Can someone verify whether or not Disk Warrior 2.0 and Plus Optimizer (bundled with it) will work on OSX partitions? I can't seem to find anything on Alsoft's site about this. If I do need to upgrade, I'd might as well wait for the new Native X version which should be coming out. What about Norton's SystemWorks 1.0? Will any of these utilities (Speed Disk) work with OSX volume?

I have used Norton SystemWorks 1.0 on an OS X volume. You have to run it from OS 9 (not Classic). Note, however, with SpeedDisk, its method of optimization is not that of OS X. In other words, you might want to stick to defragging with it. Someone in the Mac community did put out an optimizing profile for SystemWorks 1 (Norton Utilities 6) called OS X Profile 3.1, which I did use on OS X 10.1, but I have no way of knowing whether it optimized "properly" or not. Even if it did on 10.1, I don't know that it would optimize on 10.2. I can email you this profile if you send me a private message.

Fox- Speed Disk doesn't differentiate between optimizing & defragging. I'm not sure what you're getting at. From what I hear you saying, do the defragging with Speed Disk but not the optimizing.

I created a boot OS X.2.3 boot CD with the utility BootCD (find it on versiontracker) and installed Drive X onto it.

This way, everything runs in X. The only thing is that it does take a while to boot (quantitative).

John

Boot from the DiskWarrior disk and run it on any HFS/HFS+ partition, including OSX volumes.

You will notice the OSX volumes take much longer, due to the difference in file writing in UNIX vs OS9, but otherwise it's the same.

DiskExpress also works, and is also a lengthy test on OSX volumes. You probably don't need to optimize an OSX volume, but you can anyway if it makes you feel better.

You need the latest version of the DiskWarrior CD to run from the disk on Macs made since summer 2001 (ie those that require OS9.2 as a minimum boot OS). If your version is older, Alsoft provides the update disk for the price of shipping (it contains an OS9.2x startup volume instead of OS9.1, and any relevant system enablers or ROM files) if you need it. The Diskwarrior application itself (version 2.1) is the same.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by csonni:
Fox- Speed Disk doesn't differentiate between optimizing & defragging. I'm not sure what you're getting at. From what I hear you saying, do the defragging with Speed Disk but not the optimizing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Perhaps I used the wrong word. By optimizing, I mean moving files around on the disk so that files of the same category, most frequently accessed files or whatever the "optimization profile" uses are brought together. This operation also defrags, but you can defrag without "optimizing" in Norton Utilities.

Fox- On my Speed Disk with SystemWorks 1.0, the only option you have is to optimize. Whether or not that is defrag alone- that's beyond me.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by csonni:
Fox- On my Speed Disk with SystemWorks 1.0, the only option you have is to optimize. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
In SpeedDisk, choose "show fragmented files" from the "Explore" menu. After the fragmented files are listed, choose the box, "defragment selected files". Also, if I'm not mistaken, if you try to optimize the startup disk, Speed Disk will tell you you can't do this, but you can defragment the disk.

Okay. I booted off my DiskWarrior 2.0 CD (9.1) and checked all 3 partitions (OSX, OS9 and other) with Plus Optimizer and Disk Warrior. I optimized and replaced the directories on the two NON-OSX partitions. But when I tried optimizing the OSX partition, PlusOptimizer stopped and said that OSX has special directory files and it cannot optimize (I wonder if SpeedDisk would go ahead with it- YIKES!). When I started Disk Warrior on the OSX partition, it began rebuilding, but when it came to doing the final replacement, I chickened out and decided to check back with you guys. If PlusOptimizer wouldn't go ahead with optimizing, why should I trust Disk Warrior with the Directory? I need a litle assurance here. I'd hate to trash my OSX system with all the time I've put into it. Am I safe, or should I wait for the X version of Disk Warrior? On another note, if I go ahead with DW, should I repair permissions before or after? Any other words on this?

That's strange. I wonder why PlusOptimizer won't defrag my partition with X? I haven't upped to 10.2.3 yet. But that really shouldn't make any difference.

Disk Warrior 2.0 and Plus Optimizer works fine, been using it for a year now with no problems, I;m running OSX 10.2.3 right now and no problems smile.gif