disk utilities, scandisk, defrag, etc
 

newbie question
windows has disk utilities like scandisc, defrag, error checking

does fedora 4 have these?
what are they called?
were does one find them?

thanks

Normally error checking is done during boot. Defrag isn't needed. What specific task do you want to perform? Linux has far too many useful tools to list without knowing a little about what you want to do.

thanks
no specific task
just want to do the stuff to the hard drive that windows made me do
didn't know it was automatic

Not Just Automatic
 

Either automatic or just plain no longer necessary.

scandisc is run on boot. it is forced every 30 or so boots IIRC.

defrag is not needed due to the way that linux is much more efficient at keeping data were it belongs and together. plus when you remove a file in linux and then add something new right behind it (time does not matter) unlike MS linux will use that "new" free space. MS on the other hand just randomly places the file any place it will fit in bits and pieces on the drive.

this is why a brand new install of MS OS will always need a defrag and multiple time to clean things up so the data is moved towards the front of the disk and cleans up as much of the fragmented files as possible. the MS defrag tool is not very good and there are a load of 3rd party tools to do the job way better.

linux just does not have that problem.

"man fsck" in a terminal window

Linux supports several filesystem types (as does Windows, BTW), but the fsck commands are able to identify the type, usually, on their own.

You should use a "journaling" filesystem... that is, ext3, which is actually upward-compatible with ext2 so that you don't have to reformat anything. This will allow the system to recover much faster if a squirrel electrocutes himself on a local light-pole (as actually did happen to one of my customers yesterday .. the squirrel, not the customer. :) ).

Defragmentation is generally not necessary. You needed to do that with FAT but you don't with a Linux filesystem (or NTFS for that matter).

NTFS under *doze DEFINITELY needs periodic defragging!

So does ext3 under linux under certain conditions. There are no utils specifically for it but simple cp'ing a directory to a new name, rm'ing the old one and then rename the new one will put the files together on a new section of disk.