On 27 Jul 99, at 13:48, Jim Meagher wrote:

> The first steps in troubleshooting system crashes should always be to run
> the SCANDISK and DISK DEFRAGMENTER programs (in that order).

  I agree about ScanDisk.

  I disagree about defragmenting, though, for two basic reasons:

1.  Fragmentation is strictly a *performance* issue.  Nothing should break
just because files are fragmented; nothing should be fixed by defragmenting
files.

2.  While ScanDisk will attempt to reconstruct damaged files, some problems
may call for more sophisticated recovery tools.  Defragmenting the drive
pretty much guarantees that no other tool can ever accomplish anything
further to recover lost files on the drive.  You should not defragment the
drive involved in a crash until you have given up all hope of further
recovery.


David G

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