It is always nice to have a rescue disk that can be slotted in to repair a damaged startup disk.
For recent Macs, the install DVD can serve this purpose. You can run Disk Utility, hdiutil and fsck to repair the filesystem and check the SMART status of the disk.
There is even a Terminal with a few basic commands. For example, you can read the system logs, and if the startup disk is healthy, but too full to safely start, you can browse around to empty trash cans and delete other unnecessary files.
However, I foresee that sometimes I might have to edit a text file on the startup disk. Yet when I was using my disk (it is a OS X 10.4 DVD) I could not find emacs, pico, nano or vi. Is there an editor on there?
If not, can you recommend a third party rescue disk that I can download or buy, with a wider range of repair tools?
For recent Macs, the install DVD can serve this purpose. You can run Disk Utility, hdiutil and fsck to repair the filesystem and check the SMART status of the disk.
There is even a Terminal with a few basic commands. For example, you can read the system logs, and if the startup disk is healthy, but too full to safely start, you can browse around to empty trash cans and delete other unnecessary files.
However, I foresee that sometimes I might have to edit a text file on the startup disk. Yet when I was using my disk (it is a OS X 10.4 DVD) I could not find emacs, pico, nano or vi. Is there an editor on there?
If not, can you recommend a third party rescue disk that I can download or buy, with a wider range of repair tools?