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Date:      Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:35:23 -0400
From:      Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>
To:        "LW Ellis" <lwellis@mindspring.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: [FreeBSD] Silly Question
Message-ID:  <20040621083523.5afedd75.wmoran@potentialtech.com>
In-Reply-To: <001701c4575d$edb47c20$0200a8c0@LLAPTOP>
References:  <001701c4575d$edb47c20$0200a8c0@LLAPTOP>

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"LW Ellis" <lwellis@mindspring.com> 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



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