Using Norton Utilities to Repair Disk Problems

Sometimes it is necessary to use software utilities like Norton Utilities to repair problems with disk drives. Software such as this will not repair hardware, or a physical problem on a hard drive, but may be used to repair problems with the directories related to where files are being stored.

The two most commonly used parts of Norton Utilities for the Macintosh are Norton Disk Doctor and Norton Speed Disk. Norton Disk Doctor checks the file directories for errors and will attempt to repair them. When using Norton Disk Doctor, it is important to boot from another disk or the Norton Disk Doctor CD so that the disk to be repaired is not in use by any program. If Norton Disk Doctor reports any major errors in its summary, then it is a good idea to run the test again because sometimes the repair of major errors will reveal additional errors that will not be repaired during the current check of the disk. It is not necessary to repeat the Media check which can be skipped, so the second and subsequent passes should go much more quickly than the first pass. Repeat the Norton Disk Doctor tests until Norton Disk Doctor reports it encountered no major errors.

Norton Speed Disk should only be run after Norton Disk Doctor has been run and does not report any major errors. Given the size of most modern computer hard drives, it may take a long time to run Speed Disk. Norton Speed Disk, unlike Norton Disk Doctor, only needs to be run once in order to defragment the hard drive.

Note that newer Macintoshes will only boot into OS X and not into Mac OS 9 or 8. Since many of the older versions of the Norton CD only have Mac OS 9 or 8 on them, they will not work with the newer computers. Users will need to upgrade to the most recent version of Norton (currently Norton Utilities 8.0 or Norton SystemWorks 3.0) to get a bootable CD.

Note: Symantec has announced it has discontinued Norton Utilities or Norton SystemWorks and it will not be updating either program. Users should investigate other disk repair utilities such as Techtools or DiskWarrior.

Symantec has posted a note saying that the only Norton product compatible with Mac OS 10.4.X (Tiger) is Norton Antivirus 10.0 for the Macintosh. Do not use other Norton products because the results will be at best partially successful and may in