Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!lakesys!jason From: jason@lakesys.UUCP (Jason) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: zlink & kermit wont do BREAKS correctly / DD Docs available ? Summary: When DDD Pro "Optimizes" a disk it... Message-ID: <770@lakesys.UUCP> Date: 24 Jun 88 06:47:03 GMT References: <1962@netmbx.UUCP> Organization: Lake Systems, Milwaukee Wisconsin Lines: 30 In article <1962@netmbx.UUCP>, blume@netmbx.UUCP (Heiko Blume) writes: > [All of major article deleted...] > sth else: what does DDD Pro do when i select 'optimize a disk' ??? > i wont try it out on my harddisk... > a documentation would be nice to have. > -- > Heiko Blume # DOMAIN: blume@netmbx.UUCP { BITNET: ( mixed } ^ Ein andere (sp?) pastry? :) DDD Pro, and the rest of the packers that I know about, read the block allocation bitmap on a device, and zero the unused blocks. This makes for significantly better packing (as there's much more "similar data", which is how all packing algorithms that I'm aware of work), and doesn't hurt "real" ProDOS disks (or whatever), as it doesn't affect the files on the disk. I personally wouldn't recommend using any of the packer's "optimize" functions, as some of the programming in them is pretty shoddy, and I wouldn't doubt that some/all of them wouldn't properly handle a large device (like a hard drive). For real (in the general sense, anyways) optimization, Glen Bredon's "Beach Comber" program defragments (moves all the pieces of a file together to make access to the file quicker) ProDOS devices. I've never heard about it failing (I have a friend with an 80 Meg HD and a bbs - he uses it pretty frequently), but Mr. Bredon does recommend backing up one's HD before using his program. As I understand it, Beach Comber is part of the ProSel utilities. Sorry, I don't know about addresses or anything like that - someone here probably does. Jason - Not your average iconoclast. "His mother was apoplectic, but the parking lot was his to keep until his hair grew back..."