Resetting specific world parts via chunk deletion -- sane?

[olagarde]

Who's used [intentionally] chunk deletion? How did it go? I've found a number of claims of varying success, but is it a sane practice for repeated use? Put another way: would you categorize this more as a sane surgical procedure for a specific scenario or as the square-peg-round-hole-plus-heavy-mallet thing?

Background:

I have a world with a large chunk count loaded prior to copying/converting/massaging/beating into Tekkit. Some boob (that would be me) got curious about chunk generation patterns, went flying far, and well, map's damn big now. Tekkit ores and rubber are way out there, and 99% of the map between here and there is completely worthless [for Tekkit sciency stuff]. I'd like to reset those portions of the map. Basically I'm thinking about setting the spawn point within the area I want to retain, deleting all chunks outside of that area, loading the map up, and causing new chunk generation by traversing the deleted area again.

Environment:

OSX 10.7.4

java version "1.6.0_33"

Java SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_33-b03-424-11M3720)

Java HotSpot 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.8-b03-424, mixed mode)

Client:

Technic Launcher 1.0.1.3 (Tekkit)

Server:

Tekkit Server 3.0.4

java launched with "-d64 -Xmx3092 -Xms2048"

Mods:

AdditionalPipes-2.1.3-MCPC1.2.5-r3

CraftingTable3_1.8

EE2ServerV1.4.5.1-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5-r2

PowerConverters-1.3.4-mcpc78-r1

Railcraft-5.2.4-MCPC-1.2.5-R1

advancedMachines_4.0_bukkit

buildcraft-2.2.14-mcpc1.2.5-r6

codechickencore-server-0.5.2-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

enderstorage-server-1.1.1-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

industrialcraft2-1.95b-mcpc1.2.5-pre1

mod_IC2NuclearControl-1.1.6-mcpc1.2.5-r3

mod_chargingbench-server-1.95b-mcpc1.2.5-r1

mod_compactsolars-server-2.2.0.5-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

mod_ironchests-server-3.3.1.22-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

notenoughitems-server-1.2.1-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

redpower-all-2.0p5b2-mcpc1.2.5-r2

wrcbe-addons-server-1.2.1-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

wrcbe-core-server-1.2.1-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

wrcbe-redpower-server-1.2.1.1-bukkit-mcpc-1.2.5

zimmibis-core48.2.1-tubestuff-48.2.1-mcpc1.2.5-r1