the record straight. In the Manual ( Yes I know it's skimppy ) that comes with the package. It clears warns you that if you're going to optimize the boot partition, or any partition that contains the l: directory to: ASSIGN L: to another directory The reason is that B.A.D. needs to call the L:Disk-Validator after optimization, and if it doesn't find it, then since the disk structure has been completely re-arranged by now, there's no way for the new information to get updated!! The newest version of B.A.D. (v4.12) is out and it features a virtual ram device for those large partitions, ( ie it allows you to pick another hd partition to act as ram: ) so you don't have to resort to installing new ram chips just to optimize a large partition. Incidentally, B.A.D. requires about 20K of ram per 1meg of a partition. How good is it? Well, B.A.D. is NOT just a defragmenter. It's other main function is placing either .info files or dir info in optimum places so that AmigaDos can get at those information with the least amount of access. A floppy disk with a screen full of icons can completely be opened displayed in 3 seconds!! ( I've tried this before ) Note: I'm in no way affliated with the product. Just a satisfied user. -jc -- labc-1id@web.berkeley.edu No news is good news.
sss10@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Napalm) (03/18/91)
Well I used BAD on my Jrcomm disk. I had an .iff picture on the disk that I wanted to try to edit in some way/manner/form with "the art department" and when the file requester scanned the disk, it told me there were 1800 files on the disk. It showed "jrcomm.def" and a directory with out a name alternating on the list. Needless to say everything else was gone. did I have a bad experience with "BAD"? yes
dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann) (03/18/91)
In article <1991Mar18.023151.1997@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> sss10@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Napalm) writes: >Well I used BAD on my Jrcomm disk. I had an .iff picture on the disk that I >wanted to try to edit in some way/manner/form with "the art department" and >when the file requester scanned the disk, it told me there were 1800 files on >the disk. It showed "jrcomm.def" and a directory with out a name alternating on >the list. Needless to say everything else was gone. Of course you had a backup to restore from. Didn't you? >did I have a bad experience with "BAD"? yes Hmmm. I wonder. Personally, I wouldn't let any program near important data without making a backup. Especially something like a disk-optimizer which rewrites the whole disk. Especially a program that I was not familiar with. Especially on days with a 'y' in the name. Backups may seem like a hassle now, but the day will come when you are glad you took the time... -- Dave Schaumann | dave@cs.arizona.edu | Short .sig's rule!
spworley@athena.mit.edu (Spaceman Spiff) (03/18/91)
I have used B.A.D. on and off, and I have never had any trashings or errors because of it. It really does work well on floppies, though I don't use it as much as I probably should. I havn't had any trouble running it on my hard drives, but I never saw a visible increase in speed. This was true for my fast 50M Quantum and for my cheesy 20M Seagate. I didn't time anything, but I certainly never saw a difference. My opinion is that B.A.D. is most useful for those who deal with floppies- it makes a pretty big impact with them, and if you don't have a hard drive, you can save a second or two EVERY time you open a drawer. [It adds up]. If you have a hard drive, it's not really worth it. Again, I've never had any errors, but its not that exciting for hard disks. -Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Worley spworley@athena.mit.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
david@starsoft.hou.tx.us (Dave Lowrey) (03/18/91)
In article <1991Mar17.064911.2950@agate.berkeley.edu> labc-1id@e260-1b.berkeley.edu (Joe Chung) writes: > > Well, B.A.D. is NOT just a defragmenter. It's other main function is > placing either .info files or dir info in optimum places so that AmigaDos > can get at those information with the least amount of access. A floppy disk > with a screen full of icons can completely be opened displayed in 3 > seconds!! ( I've tried this before ) > QuarterBack Tools will do this also. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- These words be mine. The company doesn't care, because I am the company! :-) Dave Lowrey | david@starsoft.hou.tx.us Starbound Software Group | Houston, TX | "Dare to be stupid!" -- Weird Al Yankovic
fhwri%CONNCOLL.BITNET@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu (03/19/91)
I think it is; I was able to optimize my Tiny Tiger HD with it, and the much-
vaunted Quarterback Tools told me (a) that it was an Old File System device
(which B.A.D. told me (accurately) that it was FFS)) and (b) that EVERY file
on hy HD was bad. I took back QBTools in a hurry...
--Rick Wrigley
fhwri@conncoll.bitnet
~~~second-hand smoke is THEFT~~~sss10@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Napalm) (03/19/91)
of course like the ass that I am I didnt back up my jrcomm disk... well its a little complicated. see I changed the jrdef and phonebook files but I did have a backup of the disk. unfortunately no .iff picture there. sigh. BAD still mangled a disk of mine though.
jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Darc Tangent) (03/21/91)
In article <1201@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>, dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann) writes: > In article <1991Mar18.023151.1997@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> sss10@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Napalm) writes: >>Well I used BAD on my Jrcomm disk. I had an .iff picture on the disk that I >>wanted to try to edit in some way/manner/form with "the art department" and >>when the file requester scanned the disk, it told me there were 1800 files on >>the disk. It showed "jrcomm.def" and a directory with out a name alternating on >>the list. Needless to say everything else was gone. > > Of course you had a backup to restore from. Didn't you? Does it really matter if he had a backup or not? It's still a bad experience with the program and I would not use a program again on my data that performs like that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darc Tangent "Wheels can take you around jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu Wheels can cut you down" - RUSH