[NTLK] SBM the best fragmentation buster

Dan dan at dbdigitalweb.com
Sun Nov 29 01:46:08 EST 2009


I am sure most people probably know about this tool, but with the recent
discussion about fragmentation made me think it might be good to mention
it again.  SBM utilities is a great package of tools (and was recently
given to the community).  One in particular allows you to back up your
newton.  And with a MP2x00 you can even backup from one card and restore
to another and hold multiple "backup files".

This is a real help in fragmentation as was discussed previously, the
more you use your newton, the slower it will get due to fragmentation.
This can also cause errors when writing in some cases.  Since the only
way to 'fix' fragmentation is to backup, erase, and restore SBM becomes
the fastest easiest way to do this.  Not only for your internal memory
but also your cards.  The only catch is that you need to have a card
large enough to hold the backups.  While you can backup with many other
tools via a computer, this is certainly the fastest method.

I recently did this with one of my "book" cards and was amazed at the
speed difference.  Since the slowdown is gradual, you don't notice it
until you have a fresh card in your Newt.  Thankfully this should not
need to be done often, and with most people once a year is plenty.

You can get the software here:
http://www.softwarebueromueller.de/englisch/newton/sbmutils/index.htm

And the code generator is here:
http://www.pda-soft.de/common/download/SBM_Utils_Reg_Code_Creation.zip

-Dan



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