DiskWarrior 5 - new version - worth $120?

[RadDave]

Just read a review in MacWorld HERE - received 5 mice along w/ a 'Must Have' recommendation. This disk maintenance and recovery app has received excellent comments here although quite pricey (of course, until your disk starts to fail! ).

At the moment, I do not own the older version, so would appreciate thoughts from those who do have this program (or the older version) - seems to have great features but not sure that I want to spend $120? Thanks. Dave
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[MacInWin]

I's say wait until you need it, or until it goes on sale in some bundle. I have the version 4 and it works exactly as advertised. But I wouldn't put it in the "must have" category as it is a very specialized application.

 

[pigoo3]

I think that the previous version was $99. So I guess $120 is a price increase.

As far as is it worth it. I think that a lot of folks that buy it…buy it after the fact (after their HD has died)…and want/need to recover files. So maybe to these folks…$99 or $120 is worth it to get their files back (if they're even recoverable).

For the "proactive" person buying Diskwarrior (or a similar app). I think that recovering files from a crashed HD is supposed to be much more successful if Diskwarrior was installed before the crash.

This is assuming that the crash wasn't an actual mechanical HD failure. Since with a mechanical HD failure…recovery is pretty darn difficult (for a home user) if the disk isn't spinning…or if the read/write heads aren't working. Probably a different story with SSD's.

Maybe I'm missing something. But for me personally...$120 is a lot to spend on this app. When (I think)…I get most of the features that Diskwarrior does with:

- Time Machine
- CCC or Super Duper
- iDefrag
- Onyx

What I mean is. If I already have backups of my info…I don't need a file recovery app like Diskwarrior.

I mostly use Time Machine, older version of CCC or Super Duper, and Onyx. So we're talking FREE vs. $120. If Diskwarrior was priced MUCH less…I would probably give it a try. But at $120 (and able to get most/all of the functionality from other much lower cost/free apps)…not a difficult decision.

Reading the MacWorld article…pretty amazing that it's been 8 years since the last Diskwarrior release (Diskwarrior 4).

By the way…just a personal thought. I think that the primary buyer of Diskwarrior (as I mentioned above) and similar apps…is the person who just experienced an HD crash…doesn't have backups...and is desperate to get their files back/recovered. For this person…paying $120 to get their files back (hopefully)…probably "stings" a bit. But not so much if the files being recovered are super important.

So at $120 for the app…sort of taking advantage of a user in a desperate situation.

Otherwise Diskwarrior might be a $30-$40 app (similar in price to other Macintosh utility apps).

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

Hmmm…??? That's a good question Dave and a bit of a tough call, but I guess depends on the user and their needs. Now hows that for a cop out comment??

I've been a DiskWarrior owner/user since about the beginning of this century, and have sure paid enough through all the upgrades, which were generally an awkward PITA to do, but I've stayed as the 4.4 version and don't really have a need to upgrade.

I'm also not doing nearly as much Mac Help as I used to do years ago and things change.

As Nick says, most other apps like CCC mainly, and the OS X itself take care of most things these days, and I think I've only run DiskWarrior maybe three times on my various volumes in the last year. And even that was probably surplus, but it's nice to see the directory rebuilt and see zero items out of place. ')

Years ago, and especially with earlier Mac OS 8 and 9 and the first 10 versions I would have said it was definitely an almost "must have" app, and was great at improving a Macs performance and fixing stuff that only it seemed able to do.

For todays Macs and recent OSs, I'd say it would be nice to have but not a "must have". Especially when most have decent backups these days, or should have, and let the Mac do its normal maintenance, that includes periodical restarts and reboots to help keep some crap stuff purged.

But I do find that the occasional use of DiskWarrior does seem to help keep all our Macs running, but I'm not about to spend the money for yet another update at this point, even at a reduced upgrade price — I don't think so.

 

[RadDave]

Jake & Nick - thanks for your prompt comments - I have redundant TM and CCC backups, so no need to recover files if a HD/SSD decides to 'go south' - and agree if maybe a third of the cost, I might give it a try, or maybe not?

In re-reading the article and looking at the reviewer's 'bottom line' (quoted below), I don't believe that he mentioned the need to have backups - kind of gives a false sense of security to those who have not been doing routine backups - e.g. CCC is only $40 and I'd much rather have my drives cloned & also on TM HDs than try to recover files from a failing one. Dave

Bottom line
DiskWarrior remains the essential tool for maintaining and repairing disk problems. For both preventive maintenance and repair it’s a must-have tool.

P.S. thanks Pm-r for your thoughts - believe that I was still typing while you posted.

 

[pigoo3]

In re-reading the article and looking at the reviewer's 'bottom line' (quoted below), I don't believe that he mentioned the need to have backups - kind of gives a false sense of security to those who have not been doing routine backups

It would be nice if the author of the MacWorld article was a bit clearer on this point. If the hard drive was to mechanically fail (doesn't spin, read/write heads not operating correctly, etc.)…gonna be REAL difficult to recover files (even with Diskwarrior). I'm still learning about SSD's…and how they fail. Maybe this is less of an issue with SSD's.

Still seems best to me to have backups. I guess having backups + DiskWarrior is an even better situation.

- With frequent backups…we're probably 95% covered.
- With backups + DiskWarrior...we're probably 98%-99% covered.
- With redundant external drive backups + DiskWarrior…we're probably 99.5% covered.
- Never gonna get 100% protection!

* Nick

 

[techiesteve]

We all backup regularly, but not everyone does. I use Disk Warrior extensively at work. It either fixes problems that Disk Utility can't, or says doesn't exist, or after recording often hundreds of disk malfunctions will create a disk preview that is recoverable or can be cloned to a new hard drive. Never a day goes by without Disk Warrior being run at least 2-3 times. The cost is minimal for a service company, so my use and requirements at work differ hugely from the average Mac user. We were only discussing upgrading to DW 5 the other day, one copy first to see if it will fix problems that the 'old' version can't. If the upgrade is just eye candy and doesn't get more results then we won't.

 

[harryb2448]

Have also used Disk Warrior since version 2, but am going to give this update at $60 a miss. DW 4 still works on Yosemite and the best way seems to be from an external drive rather than the DVD which is so slow, so perhaps as steve says, it is eye candy and a slight improvement.

 

[cradom]

Back in the day, before Time Machine and Onyx and cloning software, Disk warrior was the go-to app. Even more so than TechTool Pro.
Used to run it every couple of months, just because. Back then it pretty much did one thing, rebuild your directory structure. And did it very well.
Nowadays, I just run Onyx and keep a good backup. Occasionally run Disk Utility to check things.
The OS X filesystem has gotten much better.

 

[TattooedMac]

As much as I agree with all the above comments, I still have Data Rescue 3, Disk Drill Pro and Disk Warrior 4, all because I got them for around $9 in bundles, and have extra licenses for DDP. The reason I keep one around, is because you just never ever know whats around the corner.
Your working on some mages, and you accidentally delete them, forget they are in the Trash, then do a clean at the end of the day, and they are gone.
I have run all three in tests, and have had files come up from yrs back, so all in all, imho, there worth keeping if you have one.

Nothing beats a good backup though . . .

 

[chas_m]

I have been thinking about this a lot, because I've been commissioned to write an article on this very topic and sent a copy of DW5 as part of that.

In a nutshell, DW5 is better and faster than ever as a program. The $120 price is in part higher because they now ONLY sell this thing on a custom USB stick (which, stupidly, isn't even USB3 as far as I can tell), but yeah, price increase.

The question really is: do we need it anymore? Frankly, the answer for most people is no, provided you are practicing routine backups (and particularly have a clone backup). The odds that you will need what this thing does (superbly and safely) are shrinking by the month.

The company tells me there is zero chance you will see this in a bundle ever again. Until the management of the company changes, I tend to believe them since DW is now a piece of hardware, not software.

However, having said that, this does support Macs going back to 10.5.8, so if you're one of the head-in-the-sand types who rarely backs up and keeps running unsafe, outdated systems, then this is for you ... but that type of person has their head in the sand usually because they're cheap, so ironically they are unlikely to spend the $120. Insert hollow laugh here.

 

[IWT]

I've only just had time to read the review on the new version. What would definitely put me off, actually scare me, is that you can't boot your Mac directly from the USB stick in later versions of OS like you could in version 4. You have to boot into Recovery (OK with that), then use Terminal to be able to boot from the USB. Now Terminal is not for the faint hearted or the inexperienced. I know lots of you use it and can probably do so in your sleep, but one space missed out, one misspelt word.........

Ian

 

[chscag]

It's not only Disk Warrior that does that, it seems the newer versions of certain Utilities are doing the same thing and that is running from the Recovery partition or Terminal. I purchased the latest version of "iDefrag" and it only works from a special Recovery partition it creates on a USB flash drive.

 

[pm-r]

I haven't upgraded my DW to the latest, and don't know that I even need to yet, but I understood from reading the reviews that one can avoid using the Terminal run method by using the DiskWarrior Recovery Maker to upgrade the Flash drive for a compatible OS.
DiskWarrior 5 Review | Mac|Life

 

[tony colman]

Dw5

I run a 15 staff media company, and DW5 is preventative. it's essential, and as we do a lot of music work, it's brilliant at fixing portable drives that are used, for example, by DJs who use Pioneer Rekordbox software for their DJ sets. Also we have generations of macs from 2000 - 2016 and this tool will fix all directory problems. it won't teach staff common sense, but it's still useful!

I have been thinking about this a lot, because I've been commissioned to write an article on this very topic and sent a copy of DW5 as part of that.

In a nutshell, DW5 is better and faster than ever as a program. The $120 price is in part higher because they now ONLY sell this thing on a custom USB stick (which, stupidly, isn't even USB3 as far as I can tell), but yeah, price increase.

The question really is: do we need it anymore? Frankly, the answer for most people is no, provided you are practicing routine backups (and particularly have a clone backup). The odds that you will need what this thing does (superbly and safely) are shrinking by the month.

The company tells me there is zero chance you will see this in a bundle ever again. Until the management of the company changes, I tend to believe them since DW is now a piece of hardware, not software.

However, having said that, this does support Macs going back to 10.5.8, so if you're one of the head-in-the-sand types who rarely backs up and keeps running unsafe, outdated systems, then this is for you ... but that type of person has their head in the sand usually because they're cheap, so ironically they are unlikely to spend the $120. Insert hollow laugh here.