The Target Drive
InstallShield 2024 » InstallScript Debugger
No matter how well it has been designed or how thoroughly it has been tested, your installation may fail to perform as expected in some cases due to errors on the target drive of an end user’s computer. There are a variety of problems that can occur with magnetic media:
| • | Flaws and/or damage to the surface of the disk can prevent data from being read from or written to certain disk sectors. |
| • | File allocation table errors, such as lost and cross-linked clusters, can prevent your installation from opening or overwriting files. |
| • | Extreme disk fragmentation, which impairs disk performance, can cause your installation and the installed application to run very slowly. |
When you suspect that the target disk may be the cause of an end user’s problems with your installation or the installed application, you can recommend the following tactics:
| 1. | If you suspect that flaws in the disk surface or errors in the file allocation table are the source of the trouble, instruct your end user to run ScanDisk. This utility can lock out bad sectors so that programs no longer attempt to read from or write to them. It will also repair errors in the file allocation table. |
| 2. | If you suspect that extreme disk fragmentation is the source of the trouble, recommend that your end user run the Windows Disk Defragmenter. |
Tip:You should advise your end users to perform a disk backup before running disk defragmentation software.