From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 21 12:36:02 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 836F416A4CE for ; Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:36:02 +0000 (GMT) Received: from internet.potentialtech.com (h-66-167-251-6.phlapafg.covad.net [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5BBC443D53 for ; Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:36:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from working.potentialtech.com (pa-plum1c-102.pit.adelphia.net [24.53.179.102]) by internet.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D0A5D69A3F; Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:35:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:35:23 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: "LW Ellis" Message-Id: <20040621083523.5afedd75.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <001701c4575d$edb47c20$0200a8c0@LLAPTOP> References: <001701c4575d$edb47c20$0200a8c0@LLAPTOP> Organization: Potential Technologies X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.10 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.9) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [FreeBSD] Silly Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:36:02 -0000 "LW Ellis" wrote: > Ok gang don't be to rough. > I am a long time windows user, > and am used to running disk maintenance. > Scandisk, defrag, etc > Do I need to run something similar on FreeBSD? > or not? > I let my machine run 24/7 and have received the weekend reports > (which I found fascinating.) > If I need to run such apps, which one in the > ports do I chose? All the software you need for routine maintenance is already installed and running. It's part of the filesystem drivers. You're probably worried about defragging. UFS defrags the filesystem as it goes, and does a damn good job of keeping things organized. The only potential problems you might have is if you fill the filesystem very close to full. As far as disk checks, they are only needed when the system is powered down imporperly (when the power goes out and you don't have a UPS). The system will run the filesystem check program (fsck) automatically on the next boot, and is usually able to fix any problems without manual intervention. If things got really scrambled, you'll be dumped into an emergency shell to fix things manually. At that point (being that you're a newbie) your best bet is to run "fsck -y" which tells fsck to fix everything, even if it might result in loss of data. I want to emphasize that the previous paragraph is only important if you don't shut your system down properly. Under normal usage, fsck is never needed. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com