Norton SystemWorks 2.0
Company: Symantec Corporation
Price: $129.95
http://www.symantec.com
INTRODUCTION
“Norton.”
That’s a word that can bring screams of frustration, or sighs of relief from legions of Macintosh users trying to fix damaged Macs.
“Norton trashed my Mac so badly I had to reformat my hard drive and start from scratch” versus “If it hadn’t been for Norton saving my drive, I would have had to reformat and start from scratch.”
The truth is probably somewhere in between. Norton SystemWorks, and Norton Utilities before it, are applications that work at a very low level with the Macintosh file system. Norton usually will fix what ails your machine. But there may be times that Norton cannot fix a problem, and the software can sometimes make a particular problem worse.
FEATURES AND COMPONENTS
Symantec recently released Norton SystemWorks 7, which features OS X compatibility. As of this writing, the SystemWorks installer installs a version that is not compatible with OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), but there is a LiveUpdate updater that installs Jaguar compatible updates. It is important to note that even if your Mac is running Jaguar, booting off the CD, which uses OS 9, is not a problem.
Norton’s basic feature set remains unchanged from previous incarnations. Here is what the SystemWorks Read Me file says about the components:
* Norton Disk Doctor: Provides a Mac OS X compatible utility to examine and repair disks.
* UnErase: Allows Mac OS X files and folders to be restored.
* Norton Disk Editor: A powerful disk-editing tool intended for hard disk experts and data recovery professionals.
* Norton FileSaver: Tracks deleted files and directory information, and allows users to configure which drives will be tracked and updated.
* Auto-Protect: Norton AntiVirus 8.0 includes the first Mac OS X v10.1 compatible version of Auto-Protect.
* SafeZones: Ensures that your entire computer is protected from viruses by designating it a Universal SafeZone and scanning all files saved to disk.
* Scheduler: Lets you designate how often you want Norton FileSaver to capture your directory structure for use with Volume Recover.
* LiveUpdate: Download updates to your virus definitions and your Symantec software.
INSTALLATION
Clearly, this package has most, if not all, the tools needed to keep your Mac in the pink. Let’s see how they work.
I installed SystemWorks on a 800 MHz dual processor G4 with 640 megs of RAM, as well as a 800 MHz PowerBook G4 (DVI) with 512 megs of RAM. Both machines were running OSX 10.1.4
MyMac columnist John Nemerovski was present, providing adult supervision. The installation process was lengthy. Initially, I was going to throw caution to the winds and not read the manual before installing, but Nemo’s common sense prevailed, and we did the installation according to the book. It was good that we did, as the process is not altogether intuitive.
Make sure to follow the instructions to boot from the proper disks at the proper time. After the CD installation is complete, you then run the LiveUpdate application to bring the recently-installed-from-the-CD applications up to date. Here’s hoping that you have a fast Internet connection when you run LiveUpdate. If not, bring a good book.
With our installation, most of the component applications were updated, and the process took at least 10 minutes using a fast connection. Part of the time is spent watching the Updater actually update the components, and entering your admin password for each component update. (Note to the Symantec programmers; can’t you figure out a way to require the admin password just once?) As of this writing, there is no stand-alone downloadable updater for SystemWorks. You must use the LiveUpdate application. This means that you must have Internet access to install and update SystemWorks. Points off for this omission.
Due to the fact that many SystemWorks components work with the Macintosh file system, the installer adds “kext” (kernel extension) files. These are somewhat like older Mac OS extensions, in that they operate at startup time. But because these kext files reside in the OS X Library folder, it means that you cannot drag copy a SystemWorks installation from one Macintosh to another. Since you MUST use the installer CD, you just might want to plan ahead when you want to put a copy of SystemWorks on your second computer. Don’t forget that you’ll need Internet access. (No, I have not tried to see if SystemWorks will run if you track down and manually copy all the kext files and applications to another computer.)
The SystemWorks installer CD boots into OS 9, not OS X. But what happens if you try to take a SystemWorks CD that you bought 6 months ago to boot your brand-spankin’ new Dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac? You will find out in short order that the version of OS 9 on the SystemWorks installer is too old to boot your new Power Mac. You’ll have to call Symantec Customer service to get a newer CD mailed to you. While annoying, this is typical of any application that needs a bootable installer.
USING THE SOFTWARE
Norton AntiVirus (NAV)
Each time I boot my Macintosh, I give thanks that I am not using a PC. Almost every day, I hear horror stories from my poor, virus-afflicted PC using friends who relate their latest tales of viruses rampaging through their Word documents, Outlook emails, and Windows registry files. I nod sympathetically, and go about my day.
Macintoshes are far less prone to virus attacks, especially if you do not use Microsoft Office. Many viruses are transmitted via Microsoft Word macro files, so if you share Word files with PC users, you are exposed. Malevolent hackers can use Visual Basic scripts to hijack Outlook Express address books to send viruses. I have received many emails that are infected with viruses that do not affect Macintoshes.
To really test AntiVirus, I had to find a virus, as my Mac came up clean on the initial virus scan. I arranged for a co-worker to email me a few dozen Microsoft Word files that had been floating around the company network.
Running AntiVirus under OS 8 or 9 has the capability to scan email attachments if you use certain email applications. Running in OS X, all attachments are scanned automatically.
As advertised, AntiVirus caught the Word Macro virus in each Word file, and gave the following message:
“The file contains the macro virus W97M.Marker.gen. The macro virus W97M.Marker.gen was repaired.”
All 12 files were repaired in short order.
I then deleted the files, temporarily disabled NAV, and re-downloaded them. I did a manual scan after re-enabling NAV. The application scanned all 76,586 files on my PowerBook, successfully detected and repaired the infected files.
If you prefer to not have NAV automatically repair your files, you can configure the preference file to not automatically repair infected files.
For those Unix command line aficionados, you can even run AntiVirus from the Unix command line by invoking the “navx” command. Astute manual readers will note a typo in the first navx command line example that results in a failure to run navx; the necessary trailing slash is appended directly to the navx command “navx/” whereas it should be “navx(spacebar)/”
By the way, I did notify my co-worker to clean his infected files…
Norton UnErase
Decontaminating files is one important part of safe computing, but two of the most important reasons for purchasing Norton are unerasing files, and repairing damaged drives.
My testing plan next called for me to test the UnErase portion of SystemWorks. I thought this would be a quick and easy test. Not true! I began the test by dumping a large number of files of varying sizes into the Trash. I used text files, applications, and graphics to provide a nice variety. But when I tried to empty the trash, my PowerBook G4 800 DVI began to act very oddly. The cursor became very sluggish, and I was unable use any other menus, or switch to any of my other active applications.
The CPU load meter in the menu bar showed no changes in CPU load, but I suspected that the Mac was slowed to the point that it was not properly updating the loadmeter. So, for the first time in a long time, I had to force-reboot the PowerBook, with the Command-Control-power key shortcut.
What had begun as a test of UnErase unexpectedly turned into a test of Disk Doctor! After rebooting, I opened the Trash, and saw the recently-deposited files still there. Assuming that I had had an unlucky glitch, I again emptied the trash. The same Finder freeze hit me again. Now, I began to get concerned.
Just as the SystemWorks manual suggests, I booted off the CD, and ran Disk Doctor. Problems? I had plenty. Disk Doctor said that I had Allocation Block troubles, Volume Header damage, major errors in the B-Tree Catalog nodes, and incorrect free block counts. All this from a freeze when attempting to empty the Trash!
(For those cynical readers out there who think that I am just making this up to add some fictional semblance of realism to this review, you are quite mistaken. This actually happened! Doing software reviews can be hazardous to your computer’s health.)
Disk Doctor was able to fix the catalog damage in one pass, but I ran it again just to make sure that all was copacetic. I thought all was now well.
Wrong.
After re-booting the trouble was still there! I began to suspect that the Trash itself was corrupted, even though Disk Doctor did not flag it as damaged. Booting from the CD, I again repaired the damage, and then booted the ‘Book into OS 9. I used the great utility File Buddy, to list all invisible files. I found the invisible “.Trash” file that was in my OS X Users folder, and moved it to the OS 9 Trash. Still in OS 9, I deleted the Trash, which now contained the folder that was the OS X Trash. Confused? Just remember that the trash is actually a folder. The Trash can become corrupted just like any other folder or file.
Re-booting into OS X, I put one small file into the Trash, held my breath, and emptied the Trash. Success! Why Disk Doctor could not diagnose the problem with the OS X trash I do not know. This example shows why a certain amount of ingenuity may still be required when repairing damaged disks, even though the state of disk repair software is improving.
Resuming the UnErase test after the not-so-pleasant 30 minute stress test, I found that UnErase worked as advertised. It is important to know the longer you wait after file deletion to try to unerase files, the lower the chance of recovery, as the space that the unerased file occupies may be overwritten by a new file. I did not have an external drive handy, so I had to recover the “unerased” files to the same drive from which they had been erased.
UnErase warns the user that this is not recommended, as there is a chance that it may write the new file on top of the old one. UnErase indicates the chance of recovery as Good, Low, or Poor. I easily recovered several “Good” files, and was unable to fully recover any marked “Low” or “Poor.”
Having had a real-life need to use Disk Doctor, I was not interested in damaging my PowerBook to the point that it would not even boot, so I did not give the Volume Recover component an actual test. Unlucky users whose drives no longer boot will then boot from the CD, and use the Volume Recover application. It attempts to scan your disk directory to find the FileSaver files that will help it rebuild your disk. If you did not install FileSaver with your original SystemWorks installation, Volume Recover can scan the entire disk manually, but the time required could take hours on a large disk.
Speed Disk
To wrap up the review, I optimized my PowerBook disk with Speed Disk. Speed Disk both defragments and optimizes your drive, collecting all the various fragments of files, and writing them in contiguous order in the optimal locations on your drive. I noticed a distinct improvement in boot times after running Speed Disk on a highly-fragmented drive. A word to the wise; make SURE that you run Disk Doctor to fix any and all problems BEFORE optimizing your drive. Optimizing a damaged disk is a recipe for major trouble.
Additional Software Bundle
Symantec includes some other applications on the SystemWorks CD. You’ll find a copy of Dantz’s Retrospect Express 5.0, DiskWarrior PE, Aladdin Spring Cleaning, and a demo version of DragStrip, a popular file launcher utility. Due to time and space limitations, I did not test any of these applications.
However, a few comments about DiskWarrior PE are in order. Many think that DiskWarrior is the best application around for repairing damaged disk directories. I have used it with great success several times. DiskWarrior competes head-to-head with the Volume Recover application. The version included on the SystemWorks CD is a crippled version that only allows the user to mount the damaged drive and copy files to another disk. It will not completely repair the damaged directory; that task is left to the Norton Volume Recover application. If you buy SystemWorks, do you need to buy the full version of DiskWarrior as well? Some say yes, some say no. I’ll leave that decision to the reader.
I originally thought that this review would be an overview of the various components of Norton SystemWorks, without needing to actually USE any of them for real. I was pleased and relieved to find that Disk Doctor was able to totally repair the rather significant damage to my disk resulting from a corrupted OS X trash. However, I was unhappy that Disk Doctor could not determine that my .Trash folder was corrupt. If I had not known to delete the invisible .Trash folder when booted from OS 9, I would still have been unable to empty the Trash in OS X.
Both UnErase and Speed Disk worked well.
WRAPPING UP
In summary, everyone must own a disk maintenance package. Symantec’s SystemWorks is a full-featured collection of applications that will fix most problems most of the time. It is not magic; it is possible to damage a disk so badly that no recovery application can fix it, and it may not be able to diagnose every file or disk problem. Regular PREVENTIVE maintenance and backing up are the keys to uneventful computer usage. But if you do have major or minor problems, SystemWorks is going to help you get your Mac back on its feet.
MacMice Rating: 4 out of 5
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.