For me, it was a question (It seems) of not using the Update All button. Every time I did, it failed. When I tried updating each one individually, it worked. Not sure if that's a coincidence, but it might be worth trying.
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DiskWarrior 5.1 Update is Out
- Thread starter CheMillan
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I had an extensive Q&A with Alsoft earlier this year and posted my experience in Apple's discussion forum here. I am JDW1 there (click "Read all replies" and see last post of page 3 in that thread).
It's crazy that it's now Sept. 11, 2018 and still no DiskWarrior that can repair the directory on APFS drives. It's worth the money they charge and will fix directories that other apps, even TechTool Pro won't. I know this from years of experience.
It's crazy that it's now Sept. 11, 2018 and still no DiskWarrior that can repair the directory on APFS drives. It's worth the money they charge and will fix directories that other apps, even TechTool Pro won't. I know this from years of experience.
It's crazy that Apple still hasn't provided the necessary documentation for third parties to be able to support APFS at the low level that DiskWarrior needs. So now Alsoft has to take the long slow process of reverse engineering.
That would be outstanding if that’s what Alsoft is really doing. But if that’s what they’re doing, then the statement on their website is highly misleading, and the response they gave to me earlier this year is also misleading. How so? Both the website and what they told me basically say they are “waiting on Apple,“ not reverse-engineering anything. So as far as what they officially say goes, they are doing nothing more then “waiting.“
You might want to remove that image. It has your serial number
For the ones who asked if DiskWarrior is useful or useless and if it worth the price you pay for it : it saved me and a lot of friend's computers many times for several reasons :
- HFS+ is not a real good file system and it is not very safe. It can be damaged easily. Obviously, NTFS is better. Hoping that APFS will do the job for the future...
- The Apple disk utility app is just no able to repair disks, most of the time. It can check, find errors, sometime repair, repair file permissions, but that's all. When you are facing a real issue with your disk and files, it won't be very helpful, unfortunately.
Many years ago, Diskwarrior cost me about 100 USD to get it and to get me out of serious problems. At this time, I felt like trapped to be forced to pay this amount to be saved because I had no other choice. But the program did its job. Many times after, it saved me and saved friend's computers and disks, where there was no backup available. Sometimes it didn't, because the disk had serious hardware failures and couldn't be repaired. We cannot blame Diskwarrior for this.
But, with the time, I was able to get Diskwarrior updated for free or for a small upgrade cost and to easily update my computers and USB boot keys. When I was not able to start a computer in target mode to repair its internal hard disk from another computer, I could use the Diskwarrior boot USB key to boot the computer and repair the disk.
This software is not for everyone, but if you are the "geek" friend of someone or many others, then you have to get it. You will be the indispensable guy that can fix everything ;-)
Just wait and see to get the next update that will handle with the APFS volumes.
- HFS+ is not a real good file system and it is not very safe. It can be damaged easily. Obviously, NTFS is better. Hoping that APFS will do the job for the future...
- The Apple disk utility app is just no able to repair disks, most of the time. It can check, find errors, sometime repair, repair file permissions, but that's all. When you are facing a real issue with your disk and files, it won't be very helpful, unfortunately.
Many years ago, Diskwarrior cost me about 100 USD to get it and to get me out of serious problems. At this time, I felt like trapped to be forced to pay this amount to be saved because I had no other choice. But the program did its job. Many times after, it saved me and saved friend's computers and disks, where there was no backup available. Sometimes it didn't, because the disk had serious hardware failures and couldn't be repaired. We cannot blame Diskwarrior for this.
But, with the time, I was able to get Diskwarrior updated for free or for a small upgrade cost and to easily update my computers and USB boot keys. When I was not able to start a computer in target mode to repair its internal hard disk from another computer, I could use the Diskwarrior boot USB key to boot the computer and repair the disk.
This software is not for everyone, but if you are the "geek" friend of someone or many others, then you have to get it. You will be the indispensable guy that can fix everything ;-)
Just wait and see to get the next update that will handle with the APFS volumes.
Just tested APFS on a new external drive. My conclusion is that APFS is not really ready for this usage. All directories copied to the disk where locked after copy while the source was on my internal drive. I guess the read/write permissions were not properly disabled for this drive, but I was the directories/files owner, so why it does not give me the access to my own files ? I have reformatted the drive with HFS+ and now everything is back to normal. Perhaps it can explain why Alsoft is not ready to manage APFS too.
Strange. APFS has been working just fine for me and it's most probably installed on several millions of Macs around the world. I see no difference in behavior compared to HFS+ so far. Well, except APFS being a little bit faster.
What do you have to do so much so that your Mac will malfunction and you will need to use DiskWarrior? Macs are pretty stable and unless you are abusing the system with software installed from all over the net and deleting system files you should never need to use it.
I am not against it, its just its so rare to use and its actually cheaper to buy a backup HDD, I really find it amazing they still find it profitable to continue to develop it to this day.
I'd say that DiskWarrior is great to have (in the long run) when using the HFS+ file system if journaling isn't enabled. With journaling enabled it's less sensitive, but still errors can happen, especially if HFS+ is the file system used for the booted OS X/MacOS installation.
The following is now posted on Alsoft's web site:
The next major release of DiskWarrior will include the ability to rebuild APFS disks. Apple has just released the APFS format documentation. Our developers are now using that documenation to update DiskWarrior to be able to safely rebuild APFS disks.
WOO-HOO!
The next major release of DiskWarrior will include the ability to rebuild APFS disks. Apple has just released the APFS format documentation. Our developers are now using that documenation to update DiskWarrior to be able to safely rebuild APFS disks.
WOO-HOO!
Yes, for anyone's reading pleasure: https://developer.apple.com/support/apple-file-system/Apple-File-System-Reference.pdf
Lets not forget DW has been working with Apple since 1984. They have never failed me yet. I had an ext hd, die in an electrical storm, 1 month out of warranty. WD wanted $900 to rebuild it. I currently have 3TB Seagate, a buddy was carrying when he tripped and slammed it to the floor reaching to save himself. The only volume I do not have a backup of, also. Thank you Murphy. No software will repair that, though. It's going to a recovery center.
Can anyone recommend a recovery company who is skilled yet reasonably priced? I'm in So Cal.
The two must have’s for me are CCC, or Super Duper and DW. As @HobeSoundDarryl stated, Having insurance is just smart decision making, and part of a good recovery and redundancy plan. It’s so much easier to have it in place, rather than reacting, without having done your homework. Although with the cost of really good reliable ssd’s dropping, I wonder how relevant or financially strong DW will be in the future. Technologies have fairly certain half lives.
Can anyone recommend a recovery company who is skilled yet reasonably priced? I'm in So Cal.
The two must have’s for me are CCC, or Super Duper and DW. As @HobeSoundDarryl stated, Having insurance is just smart decision making, and part of a good recovery and redundancy plan. It’s so much easier to have it in place, rather than reacting, without having done your homework. Although with the cost of really good reliable ssd’s dropping, I wonder how relevant or financially strong DW will be in the future. Technologies have fairly certain half lives.
The storage media is irrelevant. Whether it's an HD or SSD, both still contain files, directories, etc. that can become damaged.
You’re right, please forgive me. I just meant the physical potential for damage, as my brain was in that place atm, dealing with my dropped HD. Sorry for not being articulate.
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Thank you. This was what I meant to say.
I've been keeping my eye on MacOS Mojave, APFS and DiskWarrior and found some information that is quite interesting. Here's an excellent podcast with Alsoft's Rusty Little. It's from Feb.2015 and therefore doesn't talk about APFS, but it provide some excellent background info about Alsoft (and DiskWarrior) going all the way back to 1984. And here is an excellent presentation by Tim Standing of SoftRAID at MacSysAdmin 2017 which talks in depth about APFS and his interviews with disk utility makers. MacSysAdmin 2018 takes place next week, which no doubt will yield a wealth of new information on the current state of APFS and how the drive utility makers are doing.