Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:18214 comp.sys.mac.programmer:1605
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!pyrnj!dasys1!alexis
From: alexis@dasys1.UUCP (Alexis Rosen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: WARNING: Symantec Utilities ('SUM') trashes partitions!!!
Keywords: BOMB SUM sloppy_programming
Message-ID: <5579@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jul 88 12:06:19 GMT
Lines: 68


Recently I purchased Symantec's Utilities for the Macintosh ("SUM"). It has
been getting good word-of-mouth, and my previous experience with MacZAP,
its progenitor, has been good.

Besides a new MacZAP, there are some other utilities in SUM. One, called
guardian, keeps a duplicate copy of your directory. This makes recovery
easy if you delete a file or initialize your hard disk. Another is a file
optimizer somewhat like DiskExpress or PowerOP. So far, so good.

There is also a combination INIT and DA which allows you to create parti-
tions on your hard disk (not SCSI partitions, but invisible HFS files which
the DA mounts as individual hard disks). The INIT presumably installs the
drivers to read partitions, and auto-mounts partitions. The DA mounts,
creates, and deletes partitions.

***** DO NOT USE THIS DA AND INIT!!!!! EVER!!!!! *****

On a Mac II with a clean system 4.2, unifinder, and three inits (Suitcase,
PramFix, and the Partition INIT in question), this DA destroyed partitions
which I had created only moments after I threw out the other copies of my
files. This is a 100% reproducible error: After mounting any partition,
ANY FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO MOUNT ANY PARTITION WILL DESTROY THAT PARTITION
IMMEDIATELY, WITHOUT ANY NOTICE. For those of you who have files in a SUM
partition, you can get them out safely by NEVER mounting more than one
partition in one invocation of the DA.

To add insult to injury, there is a feature of the new MacZAP HFS Recover
program which makes it easy to restore damaged partitions... but... when
run it only recovers a few of the lost files!

>>>>>>>>>> FLAME ON!!!!! <<<<<<<<<

This is the most inexcusable, irresponsible, idiotic, egregious blunder I
have ever seen from a "reputable" software company. Even worse, I can't
just say "never buy from Symantec," because they have also produced some
of the best software ever written for the Macintosh. Lightspeed Pascal
and Lightspeed C, for example. Q&A for PMS-DOS is a wonderful program (if
you must use MS-DOS...)

I can only conclude that this bug is a fluke, and that the programmer
responsible for this is utterly irresponsible, incompetent, or both. I
hope that the programmer gets another job in another industry soon, because
if he (or she) ever works again, it will endanger more people!

While I'm at it I'd also like to roast Symantec's testing and QA people.
They really fell down on the job this time!

(flame off)

I wonder who wrote the guardian program- the author of MacZAP or the author
of the partition software? If the latter, I wouldn't put too much faith in
that guardian, at least until a LOT of testing is done. What about the file
de-fragmenter? That could also do a lot of damage.

(Now if I find out that the author of MacZAP IS the author of the partition
software, I will really be worried. MacZAP has always worked wonders before.
I hope they are different people...)

Symantec- Consider this a bug report. I urge you to immediately recall this
product until a fix is provided. It will cost me hours to recreate what I
lost. The cost to others may be far worse.

-- 
Alexis Rosen                       {allegra,philabs,cmcl2}!phri\
Writing from                       {bellcore,harpo,cmcl2}!cucard!dasys1!alexis
The Big Electric Cat                  {portal,well,sun}!hoptoad/
Public UNIX                         if mail fails: ...cmcl2!cucard!cunixc!abr1