[Switched112002]

Not a safe defrag program. You do need a method of defragmenting. Huge video projects do make a mess of your drives. I was so disappointed when Alsoft stopped making their super safe and long defrag program. I gave this product too many chances after my first disaster created by a failed defrag.
I found that Prosofts Data Backup fills this need far safer, without any down time. I no longer use defragmenting programs for anything but PC. I just select the source, (Macintosh HD, or my project drive, and choose clone and delete content not present in the source. I can still continue to surf, read mail, or whatever. Of course, no changes that I make during this process are going to show up in the clone, so I limit that activity. Just run Disk Warrior when done for extra peace of mind. That's the back up.
Now, hold on to your seat. Erase the source with disk utility. Copy the back up back to the main drive, and repair the directory tree. Now you have a backup and a nice clean defragmented drive. Both disk and file defragmenting accomplished without risk or loss of use of the Mac. Does not get much safer or easier. Best of all, because the backups only backup changed files, you can do this pretty fast. That encourages frequent use. You can even schedule it. I still prefer to watch the process, just in case an error does pop up.
Forget about defrag programs. They only problems I ever had came from TechToolPro. I have had it with them. I've used it since 2 all the way to 4.6.2. I keep it on the machine for the other testing functions. I use Disk Warrior for maintenance and fixing other peoples problems. FORGET DEFRAGMENTING, UNLESS YOU LIKE DESTROYED DATA
I now return you to your review reading already in progress.

[griffman]

Please note that this was not a review -- not even close. It was a quick look at the newest version of the program based on visiting with them in the booth and getting a tour of the new features. If/when we do a review, it will test each aspect of the program, including defragging, to see how well (or not well) they work.

-rob.

[dalegg]

I had a case recently that surprised me, a long-time DiskWarrior user.I was experiencing odd behavior o my MBP and both DW and Disk Utility showed no problem. For grins, I ran a free copy of TechTool Deluxe that came with my Apple Care and it showed some directory damage the other two had missed.

[AndrewRodney]

>Erase the source with disk utility. Copy the back up back to the main drive, and repair the directory tree. Now you have a backup and a nice clean defragmented drive.

That works quite well and SuperDuper, a great and inexpensive backup utility has such a routine built into it. Fast its not, be neither are the defrag app's around (haven't timed the different methods).

[akira34]

An excellent utility to run, when your mac acts up, is Applejack (v.1.5 works with even the current OS)... I always run it in deep scan mode, telling it to reboot once completed (simply use the applejack AUTO restart command at the prompt when in single user mode)... Over the past few years (~5 or so now) I've seen applejack bring back many mac's that would have [otherwise] had to have the OS reinstalled.
I used to use DiskWarrior, until it became a major PITA to get bootable media for all the different systems we have. I've seen the AHT give a system a clean bill of health, even though we know it has a hardware failure (network ports especially), so we don't trust it at all.
As long as your critical hardware is good (drive isn't FUBAR), and the OS install is good at least to the point where you can boot into single user mode, then you can use Applejack to bring it back to life... I even had it bring back a mac that had it's hard drive failing. About two weeks later the drive actually died (zero recovery possibility, wouldn't mount no matter what, on any system)... That user learned the importance of placing files on the shares we have at work...
Oh, as for TimeMachine... POS software... I was using it when I installed 10.5 onto my system but quickly found out how poor it really is... Even with using an external drive, with plenty of free space (even after months of backups on it) I would get errors from TM (at random)... Instead of relying on some half baked software (from apple) I simply make sure important files are backed up to my NAS. Since that's using RAID 5, I have very little to worry about. IF I really wanted to, I could install Retrospect and have it archive my system at designated times to the NAS too. Fortunately, I'm intelligent enough to not keep critical files in only one location. All unique files, such as my photographs, are not kept only on my MBP... They are on at least two other locations (the NAS being one, plus at least one other external drive). I also keep full backups of systems at set periods in time, so that I can always restore from them (using CCC since it does an excellent job of it, and I don't have to fight the utility to get it to work properly).

[dalegg]

Applejack is great, but I don't think it's directory repair (essentially Disk Utility in Single User Mode) is as good as DiskWarrior and, perhaps, TechTool and Drive Genius (not personally sure about the latter).

[hillstones]

dalegg said:

I had a case recently that surprised me, a long-time DiskWarrior user.I was experiencing odd behavior o my MBP and both DW and Disk Utility showed no problem. For grins, I ran a free copy of TechTool Deluxe that came with my Apple Care and it showed some directory damage the other two had missed.

It may have showed you what is wrong, but unfortunately the program doesn't repair it.

[akira34]

dalegg said:

Applejack is great, but I don't think it's directory repair (essentially Disk Utility in Single User Mode) is as good as DiskWarrior and, perhaps, TechTool and Drive Genius (not personally sure about the latter).

Actually, I think AppleJack is better than the others...

Things to consider, cost of getting DW, TTP and DG... Cost of AppleJack (free)
Size of the tools... AppleJack is TINY
AppleJack isn't cluttered with other utilities. It does it's job extremely well, without a bunch of other junk to muck up the works.

IF we have a system that AppleJack cannot repair, 99% of the time the hard drive is NFG and has to be replaced. Sometimes we can mount the drive and pull data from it. Often it's too far gone to even mount (so none of the other tools will do it any good either).

We don't have the luxury to spend several hours/days trying to recover items. If the system isn't repaired (or back up and running) by AppleJack, we reimage it. We at least attempt to retrieve a few directories that make setting it back up (for the user) easier/faster and then either reformat or completely replace the drive. 99% of the time we get drive failures of the original hard drives (shipped from apple)... We don't get them replaced by apple, but install ones we have on hand/in stock (Seagate brand, not modified to apple spec's)... We've not had a single drive that we replaced with one in stock have issues.

I don't trust the other tools to properly repair the OS on systems. I also don't think it's viable to require people to purchase new versions/media when apple changes hardware, or releases a new OS (which you'll have to do with the others). Of course, you'll be looking at a significant amount of time before the other makers have the updates available to you even for testing.

We USED to use DW and TTP, but around the time 10.3 came out we had to stop. It took far too long for them to release updates for the new OS, and then there was the entire fiasco around 10.4 and the Intel chips... Then there's the problems when new systems come from apple requiring an updated version of the same release (like only booting from 10.5.5 or newer). If the OS on your booting media doesn't meet the requirement, it's useless. More disc burning, or paying for new media from the makers... NOT viable for corporations that need to be able to support user communities immediately. We can't go to them and say we can't fix their system because the tool maker is taking months to release an update, or ship media to us.

Yes, it took the person who makes AppleJack some time to come out with 1.5. BUT that's because apple made major changes to where things resided AND how the tool needed to access them. Apple was unwilling to share the information, hence the extended time between updates/releases. Hopefully, we're not in for the same thing with the next OS comes out (whenever that is)...

BTW, the final part of our system imaging/configuration process is to run AppleJack before deploying the computer. This gives the system a clean bill of health so we know it's without issue when the user gets it. Since we started doing it this way, we've had a significant reduction in support calls (for actual problems with the system, not the user not knowing what they're doing).

Unfortunately there's no tool to fix the end user...

[wbrock0011]

Yeah, Techtool has hosed some of my drives in the past too. I would be very leary of trusting it again...

[DownLowSturgen]

I had two computers stolen in 2008 (17" PowerBook G4 and a 15" MacBook Pro). Both times Time Machine saved me. Even the metadata in iPhoto was intact. It does what it needs to do.

As for the other total backup/cloning solutions, I would advise against anything other than SuperDuper! Here's just one well-written piece by a very trusted author:

http://blog.plastics...ftware-harmful/

However, there are two things that really get under my skin about this topic:

1. I'll give folks the benefit of the doubt that DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, and other utilities were useful five years ago. But, let's be honest, these "utilities" have outgrown their usefulness. They're outdated. That was then (10.2 PPC), this is now (10.5 Intel). In 2009, I need DiskWarrior like Apple needs Macworld.

2. There's an entire entire industry - not just the Mac, not just computers, not just technology - built on making consumers feel insecure in order to sell them a "fix." Before reading DW's marketing, did any of its users even know what file trees were? If it ain't broken, don't "fix" it. Your Mac's are fine. Back them up, and leave them alone. To quote Arrested Development, "No touching!"

Even AppleJack is meant to be used as a troubleshooting tool (although I like the "clean bill of health" idea to CYA), but you know there are people using it as "preventative maintenance." As mentioned in a prior post, the only preventative maintenance in my routine is an annual erase and install. In addition to defragging and dumping corrupt files, one of the added benefits is ridding my system of crapware like DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro. Now that's a clean bill of health. Then, incrementally, I bring one app at a time back. If I determine it wasn't used enough, I drop it. It's very Zen. You should try it.

BTW there's no software out there that'll speed up my machine fast enough to get me the time back that it took to read this forum.

[heisetax]

Why did you read it, much less make such a reply?

[griffman]

DiskWarrior has no purpose??? Then I guess I've imagined the half-dozen times it's saved a drive of mine over the last couple years (usually FireWire drives). When a directory gets scrambled, DW is without peer -- I've tried them all in such situations, and only DW rebuilt the disk's catalog successfully.

We can debate the merits of maintenance utilities all day long (I generally don't use one), but when it comes to rebuilding a trashed catalog, I'll take DW over doing a TM restore any day.

-rob.

[heisetax]

You have missed the point that it seems that most people have been making on these discussions. That is only their experience count & only their experience & opinions are correct.

Everyone here has a different set of programs that they run. Everyone has their preferences. Everyone has a different understanding of what is going wrong & what is going right. My opinion is that each problem has a different solution. Sometimes one utility will work sometimes another one will. Like you DiskWarrior has corrected many problems that no other utility would touch. One Mac OS upgrade caused enough directory damage that DiskWarrior, any file recovery program or other utility would touch. Only the erasing & reloading all files would fix the problem. Any file that missed being on another hard drive or being backed up in another way was lost.

So the moral seems to be have current updates for the times you have a problem that your mehtod of problem fixing will not fix. In the olden Mac days before Symantic bought out several other utility programs & then deleted them I lost the best of the Mac repair utilities. It seems more like the repair utility is not needed as much now. I didn't say that they are not needed. I have: DiskWarrior, DriveGenius, TechTool Pro (5 when they ship it to me) as well as a few others. So that is my real opinion of that as to whether they are needed or not.

Even though this started about TechTool Pro 5 shipment, it is nice to know what some of these other experts use to repair their hard drives when they get messed up or otherwise damaged. As long as they come with the intention to help & not say that they have the only correct way.

It must be fun watching what people do with your statements & work. Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your opinions. I enjoy reading other people's opinions as long as they are not so correct that they are the only ones that have never made a mistake.

[JDW]

I must say that 2008 was a very humorous year with respect Macworld magazine ads and Micromat.

The humor began in the January 2008 with a Sony VAIO ad and Windows Visa label, on pages 8~9. When I saw that ad, I had to flip to the front cover to make sure I was still reading MACworld! LOL! In that same Jan. '08 issue Micromat only advertised the Protege on page 17. But in the February issue, a Micromat Techtool Pro ad appeared on page 17, mentioning version 5 would be a free upgrade "when it ships." The same exact Micromat ad appeared on page 35 in the March issue and page 19 in the April issue.

In the May issue, a TT Pro 5 ad is on page 7 and a note says "when it ships this summer." It was at this point I began to take more close watch of the TT Pro ads in each subsequent MacWorld issue, eagerly jumping to the Micromat full page ads to see when and if they finalized the software.

In the June issue the TT Pro 5 ad is on page 33 and it still mentions "summer." In the July issue, it's on page 7 and says "summer" (which led me to think it would debut in August). Then in the August issue, the ad appears 17 and still says "summer"! Hmmm. Well, in September the ad is on page 35 and says "when it ships." I rolled on the floor laughing when I read that! "Oooops!" I said to myself on behalf of Micromat Marketing MBAs!

In the October 2008 issue, Micromat outdid themselves with a full page ad on the back cover no less, again with the "when it ships" statement. In the November issue the ad was back inside the magazine on page 15, again saying "when it ships." Then in December Micromat closed the year with a bang by putting the ad on the back cover again, still saying "when it ships."

All said, 2008 was a fun year to read MacWorld magazine ads. Happy to hear TT Pro is now shipping. No doubt Micromat will probably be more cautious in the future about stating any specific shipping timeframes in MacWorld ads!

Can't wait to see the 2009 ads!