Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:30:20 +0100 | From | Matt Gumbley <> | Subject | Re: Norton Utilities for Linux ? |
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Something "all under one roof" is definitely needed, IMHO - ef2sck and its associated defrag are fine, but there are other programs in NU that have "saved my butt" in the past. After having to keep buttocks tightly clenched while e2fsck -c did its thing recently, I'd appreciate something a little more in-depth...
I think I must have had a head crash or something (WDC Caviar 21000, never again). The kernel started printing out { unrecoverable Error } or somesuch, and indeed, e2fsck -c found the offending blocks. Subsequent runs did not though - have these blocks been remapped? Is my data good? e2fsck still reports that there are errors (haven't dared run it in r/w mode yet!).
How good is the badblocks program? I don't know whether it was pretty-user-interface-psychology or not, but I always felt better doing a scan with Norton's CALIBRAT or Disk Doctor than when I run e2fsck -c.... it used to run (what seemed like) detailed tests of the disk controller etc.. Can we do this on Linux, or was it just B.S.?
How about some program that liaises with the IDE driver in doing heavy diagnostics - in fact, why not have a full diagnostic suite for Linux?
I have a feeling that as Windows progresses through its various revisions, the efficacy of such diagnostic software decreases. Older versions of diag software could get in at a lower level, methinks. Plus, you have to have more and more heavy OS running before you can run your diags. Run Norton Disk Doctor on a possibly-damaged filesystem? Sure, but you have to have Windows running first, and heaven knows what that'll do to your FS before you can get it to a state where you can run NDD! At least when it was DOS, we knew what it was doing...
I suppose there was just less to go wrong, back then. A recent review of diagnostic tools in a UK PC magazine said that "most users wouldn't know what to do with a hex dump of their FAT" (or words to that effect) - so you can expect Norton Disk Editor to vanish from the next version. Surely, this is dumbing down: it might be acceptable in the Windows world, but we're not like that.
Is this a relevant discussion on linux-kernel? Not sure, but it needs low-level access, and isn't the kernel best placed for this? Sorry if I'm just wasting your bandwidth.
Looking forward to running "The Torvalds Utilities" v1.00!
Cheers, Matt
-- Matt J. Gumbley
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