Software for hard drives - hard disk maintenance - Small-Business Computing

Nation's Business, July, 1994 by Albert G. Holzinger, John T. Cleland

Keeping your drive in peak condition; controlling Windows programs; something for sports fans.

Tell Dr. Tom Lo, a chiropractor in Crofton, Md., where it hurts, and he'll work calmly and methodically to ease the pain. Yet when he learned why his ailing computer had devoured his appointments schedule, he considered using a hammer to put the PC out of its misery.

The problem with Lo's PC, he found, was a common one: Its hard-disk drive had slowed down and then failed altogether. Lo also learned that simple periodic maintenance could have prevented the problem.

Lo was lucky. Although losing his schedule of forthcoming appointments was inconvenient, it did not irreparably damage his practice. But you may not be as fortunate as he was if you let your business computers' hard drives spin on and on without cleaning.

Keeping your computers' hard drives in peak operating condition is inexpensive and doesn't require a trip to a repair shop. It simply requires purchasing and periodically using disk-optimization and lowlevel-formatting software.

When a hard drive is new, the disk operating system (DOS) saves stored files contiguously, with the beginning of one file abutting the end of another. If the length of a stored file is increased--if pages are added to a word-processing document, for example--the revised version will not fit into the disk space originally allotted. DOS remedies this by storing the information elsewhere on the hard disk and noting its location in a file allocation table (FAT). The next time the word-processing file is accessed, DOS uses the FAT to reassemble the pieces before shipping them to the computer's random-access memory (RAM).

Over time, however, a hard disk's many files can become severely fragmented. When that happens, DOS takes longer and longer to find and assemble the files' pieces, and the machine slows down. The FAT can become so complex that DOS will begin losing track of file fragments, and, as a result, data can be lost forever.

Disk-optimization software is complex, but it produces simple results: Defragmented files are stored contiguously just as they were when the disk was new. Optimization software, however, solves only one of the two most common harddisk problems.

Over tune, a drive's magnetic particle "tracks" get out of alignment, and some or all of the disk is rendered incapable of maintaining data accurately. At best, the disk will have diminished storage capacity; at worst it will lose data. Low-level formatting software tests the hard drive and corrects most, if not all, magnetic alignment problems.

Disk optimizers can perform their work in anywhere from a few minutes to about an hour per drive. They are relatively easy to use and generally list for about $175. They should be used monthly to ensure maximum hard-disk performance.

Low-level-formatting software, which also lists for about $175, will tie up a hard disk for eight hours on average, but it needs to be run only once or twice a year. Moreover, this software can run unattended when your business is closed.

An important caution: Although both varieties of programs are designed to protect data, be sure to play it safe by backing up at least your most important files before beginning.

Our favorite disk-maintenance utilities are Norton Utilities, by Symantec Corp., (with a list price of $179) and Central Point Software Inc.'s PC Tools for both DOS and Windows (both versions list for $180). These packages can be found at most discount retail and mail-order outlets.

Forceful Weapons

For Resolving Conflicts

If you've used computers for a while, the following may have happened to you:

* You purchase a modem, network or sound card, CD-ROM drive, or any of the hundreds of devices that can be added to a basic PC to make it more functional.

* You guess at the key settings of the PC's existing components (which are not written down anywhere) and set the switches on the new device with the goal of avoiding conflicts.

* You install the new component, cross your fingers, and turn on the computer's power.

* You moan in anguish as the newly installed device and everything else in the PC behaves erratically or does not work at all.

Over the years, manufacturers have written software that attempts to identify and, in some instances, resolve hardware and software conflicts. Some programs are much more functional and reliable than others, however, and careful shopping is in order.

Recently we've been using two exceptional diagnostic tools. The first is a program that is popular among PC repair professionals: version 5 of Micro Scope, by Micro 2000 Inc. of Glendale, Calif.

This product is unique in that it comes on a disk that boots independently of your PC's operating system, which is most likely DOS or the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface (GUI). This allows Micro Scope to "talk" directly to the computer's hardware without relying on the operating system as a translator. As a result, Micro Scope's findings tend to be the most accurate in the diagnosticsoftware business.