Provides: Directory recovery and replacement
Developer: Alsoft
Minimum Requirements: G3 PPC or Intel Core-Duo, Mac OS X v10.3.9, 256MB RAM, built-in FireWire
Retail Price: $99.00 ($49.95 update)

I've heard it said that Adobe's release of the Universal version of the Photoshop Beta is going to help Apple sell a lot of the new Intel-based computers. While I do not disagree with that statement, I think that the Universal release of DiskWarrior 4 will sell more. For those who've found that the best way to provide general maintenance and repair of their computer by DiskWarrior will now be able to obtain a new Intel-based Mac, and feel safe.

Keep in mind that when I state that DiskWarrior provides "Directory recovery and replacement," I do not use the term "repair." A repair means that the elements of what was wrong with it may still be around. Consider: do you want a new car or a repaired car? The answer to that might depend upon what you need/use your car for. If you just use your car to go to the grocery store every once in a while, but you have friends who usually take you shopping, it doesn't really make a difference. But, if you make your living from your car, a repair could be more than just an inconvenience. Since your computer's Directory has all of the information as to what's on your computer, if it is broke, you can lose data. That data might be the only photo you have of Aunt Zelda or your tax information. In either case, even if you are not "professionally" using your computer, your data is no less important.

For those who may not know, a "Directory" is a section of the hard drive that is designated to be the head librarian of everything that's on the computer. It knows the number of files, their names and location, as well as the types and sizes of all these files. If the Directory gets corrupted for any reason, it may lose data, or overwrite old files with new information. At a minimum, you might lose some records, but if what you lose is part of your operating system, you could have any level of problems such as crashing to inability to start the computer.

Two things can happen to the Directory, the most common is fragmentation. Fragmentation can cause from 50% to 60% increase in time required for the computer to scan what's in the Directory and can add from 10% to 20% to your startup time.

The other problem is that it can get corrupted. There is no shortage of reasons how this can happen, but suffice it to say, it can.

There is one simple rule about using DiskWarrior, it cannot be run from the disk that you want to repair. This is compared to the fact that you cannot ask a surgeon to perform brain surgery on his or her self. The good news is that there is a variety of options available for using DiskWarrior:

1. Perhaps the easiest is to restart your computer with the DiskWarrior CD in the computer, and press the "C" key during the startup process. This will force the computer to startup from the CD and you can do the Directory rebuilding from there.
2. Connect two computers with a FireWire cable between the two [The computer you are rebuilding is computer A, and the computer you are checking it with is Computer B. If you haven't already, turn off Computer A, then restart Computer A and place your finger on A's "T" key (Target mode). Very quickly you will see the FireWire symbol against a blue screen of Computer A. On Computer B you will see the hard drive is now mounted on the desktop. You can now run DiskWarrior on Computer B to rebuild Computer A.]
3. If you have an external hard drive that has an operating system, you can bless that system allowing you to restart under the external hard drive. Then you can repair your hard drive while you have started off of the external drive.
4. The last approach is the one that I do, but it takes the most pre-planning. Whenever I get a new computer (which is never often enough), the first thing I do is erase the hard drive and reset it with two partitions. I block out about 30-40GB or so and place an operating system in both the large and small partition. On the big partition I place everything—it's my main computing environment. On the small partition, I have a limited system (no extra languages, no iPhoto, etc.), but I do place any repair/maintenance programs I own. This way, when it's time to repair my system, I simply restart into the small partition, do all the repairs I want, and then reboot back into my main partition. [There is software available that lets you partition a hard drive without reformatting. I've not tried any of these and therefore cannot make an recommendations.]

Beyond the one issue that you cannot run DiskWarrior on the system that you want to rebuild, everything else about using DiskWarrior couldn't be easier. As seen below, there is a dropdown menu for you to select which drive you want to rebuild, one button that says "Graph" and one button that says "Rebuild."

The Graph option graphs the hard drive being tested and displays the amount of fragmentation by using degrees of lightness variations to show both the amount of fragmentation and how far the item is from where it should be for optimum performance. Below is a graph of my Flash drive as they tend to develop considerable fragmentation due to the way they are used and their limited size.

You can easily defragment a flash drive by dragging all of its contents to your hard drive, reformatting the drive and dragging anything you want/need back on, but I wouldn't recommend doing that with your hard drive. Running DiskWarrior on a flash drive can be done as long as the drive has the correct formatting that can be used with DW (see the DW manual for restrictions). When completed, the drive will be "clean," as seen below.

To defragment and optimize your computer's Directory, simply click on the Rebuild button, you will have to enter your Administrator's password, and sit back.

That's where one of the new aspects of DiskWarrior kicks in. I did a test on my work computer, which is a G4. I first ran DiskWarrior v. 3.0.3. It took about 17 minutes to get to the end of step 8. It is at this point, if there were any problems with your disk, you'd have to re-enter your administrators password a second time. After entering the password, step nine was complete four minutes later for a total processing time of 21 minutes.

However, instead of replacing the directory, I clicked the Cancel button and then installed DiskWarrior v. 4.0. It took just under 4 minutes to get to the end of step eight and continued directly through step nine, and all processing was completed in 7 minutes and 45 seconds. At that point, the second request to enter the administrators password came up. I then clicked the button to replace my old directory and I was done.

This means there were two major improvements: First off, the processing time was 63% faster. That's a real big speed improvement. The second item is that the requirement for the administrator's password having to be entered a second time part way through the process was always a pain. As there was no chime, or other warning, if you walked away from your computer during the repair, that meant that nothing would be completed until you entered the password...and then you had to wait more. Now, at the end of the process, you have to enter the password, just before you ask or the rebuild Directory to replace your old one. This last step takes a minute or so, so waiting for that is nothing.

After replacing your Directory, you will see your computer restart quicker and generally be "snappier" than it was before the process.

But of course, there is more...

As in DiskWarrior 3, version 4 takes advantage of SMART drive technology. That is, all drives made since 1996 have SMART installed. S.M.A.R.T. (or Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is simple technology that constantly monitors the hard drive and looks for irregularities. If it detects something amiss, and there is software around that can listen, you (the user,) can be warned. DiskWarrior is the kind of software that listens. The catch is, it looks for changes in processing, so the first thing you should do after installing the software is to select the Manual Diagnostics tab and run the Test Drive.

The other issue about SMART drives is that it will only check against an internal error, and will not protect the drive against being dropped, soaked in acid or other intentional or malicious activities. Thus, even though you will not be running DiskWarrior on the your main hard drive to repair your main hard drive, it should be installed on your main hard drive nonetheless so that DiskWarrior can monitor your SMART drive. Ironic isn't it?

Another reason to place DiskWarrior on your main drive is to have access to the new repair/identification functions seen below. After clicking on the new "Files" tab, these new functions provide repair of your Permissions as wells other operations. As opposed to rebuilding the Directory which must be done on a different startup drive than what's holding the running DiskWarrior, these sets of operations must be done from the host computer.

The first option is Repair Disk Permissions. This is the same as the Repair Disk Permissions found in Apple's Disk Utility program (located in the Utilities Folder, which is found in the Applications folder). The Repair Disk Permissions is placed here more for convenience and as a reminder: a convenience in that you do not have to open a second application to run permissions repair, and as a reminder because this is also something that should be done on a regular basis as general maintenance on your computer.

What permission's repair is all about is that in UNIX (the base system around which OS X functions), various files and folders have different levels of permissions. This is partly to help protect you from yourself. There are three basic levels of users in UNIX, the main computer (known as Root), the main owner of the computer (known as the Administrator), and any other Users. Certain operations within the computer can only be done by Root, and everyone else has neither the ability nor the right to access these files or folders. The administrator has other rights, such as the ability to install applications (which is why when you are installing or updating an application you are asked for your administrator's password). The user has very limited rights and cannot install any application and can operate only within a tight confinement of operations.

At least that's how it's supposed to work, but sometimes things go wrong. Perhaps you have tried to move a file from one folder to another or attempted to throw something in the trash can but you were told you do not have permission for that particular action. What has happened is that in normal use, and/or due to a mistake in a program's installer code, the permissions got screwed up. To deal with this, a log is kept in your computer about what the various permissions across the computer "should" be. These are compared across your computer to what they are, and are fixed accordingly.

The "Check All Files & Folders" is a bit misnamed. Check implies that it looks at, but doesn't do anything. This is partially true and partially false because this repair selection both points out issues that it cannot do anything about and repairs other issues that it can. There are four areas that it covers:

1. Folder Depth: There is a limit as to how deep you can store folders within folders. I'm not certain how deep this limit is, but it's at least greater than 20 (which was my greatest depth and I was given an OK). If a problem is found, the issue and location is pointed out for you to deal with. This is absolutely wise as I do not want a computer program to place my folders without my having a hand in deciding where they go. I do not want someone else to clean up my desk either.
2. Property List: These are files in your Preference folder that can be found with the suffix ".plist." If these become corrupted, the best thing to do is to toss them out. Programs create these on the fly. The big issue is that you will have lost your settings and preferences for that application. A corrupted .plist can cause crashing and major operation issues with a program or your system.
3. Resource Data: An older form of .plist (with the suffix .rsrc), is also capable of creating instability with your system. Like the Property List, the best thing that DW can do is to remove it from your system, and a new one will be self-generated.
4. System Symbolic Link Files: These UNIX files are the original "aliases," and are used to create links at various levels and locations within the computer. If the links are broken, the symptoms can range from computer instability to inability to start up. These are the only items that are actually "repaired," but the repair in this regard is only finding the file to link up to. There is no "patching" of code.

All of these operations and procedures are based on the concept that your drive is working and you are doing general and/or preventive maintenance. What do you do if the drive is not functioning? Well, you use DiskWarrior, of course. Code for finding and recovering data from a bad computer existed within DiskWarrior 3, and has been improved in version 4. This allows you to find more of your files and copy them from the damaged drive to an external drive. If there is full mechanical damage to the drive, you may not be able to do much, but if the directory is so damaged as to not be able to start up, you might have a chance with DiskWarrior. Fortunately I have no screenshots of this type of activity because my hard drives are working well.

So, when do you run DiskWarrior? Consider it like changing the oil on your car, something that should be done more often than you probably do. The "oftenness" does depend on what kinds of things you are doing on your computer. If you use your computer a couple of times a week, and all you do is play solitaire, do not download much of anything from the internet, and do not install software at all, than running DiskWarrior every 3-4 months is fine. If you use your computer every day, and doing regular work on the computer. Once a month is probably best. However, there is at least one other situation when you should run DiskWarrior an extra time—before you run an OS updater of any kind. I occasionally hear nightmare stories of people who've run an updater from Apple and suddenly they can't print, open a program, or some other dreadful experience.

What is likely to have happened is that the updater is looking for specific code in a specific place to update in a specific way. If a permission is not right and/or a directory leads the updater to a different location, the updater will not do what it's supposed to do.

For years I've always followed a very dedicated process of running DiskWarrior, then running Apple's Disk Utility (Permissions and Disk Repair) before running an updater. I've also never have had a single problem when running any updater. Yes, it's a bit of extra work, but it sure beats the time spent trying to solve code that's all mucked up.

In short, Alsoft has taken a fantastic and important program and made it better. There are very few programs that I insist that people get for their Macs, but this is the one that every Mac user should have. Like a car, if you do not do general maintenance, you will eventually have problems. While the Mac OS is an absolutely wonderful OS, it does need general servicing. Regardless of any other maintenance or repair program you get, the one you cannot be without is DiskWarrior.

And my last comment is the obvious: DiskWarrior will not fix your computer if it's been in a fire, has been whacked, or has been corrupted in some evil manner. Do not use DiskWarrior in leu of backing up your important data. There are many backup programs and services out there. Use them. As they say, there are two kinds of computer users: Those who've had a major hard drive crash and those who haven't had a major hard drive crash yet.

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