The last person I talked to at MacWarehouse (Cathy Rusky, I think) suggested that I put my story on paper and send it to you, mark it "Urgent."  Hurricane recovery (Georges eyed Key West, the storm's backside was unnerving and the power was out for seven days) has delayed the process but I still hope to convey, as concisely as possible, the urgency of this.  I think there are several sets of comments on the matter attached to Order #9247100.  On May first we spent $5000 on a G3 system and software, including Norton Utilities, including Disk Doctor, which we installed and then ignored until early September, when a notice appeared that there was a problem and we should "run Disk Doctor."  The next day I did, but oh how I wish I hadn't.

I know this is only software, but it's named "Disk Doctor" and the first rule of medicine has always been "do no harm."  In this case, however, the so-called physician made its way to the "extents b-tree hierarchy" and announced, "something here's amiss; suggest you have me operate."  I clicked "ok," and the doctor froze everything, rendered the hard drive unmountable, forced us to initialize and then attempt to recreate our operation from scratch.  We're still not done.  The doctor killed a vibrantly healthy system.

A Symantec technician led me through several unsuccessful attempts to access the hard drive, said there seemed no choice but to erase and start over, and told me the Utilities hadn't been updated yet for OS 8.1, that the company had recognized the problem and notified retailers of the incompatibility.  An Apple technician was pretty much an echo, and had no better luck with the drive.  A MacWarehouse technician (her comments should be first in our file, from 9/14, I think) said she couldn't remember a Symantec memo, but knew that "that version of Norton should never have been running on that machine."  But the main way we know this was a concrete, substantial incompatibility is that when we try to run the program in its healing mode, as a startup disk, we get a message saying "no can do."  It instantly knows it's on unfamiliar ground, beyond its ken, and refuses.  But the installed Norton (the program doesn't refuse installation) didn't know it was in over its head and burrowed deep and fiddled, with one adjustment put the "patient" in a vegetative state.

Briefly, that's what happened; I won't try to describe all the losses, delays and aggravations.  Everyone at MacWarehouse has been friendly, patient and understanding, but in the end a resolution came to depend on "something in writing."  To my mind the key here is that in the same order we were shipped a sophisticated system and the poison pill that was to do it in, that the contraindication (to continue with the medical metaphor) had been noted and was overlooked.  I know this letter is my only recourse and can only hope you have resources and discretion for such cases.