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Drive Genius 2.1's marquee new feature is DriveSlim, a function that helps you free up hard drive space by identifying unnecessary files (multi-language slimming, Universal Binary support, duplicate and large files) that are redundantly filling up your hard drive, allowing you to mark them for deletion (by default DriveSlim will back these files up for you). This ability will especially appeal to users of the MacBook Air, which tops out in storage capacity at either a 120 GB hard drive or a 128 GB Solid State Drive (The revision A Airs at 80 GB HD and 64 MB SSD, and folks who opt for the 128 GB SSD option on other Mac notebook models.
DriveSlim includes the following features:
• Duplicate File Search and Delete:
If you've ever wondered how many duplicate files are cluttering up your hard drive, DriveSlim can search for all duplicates, show you their location and then lets you opt to delete the unnecessary duplicates.
• Large File Search and Delete:
Probably you also you have some very large files eating up space on your hard drive, possibly including such items as large video forwarded as email attachment, perhaps that you've forgotten about or don't know about – DriveSlim can search for then, find them, and delete them. The detected minimum size can be from 5MB to 100MB. The period of time can be 0 to 365 days.
• Multi-language Slimming:
You probably know that your Mac is multi-lingual, but unless you speak another language, that feature (and all the files to support it) is just wasting space on your hard drive. With DriveSlim, you can select which languages you want your Mac to support, and delete the others selectively.
• Universal Binary support removal:
When Apple made the transition to Intel-based Macs, happily they decided to support backwards compatibility, so applications had to include code that supported both the new Intel-based Macs as well as the older PowerPC based Macs. For any given application, there are up to 4 possible binaries in one file (Intel, Intel 64-bit, PowerPC, PowerPC 64-bit), which your machine uses run the application. Intel-based Macs do not need PowerPC binaries, and vice versa. For instance, if you're using an Intel-based Mac in most cases you're unlikely to revert back to an older machine that needs Universal support, which opens up potential for freeing the hard drive space used to support Universal. DriveSlim can trim that down to only support Intel-based Macs. DriveSlim detects and deletes any unnecessary binaries that your computer hardware cannot run. You can choose to keep 64-bit binaries by enabling “Keep 64-bit variants” in the Slim Options.
• Cache/Temporary Items:
Finds all cache and temporary files that have not been accessed in a period of time you specify. The period of time can be set from one to 31 days.
• Orphaned Files:
For expert users only. Finds files which the system determines are not associated with an application. Due to the nature of applications using private file types, this search may find files that are actively used by an application. Therefore, the results of the search should be carefully reviewed before making a decision to delete files. It is highly recommended to backup these files prior to deleting the files from the hard drive. To enable Orphaned Files, go to the Expert Preferences menu by holding the Control and Option keys and enable Expert Tools.
• Backup:
DriveSlim also supports built-in backup, which allows you to back up any and all files that you have marked for deletion in DriveSlim. That way, you can save the files off to a CD, DVD or hard drive, in case you ever want to access them again.
Each Slimming routine individually searches for files that can be deleted from the system to save space. The Slim Plan Options menu allows you to fine tune your slim plans and help filter out specific files from your hard drive. By adjusting the sliders and checking various options, you can locate files that may be bloating your hard drive.
In addition to DriveSlim, Drive Genius 2.1's powerful toolkit includes a drive optimizer, a comprehensive repair facility for analyzing, repairing and rebuilding volumes, testing capabilities with media surface scanning, performance benchmarking and data integrity checking. Drive Genius can also can be used to initialize drives, create and delete partitions on-the-fly, and erase drives securely as per Department of Defense's standard.
It can also hide partitions and duplicate volumes or drives efficiently. The program features advanced tools for resizing volumes (repartitioning) and moving of volumes without reformatting, as well as a sector editing tool to modify the data on any sector of the drive.
According to Prosoft, Drive Genius 2's most popular feature is drive defrag which combines all the empty free space on your drive together into one contiguous block, which improves the overall speed and performance of the drive. Drive Genius 2 is used at Apple’s Genius Bar in the ProCare Program for this primary feature, since OS X only optimizes files under 20MB in size and it doesn’t address drive fragmentation. Drive Genius was named “Labs Winner” as the best tool in its class by MacUser UK magazine 2 years running.
New in Drive Genius Version 2.1.0 besides the DriveSlim tool discussed above, the Shred tool has been enhanced and now shreds individual files or complete folder hierarchies as well as volumes and disks, plus there's a new single-pass zero option.
Version 2.1.0's enhanced Repair tool finds corrupted preference files and performs additional volume repair and rebuild actions which is another page out of Disk Warrior's book of tricks. Arguably (I'm sure it's what Prosoft would argue), with Drive Genius you should now be able to get along very well without Disk Warrior, while enjoying the much more comprehensive range of features in Drive GEnius.
Drive Genius got a major facelift when it was upgraded to Version 2 with a new very cool and tastefully-done animated interface and repackaged on a single DVD that can boot both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs to perform the utility's maintenance, management, and optimization functions. Drive Genius can also be installed on your hard drive or on an external volume, and my preferred mode of using it - installed on an external boot drive, which is much faster than booting from the DVD. More on that in a bit.
In Summary, Drive Genius 2.1.0's features are:
- Analyze, Repair and Rebuild OS X directory information.
- DriveSlim tool that intelligently finds and frees up space on your volumes that is redundant or unused
- Defragment OS X drives for optimum performance.
- Create high-speed backup clones of most devices.
- Edit devices, volumes and files with the sector editor.
- Securely erase drives using U.S. DoD specification algorithms.
- Long range throughput tests for performance and diagnostics.
- Benchtests for comparing drive performance.
- Surface scanning to test for media faults.
- Detailed information on drive and volume structure.
- Format a comprehensive range of drives in OS X format.
- Resize partitions without erasing them.
- Comprehensive Support including ATA, SCSI, Firewire and USB drives.
- Streamlined User Interface allowing most operations to be accomplished in a few clicks.
- Bootable DVD-ROM support ranging from PowerBooks to Macbooks.
Drive Genius has comprehensive hardware support including ATA, SCSI, Firewire and USB drives, and includes bootable CD-ROM support for OS X capable machines ranging from first generation iMacs to the latest MacBook Pros.
The program's user interface design is vastly more attractive that the dated "brushed metal" look of previous versions.
If you're not familiar with Drive Genius, for a description of how the program's returning legacy features work, see my review of Drive Genius 2.0.3 here.
Minimum System Requirements:
Drive Genius 2 requires a system with a G4 or later processor with at least 256MB or more of RAM that is capable of running Mac OS X 10.4.9 or above.
Drive Genius sells for $99.00.
Drive Genius 2 also allows users to try out the software. The trial version has part of the feature set disabled. To use in Trial mode, click Trial. For users interested in purchasing Drive Genius 2, go to:
http://prosoftengineering.com
The following features are not enabled in the trial version:
• Benchtest
• Repartition
• Integrity Check
• Duplicate
• Sector Edit (Writing)
• Defragment
• Initialize
• Repair and Rebuild
For more information, visit:
http://www.prosofteng.com
and
http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/drive_genius.php
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Hot Topics ï Reviews ï Utilities Reviews ï
Wow ! wonderful… Really it’s a cerebral work. I admire your work . Just keep it up .
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