[bjames]

For sure... making new file system is out of the question. I was wondering if reinstalling irix from Inst would just update the OS files like how windows will just refress the OS related files and not affect installed apps. I have a feeling reinstalling Irix may rewrite /etc, /usr, /var etc folders and loose some files.

What I’m might do instead is reinstall Irix completely on my backup drive and test this out.

I have a spare hard drive with an earlier version of irix that I use when installing apps or messing around. If the installing of an application is successful on my ‘test’ drive, I will swap out system drives and install on the good drive.