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Prosoft's Drive Genius includes tools to initialize, repair, repartition, duplicate and defragment hard drives. It also allows you to bench test your hard drive, check it for bad sectors and shred all data on it--all with a single utility that you can install on your hard disk. (It ships on a bootable disc that will start up almost any new Mac.)
Drive Genius' Repair mode has four functions: Verify, Repair, Rebuild and Repair Permissions. Verify and Repair work almost identically to OS X's Disk Utility. You can scan the hard disk for a host of problems and in most cases, repair them. Rebuild offers a different approach to disk repair; instead of attempting to fix the file catalog, this feature allows you to rebuild it based on the current contents of the disk. Repair Permissions performs the exact same function here as it does in Disk Utility, correcting the ownership and permissions on the startup disk to stem any potential problems.
Unfortunately, Drive Genius isn't always generous with information. OS X's Disk Utility gives a lot more feedback; it lists the errors that it encounters and reports that the disk must be repaired. Drive Genius, on the other hand, leaves you hanging; it simply notes that the disk must be repaired without giving you any details. We'd appreciate a little bit of exposition.
Drive Genius is one of the few commercial disk utilities that includes a tool to defragment files. As you add and delete data from your hard disk, free space becomes scattered and files may be broken into several parts (or fragmented) as they are saved. This is thought to negatively impact performance of the drive over time. The Defragment tool reorganizes all your files so each one (and all free space) is continuous. Defragging what appeared to be a severely fragmented drive arguably reduced the hard drive noise, but realworld speed gains were difficult to quantify.
One of Drive Genius' most convenient tools is Duplicate, which allows you to make a perfect copy of any volume, either to another volume or to a disk image. It's especially useful for making a bootable backup of your startup disk. Drive Genius provides fewer options than the shareware Carbon Copy Cloner ($5; www.bombich.com), but its simplicity is its strength. Most users will not need the option to selectively copy hidden directories.
The duplication tool has a stunning shortcoming, though; once you click start, there is no turning back. Drive Genius gets to work duplicating the disk, overwriting the destination volume and whatever data may be on it. You will not be warned that you are about to obliterate the data on the destination disk, and unfortunately, choosing the wrong target disk can result in catastrophe. As we went to press, Prosoft promised to add a warning in an update.
The utility has a number of usability quirks, too; for example, it allows you to attempt to carry out actions on your startup drive. It will make an effort to unmount it, and then a few seconds later, report that the task cannot be completed because the drive cannot be unmounted. (The utility should be aware that no actions can be carried out on the current startup drive!) It also obtusely refers to disks by the device path (such as /dev/disk0s10) rather than their proper name (Macintosh HD). Lastly, you're required to enter the lengthy serial number every time you start up from the CD.
Drive Genius succeeds by combining a broad set of tools into one convenient disk utility. It is a bit rough around the edges, however. The utility can help keep your hard drive happy, but you may find that you're happier without it.
-CHRIS MCVEIGH
Drive Genius: 
Prosoft Engineering, Inc. | www.prosofteng.com | 877-477-6763 | $99
Pros: Complete set of hard drive utilities, including duplicate, defragment and secure erase tools, included CD will start up most new Macs.
Cons: Utility does not always adequately warn you of the implications of some actions; odd quirks with user interface.
Requires: G3/G4/G5, OS 10.2 or higher
macHOME recommends: Same
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