by , 5:00 PM EDT, May 7th, 2003
Disk help for Mac OS X is here at last. While the Disk Utility app that comes with Mac OS X can fix some things, and Mac OS X itself includes fsck (file system check) functions within the OS itself, many Mac OS X users have been patiently waiting for DiskWarrior to come to Mac OS X itself. Today, Alsoft officially announced DiskWarrior 3 for Mac OS X. The new version includes native support for Mac OS X, speed improvements, support for journaling, and more improvements. From the company:
Alsoft, Inc. today introduced DiskWarrior 3.0, an upgrade to its award-winning utility that adds several new major features including native Mac OS X directory rebuilding for Mac OS X Extended disks, as well as disks running under earlier versions of the Mac OS. Also new to this version are significant speed improvements, support for journaling, and a component that uses a drive's built-in S.M.A.R.T. technology to monitor drive hardware, giving users the opportunity to back up data when hardware is in danger of failing.
This new version retains its ability to compare the existing directory with the rebuilt one, showing users which files and folders have been affected by directory damage before any changes have been made to their disks. In addition, DiskWarrior can generate a graph for users to visually determine the state of fragmentation of their directory. Directory fragmentation can cause decreased disk performance.
DiskWarrior was designed from the ground up with a totally different approach to resolving directory damage. It provides Mac OS users the only method to resolve all existing damage to their HFS (Mac OS Standard) and HFS Plus (Mac OS Extended) disk directories, including those of Mac OS X Extended disks. DiskWarrior also speeds up overall disk performance due to its directory optimization.
DiskWarrior is a revolutionary utility that combats disk damage. It quickly rebuilds, recovers, and optimizes HFS and HFS Plus disk directories, eliminating all directory errors and recovering lost files. Other utilities attempt to repair disks by patching the damage. Patching can result in more damage and permanent loss of files. DiskWarrior's patent-pending method of rebuilding a new replacement directory repairs every possible error with a directory, something that no other disk utility can claim.
System Requirements
DiskWarrior supports any Mac OS Standard (HFS) or Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk. To start up and run from the DiskWarrior CD requires a G3-based or higher Mac OS computer with at least 128 MB RAM. For customers who have older PowerPC-based Macs that are not capable of running Mac OS X, the DiskWarrior CD will start up an earlier version of the Mac OS, allowing these customers to run DiskWarrior version 2.1, also included on the DiskWarrior CD. To install the DiskWarrior application, you must have a Mac OS computer running Mac OS X 10.2.1 or later. DiskWarrior supports SCSI, IDE, FireWire, and USB devices and is compatible with any storage medium formatted as a Macintosh disk.
DiskWarrior 3 is priced at US$79.95, and the company is offering upgrades "from earlier versions" for US$39.95. We checked with Alsoft, and they confirmed with TMO that the upgrade offer is good to owners of version 1.x and 2.x of DiskWarrior. Alsoft also told TMO that the product is expected to ship out this week, though we were not given an exact date. You can find more information on the product at Alsoft's Web site.