Will running Norton Disk Doctor accomplish the same thing as running a thorough surface scan of the HD using MS XP HD tools?

It also depends on which operating system you're using.  If you're using Windows XP/2k, then Norton Disk Doctor is obsolete

Think of Disk Doctor as Chkdsk on Steroids.  It does a much better job, is more capable and while it is more of a sideline for microsoft, Norton cut it teeth and has specialized in the Utilities end for many, many years.  It's like chkdsk is a general practicioner and Norton is a specialist.

tosh9iii:

The OS is XP and considering what the others have said why is NDD obsolete?

Thanks,
Brain

I could have sworn that I read somewhere that norton disk doctor became obsolete after Windows was upgraded to XP, but I cant remember where I saw it.  I am still looking it up on the web to see if I can find any references to it.  But I could confusing it with something else, in which case I apologize for the confusion.

Norton is not Obsolete.  The verson of chkdks and scandisk in windows is just a basic diagnostic tool, just like the Windows defragmenter.  If you want the best performance, go to a product made specifically to do disk testing and repairs or defragmentation.  Disk Doctor is a great tool as is the one in Ontrack's suite.  On the Disk Deframenter, I like Norton, but I like Diskeeper a little better.

It is not obsolete, however many people will not spend the money and take advantage of the free tools available in XP.

Right, that's what I was getting at. Those are very basic tools in the OS. I would also agree with samccarthy that Ontrack has a great set of disk tools and Diskeepers is hands down the best defragmenter out there. In fact, as many of you know the Win2k/XP/03 disk defragmenter is simply a lite version of the Diskeeper code.

Thanks to all for the support!