crosslinked files

[bfg]

Hi,

I've got a G4 powermac with an 80Gb HD that I've discovered using TechToolPro has a number of crosslinked files on it. The machine seems to take a longer time than it once did to boot up but seems ok once running. TechToolPro is unable to sort out the crosslinking.

My question is, does anyone know if I use SuperDuper to duplicate the entire volume to another HD (I'm waiting for delivery of another internal drive), will the duplication process resolve the crosslinked files or will it simply copy them as they are to the new HD?

Many thanks,

BFG

[dnanian]

Hi, BFG -- we'll copy the *files* as-is, which means that if two files are crosslinked and share the same data, we'll copy the share data into each file, but the crosslink itself won't be present. (If copying them gives an error, though, we'll stop.)

It doesn't "resolve" the error, as such, but the resulting disk won't be crosslinked, at least, as long as the crosslinks don't indicate further damage that would prevent a copy.

[bfg]

Thanks for the rapid reply Dave.

That's good news - will give it a go when my drive arrives. Don't really want to trash everything and start again. Will gladly buy the full version if I'm successful.

BFG

[dnanian]

OK. Do realize that there are crosslinks on the source, so the files -- even if copied as they are on the drive, and end up without crosslinks, they may not be "OK" since they're sharing data with other files on the drive.

I hope I'm making sense here...

[bfg]

OK Dave,

I've nothing to loose at this stage, I'll copy the files across and see how it goes. I suspect the crosslinked files have something to do with Norton Utils which I've now thrown in the bin.

Thanks again, will let the forum know how it goes.

[dnanian]

Possibly. Be very careful about uninstalling Symantec/Norton stuff -- there are a lot of bits all over the place!

[bfg]

Well, SD came up trumps!

For the benefit of others with crosslinked files on their boot/source drive, I used SD to copy the contents of the boot drive to a brand new, empty drive I'd just installed.

I then checked the new drive for crosslinked files and - there were none - at least, TechToolPro optimised the new drive without seizing up and producing crosslink warning messages I'd been getting when attempting to optimise the old boot drive.

SD is indeed an impressive bit of software. I don't intend to do this every week but will investigate the features of the advanced version re backups and dip into my wallet.

Many thanks

[dnanian]

Glad to hear things worked out well, bfg! Congratulations.

[sjk]

Originally Posted by bfg

SD is indeed an impressive bit of software. I don't intend to do this every week but will investigate the features of the advanced version re backups and dip into my wallet.

The Smart Update feature alone has been easily worth $20 to me. I use that to update a primary backup boot volume and several sparse image files. Very fast, very reliable, very recommended.