DiskWarrior 4.0
Reviewed by Harry {doc} Babad
Tech.Support@Alsoft.com or 281/353-1510 (Voice) $100 USD Upgrade from Version 3.x $50 USD Period Requirements. DiskWarrior requires a G3 Mac or better (such as a G4, G5 or any Intel processor) with built-in FireWire and a minimum 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended) to start up and run from the DiskWarrior CD regardless of what operating system is installed on the disk to be rebuilt. Strengths: I concur with Alsoft that in my years of working with the product, DiskWarrior [DW] remains the safest, most technologically advanced, most powerful utility to eliminate directory damage available for any computer. Weaknesses: I remain frustrated by the long boot times to start DW from its CD and the awkwardness of restarting the compute, via mouse button eject disk mode, just to regain access to my newly repaired drive. The only non-Apple disk repair software I’d now use on my hard drive. |
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The software was tested on a 1 GHz dual processor PowerPC G4 Macintosh with 2 GB DDR SDRAM running under OS X 10.4.8. |
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Product and company names and logos in this review may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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Software Limitation (Alsoft FAQ): If you plan to rebuild the directory on your startup disk, start from another disk capable of starting up in Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.4, such as the DiskWarrior CD. DiskWarrior cannot be run while started up from the Apple Mac OS X install CD. Any Mac OS Standard (HFS) or Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk including RAID volumes, journaled disks, case-sensitive disks, FileVaults and iPods. To install it, you must be started from Mac OS 10.3.9 or later |
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Software Overview
DiskWarrior enables you to find missing documents and files; can rebuild hard disk drive directories and salvage files and folders; allows you to compare your disk before and after a recovery is done; and verifies your repaired directory to make sure it’s free of errors. According to Alsoft, DiskWarrior repairs disks no other utility program can repair. DiskWarrior finds your missing documents and files by using a proprietary method of rebuilding directories.
Introduction
I’ve been a fan of Disk Warriors since version 1.02 was released years ago. That and two Symantec utilities (Norton Anti-Virus and the now abandoned Norton Utilities) were what I used to keep my Mac’ hard drive on the straight and narrow. Alas, now I have only DiskWarrior, Apples Disk Utility and NAV (Norton AntiVirus), since I don’t trust TechTool Pro despite Apples endorsement of the product. For some reason, although it’s illogical, I don’t often use Disk Utility for anything but erasing disks and reestablishing privileges. Check out the out the list of articles on Mac OS X maintenance and repair at the end of this article for another set of viewpoints on the topic.
Although I’ve never experienced the sheer panic of the events the publisher describes (see the box below). Knock on wood, so far I’ve avoided such problems by using a strong, almost fanatical dose of preventive maintenance. I use DiskWarrior as my primary hard disk health safety tool. [I also restore permissions with Apple’s Disk Utility, both before and after I install new software.] DW’s file and folder function now can repair privileges, as can SuperDuper {backups} but it adds an extra step to your backup process when doing so with DW.
The Blues: Everything just disappeared after your Mac went haywire. All your work documents. The music you most enjoy. The movie of your kid's first steps. It's your life and it's gone. Less threatening but just as angst causing, perhaps you've tried to open a document and all that happens is a color wheel that spins and spins and spins! Or when your Mac starts up, all you get is a blinking question mark. Or you were in the middle of editing a movie and now your external hard disk isn't on the desktop. Or your MP3s won't play...Or every time you look through your photos, your Mac crashes. |
Working With
Installing this application is simple. Open its .dmg, and drag it you’re your applications > Utilities folder. [There are technical reasons, explained in the excellent 53-page manual, for this location.] You do the routine serial number thing, but only after you entered your administrators password. This is a powerful program so Alsoft added additional protection on its inadvertent use by less knowledgeable users in a multi-user environment
Directory Damage 101— DiskWarrior can find your missing documents and files by rebuilding your damaged directories. Unsure what a directory is or does?
“The directory is the portion of your disk set aside to record the names and locations of your files and folders. When your directory is either incorrectly updated or not updated at all, your directory is damaged. “An errant program can damage your directory by inadvertently writing its own data to the portion of the disk that is reserved for the directories. If your Mac crashes or loses power, updated directory information that the Mac OS caches in memory for faster access never gets written to your disk, resulting in directory damage. The presence of directory damage may be very minor and go unnoticed. Or it could make some or all of your files inaccessible!” Checkout http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/details4.html for more information |
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Cartoon by T.
McCrackenI’ve used the new software both from the external disk and from a version installed on my Macintosh. With the exception of boot time for the external disk, the software is significantly faster than previous versions, even on my long in the tooth, dual 1000 MHz G4 Macintosh. I had some problems with the installation on my hard disk that I’ll discuss in the discomforts section of the review.
Developer’s Safety Claims — Based on my own experience and what I’ve read, DiskWarrior is incredibly safe to use. Inherent to its safety is that it verifies your repaired directory to ensure it is error free. It then uses a fail-safe method of replacing the damaged directory to ensure that interruptions such as power outages won't harm your data. I’ve used DiskWarrior on my hard disk for preventive maintenance, since version 1.0.2, about once every three to four weeks. So far so good, all’s well, as the bard noted, that ends well.
Why, so often, you ask? With all of the shareware and other things I constantly add to hard disk, work with, file and often toss after burning the files to a CD, my directory gets a serious workout. Especially since I remove many of the files after creating the archive copy. For any other use, I suggest reading the manual to get a better idea of what you can expect from the product. Actually, I printed a copy of the manual and put it aside for future use, in case of emergencies – like boot being able to boot my computer or access my primary startup disk.
Checking Up On DiskWarrior — I no longer check difference between the before and after version of my hard disk’s repaired directory since I demonstrated the software worked, even with version 1.0.2. I’m usually a bit paranoid when it comes to backup and security on my Macintosh, but based on my experiences and the experiences of others, this seem like a waste of time. You can even compare your disk in its damaged state to its repaired state. For me, unless, as others have noted, there is a specific problem with a set of disappeared files, the ca. 80 GB of information I’ve collected is a bit much to check on even with the excellent guidance in the DiskWarrior report.
Note, so far I’m using the product for maintenance, not data repair and recovery. But I have it handy should the need arise. |
Doing its Thing — After one click, the software finds everything that's missing or broken. You have the option to check the before and after state of you files. Note there is a caveat — DiskWarrior finds all salvageable files and folders when it builds a new error-free, optimized directory for you to use. It then provided a report of the problems it found, if any. Using information in the report, DiskWarrior's preview feature does let you see both (1) the detailed problem items and (2) how your disk will appear after it is repaired, but before any changes are made.
What to Look for in the DiskWarrior Report – This is especially important when recovering missing files or repairing suspected damage to a gimpy disk. “After the rebuild has been completed, DiskWarrior will show you a DiskWarrior Report. When DiskWarrior first displays the DiskWarrior Report, it defaults to showing you a summary of the results of the comparison, all the problems found and repaired, and DiskWarrior’s recommendation to you. However, if you wish to see more detail regarding the problems found and repaired, you can select the Details button for this information. This will also list all the files and folders that were affected by directory damage in red. You should pay particular attention to these files and folders while inspecting the Preview disk.” For more details on what to do with the information in the report, read the manual.
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The Top-level Report on my Recent Directory Repair. |
Other Package Features
DW Recovers More Data From Drives With Hardware Malfunctions — This is a feature I used but never actually needed. The developer notes, “If you wish to enable DiskWarrior's automatic hardware monitoring feature, you will need to install the DiskWarrior application on your Mac OS computer.” Details on using this feature are well documented in the Manual.
Fixing Files and Folders— DiskWarrior now includes an additional suite of file and folder tests, to find problems before they cause you trouble, allow the software to better function for preventive maintenance. In addition, DiskWarrior can now even identify corrupted Preference (.plist) files , a boon when software, including the Finder, gets quirky. As noted in the manual:
“Sometimes the internal structure of special files can become corrupt. Under MacOS X, preference files, a well as many other data files, share a special format. If this format becomes corrupt other parts of the OS will be unable to read these files or will read incorrect data, causing bad system behavior. DiskWarrior will check the internal structure of these types of files for flaws. If any are found they will be displayed in the report and you can remove those files including OS limits on folder depth, number of files in a single folder, and length of file path. DiskWarrior checks for these things and reports them so you can fix them. DiskWarrior checks these links and repairs them if possible. The report will tell you what files were repaired and identify any that could not.” |
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A Shortcut for Using an Installed Version of DiskWarrior — By simply dragging a disk in the Finder onto the DiskWarrior application (or its alias), DW will begin rebuilding the disk’s directory immediately. You can also drag a group of disks onto the DiskWarrior application and DiskWarrior will rebuild them all sequentially. This works great on my Zip 750 disk, which I’ve not yet burned to CD. It also works on the external drive (partitions) I use for data backup. [I don’t check these since I do bootable backups only on my directory-repaired startup disk.]
Discomforts
Installed Application Startup, an Initial Problem — When I first launched DiskWarrior 4.0, which I’d installed on my hard drive, the application reaches the splash screen and DiskWarrior logo but never progressed past the Starting Services message. I found the prominently posted answer in the Alsoft site.
“If you are experiencing this issue, it is likely that a third-party application is interfering with the DiskWarrior application. One possibility is that you have Application Enhancer installed on your computer to enable haxies such as FruitMenu, WindowShade, FontCard or ShapeShifter. If so, you will need to add DiskWarrior to the Master Exclude List" in the Application Enhancer Preference Pane.” For more details check http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/support.html
Fixing Files and Folders, No Report to Save — There absolutely no wauy to capture a report on what DiskWarrior hads found, repaired nor not when working with the is new function. I had a dozen files that coul;d not be repaired and wanted to check them out but shorting of writing them down, you know pen and paper, I had no way to keep that list.
Give Me Back My Hard Drive, Please — In a fashion comparable to Version 3.0x, DiskWarrior 4 has the same problem with rebooting after quitting the application on the CD. When one quits the application from the master disk, it will only reboot to itself. Perpetual reboot, unless the disk is ejected on startup by pressing the mouse button (on an Apple USB wired mouse). [When I first met this in Version 3.x, I actually had to shut down my computer and remove the CD with a paperclip; at least until I found out the depress mouse button thing in the Macintosh Bible. Doing so on a wireless mouse or many 3rd party USB mice will not work — since those mice are recognized only in a later stage of the OS boot-up process. This is not Alsoft’s fault, its caused by a combination of Apple’s licensing limitations and the way the OS is wired.
Long, Longer, Longest CD Boot Time — Folks, although not mentioned above. Once booted, DiskWarrior version 4 appears to be about a third faster in analyzing your volumes and crating a replacement directory… but alas the long boot time for the CD is still exasperating. Indeed I thought there was something wring with the DiskWarrior disk because after waiting the tradition minute or two, nothing happened. I was wrong.
[An except from a support file provided by Jason of Alsoft Technical Support] “If you're unable to start up your computer from our DiskWarrior CD, please try the following. “Make sure you are waiting between five and ten minutes to start up from the DiskWarrior CD. If you have only allowed "a couple of minutes" for the DiskWarrior CD to load, please try starting up from the DiskWarrior CD again.” – The solution works, but is neither described in the manual or in the ReadMe file.
A Final Nit, With the Manual – The manual needs an illustration and a bit more discussion about the “more details feature” when checking the report created by the software during the direct analysis process. After all, the detailed report is the best basis for targeting both a comparison (before and after) and for doing focused file recovery.
Conclusion
DiskWarrior has been such an important part of my computing life that I did not wait to get the developer’s approval to review the product and to send the NFS copy of the software. Instead I logged on to the Alsoft website, and bought an upgrade, all within a few minutes of getting the emailed availability announcement. [I’d actually rescued the message from my SPAM folder!]
Okay, I a fan, a devoted user, and somewhat paranoid about keeping my Macintosh in good health. So let me tell you-all; if you do not now own Disk Warrior, run to your nearest Mac retail store, or albeit slower, go to the Alsoft website and buy up a copy. If you own an earlier version, take a deep breath, make an espresso, and order the update, its well worth the cost. Oh, and while your at it, print and read the manual after you get the product. It’s well with the time for new and experienced DiskWarrior users.
Had some of the problems I encountered been explained in the readme note, rather than having to chase them on the either the Alsoft website or by calling technical support, this product would have been worth four and a half stars. On a more positive vein, Alsoft technical support is great… fast caring, courteous and knowledgeable. Despite these warm fuzzy facts, I must regretfully rate this product four stars.
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PS
Routine Preventive Maintenance on your Macintosh – Articles that Inform
OS X First Aid, By Ted Landau, Macworld, April 11, 2006. http://www.macworld.com/2006/04/features/firstaidmain/index.php
Disk Utility and First Aid in OS X, by Rachael Smithey. http://macs.about.com/cs/onlinecourses/a/osx_lesson02.htm
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance, by Randy B. Singer.
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
Mac OS X Basic Troubleshooting & Maintenance, by 2005 G. Ballard.
http://www.gballard.net/macrant/osx_troubleshooting.html
Tutorial: What To Do When a Mac Os X Application Will Not Launch, Mac Fixit March 14 2006, http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060314080135452
Maintaining Mac OS X. http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintainingmacosx.html
Mac 101 - Lesson 9: Miracle Maintenance, Trouble Shooting 101. http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/9/
