What is SUM II (Symantec Utilities for Macintosh)?

Symantec Utilities for Macintosh (SUM) has been revised and expanded to SUM II. The additions include BackUp, a module based on Redux, the best backup program around; and Encrypt, a new encryption module. The original parts of SUM have had their interfaces improved, some functionality added, and some bugs fixed.

Although the idea of gelling all your necessary utilities in one package is nice, you'll never get all the best utilities this way. But the one operation you should care about is data recovery. SUM is still the best in the business at it — and SUM II is even better than the earlier version. Every Mac equipped with a hard-disk drive should have its own copy of SUM II. My opinion of SUM's other functions is less than glowing, but data-recovery prowess is the reason why the utility remains top-rated.

The changes to the one module that really counts, Disk Clinic, are substantial in this revision. The overall look and feel of the interface, which was justly critisized in the first version, is much better, but it's by no means perfect. Recovery of selected files is much easier, and the Quick Fix feature can repair minor volume-directory damage (an ability that has been available in several other programs for quite a while). The earlier version sometimes had difficulty recovering files larger than 785K; this version splits large files over several floppies.

The Recover module is best used for recovering crashed or accidentally initialized disks—it has no peers in this. For the recovery of deleted files, you’ll do better with Complete Undelete, a new program from 1st Aid Software.

SUM II's Partition module is still inferior to Silver Lining. I don’t trust any encryption programs (preferring physical removal for best security), and although the module here seems OK, I wouldn't use it. The Backup module is a stripped subset of Redux. It works and it's reliable, but I'd still get Redux.

Tune Up optimizes your hard disk, ridding it of fragmentation (and at the same time removing your ability to recover deleted files). It's safe and does a reasonable job quite rapidly, but it doesn't do as thorough a job as Disk Express. However, it has some nice features, such as a listing of all loaded INITs and the ability to lock out bad sectors.

SUM II is worth upgrading to and worth gelling as insurance against harddisk crashes. Its convenience may prove the deciding factor in choosing a data-recovery program. SUM II can save your data, but the best insurance is still to make regular backups.

Bobker, Steve. (December 1989). SUM II. MacUser. (pgs. 61-62).

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Includes v2.0 of:

• SUM TuneUp
• SUM Shield INIT
• SUN Encrypt
• SUM QuickCopy
• SUM Install
• SUM Tools
• SUM Backup
• SUM Disk Clinic
• SUM Recover
• SUM Partition

Download SUM II (Symantec Utilities for Macintosh) for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 4.2

Compatibility notes

Minimum Requirements

• Macintosh Plus
• System 4.2 and Finder 6.0

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II