Alternatives to Norton???

June 12, 2006 11:59 AM

Disk Repair tool similar to Norton Disk Doctor for Windows?

I seem to have a corrupted disk. Because my son keeps turning off the computer without shutting it down properly, it seems to have developed a bunch of logical errors.

In the past, I would run CHKDSK and repair the errors, but all it seems to do is create a gazillion (*.CHK) files that I don't know what to do with.

In the days of old before Symantec completely screwed it up, I looked to tools like Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) that would seemingly do a better job of repairing the damage files/directories/etc... and then log exactly what was done even with option to undo.

What are some contemporary tools that can do the same? I haven't tried Norton since the 2004 incarnation, but everything I've read suggest that Norton has gone straight to h*ll quallity-wise.

What can you suggest? Freeware/OS is obviously preferred, but I'm willing to pay a modest amount for a decent tool.

FYI: Windows 2000 Server with NTFS partitions.

posted by apark to technology (4 comments total)

Yeah, NDD kicked ass. Have you tried the "Error Checking" in the properties screen for that disk? (Right click on the disk, go to properties, then the Tools tab) It is not a replacement for NDD, but it may repair the problems you're seeing.
posted by Brian James at 12:17 PM on June 12, 2006

The "Error Checking" thing (I believe) is a glorified CHKDSK... :(
posted by apark at 12:20 PM on June 12, 2006

SystemWorks still has NDD but, geez, I haven't run it in years. Now I have to go home and try it.
posted by trinity8-director at 4:15 PM on June 12, 2006

NTFS is a journalling file system, so it's much less likely to suffer random breakage as a result of being shut down dirty; and the NTFS version of CHKDSK is quite substantially glorified and does a lot less damage than the old DOS version.

If I were you, I'd run Windows' inbuilt error check, then just delete all the .CHK files; then I'd stop it happening again, by fixing my BIOS settings so that the power button calls for a clean shutdown instead of causing instant death.

If it's a reasonably modern machine, that's easy to do: dive into the BIOS setup menus (right after switchon, tap DEL or CTRL-ALT-ESC or F1 or whatever the BIOS startup screen or your mobo manual tells you is the right thing to use to get into Setup) and look for the power settings; then make sure the setting called "Soft-off by power btn" (or similar) is set to "Delay 4 seconds" instead of "Instant-Off".

Next, start Windows, visit the Power item in Control Panel, and tell Windows to shut down when it sees a power button event.

And don't tell your son about needing to hold the power button pressed in to force a hard shutdown :)
posted by flabdablet at 5:49 PM on June 12, 2006