drew@objy.com (Drew Wade) (12/29/90)
I earlier posted a question about a situation in which Norton Utilities and Apple's Disk First Aid disagreed about how to repair a damaged disk, and a mild complaint that Norton's phone tech. support couldn't help me. The following came to me by email from Norton, who request it be posted. It's nice to hear the explanation and even nicer to see quality support! (I still see no other altertaive than reformat disk...to ease my paranoid feelings...but good to understand it.) -Drew Wade drew@objy.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Norton Disk Doctor versus Disk First Aid Drew Wade, I have seen the situation you describe (Norton Disk Doctor and Disk First Aid fighting with each other) a few times, and the cause of the problem each time has been the same. The problem is caused by a file that was partially but not completely deleted (this happens most often if the Mac crashes while in the middle of emptying the trash, but other events can cause it to happen too). When this happens, the directory information is inconsistent, and NDD and DFA disagree whether the orphaned file fragments should be rescued, or put to sleep permanently. NDD leaves the file fragments there in case someone wants to rescue them later, and DFA tries to free up the space that the fragments are using. Unfortunately, neither program fixes the problem completely, so they end up fighting with each other for the last word. If this is the same situation that is happening with your disk, it is not a serious problem worth worring about. It just means that a file that you thought was deleted is still using up some space on your disk, even though the file no longer appears in the Finder. Until we update Norton Disk Doctor to fix this problem automatically, it is not worth the effort for you to try to fix it (except for peace of mind knowing that your disk is clean). The only options presently are to reformat the disk, or do some surgery to get rid of the orphaned file fragments. This can be done but takes some time. I am concerned about your comment, "I called Norton and they seemed unknowledgeable and uninterested in helping". I don't know who you talked to, and I don't want to make up any excuses, but I suspect that you might have just caught one of them on a busy day. They are usually very helpful and try to do their best to solve a problem even if it takes some research and giving you a call back. Hope this helps, Marvin Carlberg Peter Norton Computing/Symantec mcarlberg@mcimail.com -- ---- Drew Wade drew@objy.com
JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (01/04/91)
In article <1990Dec28.203018.28195@objy.com>, drew@objy.com (Drew Wade) says: >(Norton Utilities Rep says:) > I am concerned about your comment, "I called Norton and they seemed > unknowledgeable and uninterested in helping". I don't know who you talked , > to and I don't want to make up any excuses, but I suspect that you might > have just caught one of them on a busy day. They are usually very helpful l > and try to do their best to solve a problem even if it takes some research h > and giving you a call back. I just wanted to follow this up by saying that the above is true; Norton reps are VERY helpful. I recently had to call about an error that Norton Speed Disk reported that was not listed in the manual. The rep I spoke to was very courteous, helpful, and really knew his stuff; he had my problem solved in less than two minutes though in that span of time he walked me through quite a few buttons, pages, and settings. If only every company was like Norton!! :-) Kurt -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- || Kurt Tappe (215) 363-9485 || With. Without. And who'll || || 184 W. Valley Hill Rd. || deny it's what the fighting's || || Malvern, PA 19355-2214 || all about? - Pink Floyd || || jkt100@psuvm.psu.edu --------------------------------------|| || jkt100@psuvm.bitnet jkt100%psuvm.bitnet@psuvax1 QLink: KurtTappe || -----------------------------------------------------------------------