Sometimes your hard drive and its contents need a little TLC. There are several products for the Mac that provide that TLC, but the one that I (and local Mac-Care specialists Ralph Lewis and Dave Koenig) swear by is DiskWarrior, from Alsoft (www.alsoft.com, $79.95). Here’s why.

On a Mac, the operating system keeps track of the names and locations of all your files and folders in a place on the hard drive called the “directory”. When you create or modify a file, or move a file to another location, or do any of a myriad of other things (we don’t want to get too geeky here), the directory “records” your activities, so that your computer knows where everything is. A healthy directory makes a happy Mac.

Can your directory get sick? Sure. The health of your directory depends on the Mac OS’ ability to perform its update and maintenance operations without interruption. Plus, in order to speed up many functions, the Mac OS temporarily caches important information in memory, to save to the disk later. When directory updates are not completed, the directory can be damaged.

How can this happen? System crashes (although rare, especially in Mac OS X). Power failures. Turning your Mac off without using the proper Shut Down procedure. Applications inadvertently saving data to the portion of the disk reserved for the directory.

How can you tell if your directory’s damaged? Common symptoms: your disk doesn’t mount (it doesn’t appear on the Desktop when you start up your Mac); files and folders are missing; you can’t move or copy files; your system slows down dramatically; or, crashes occur when you try to use a file.

To the rescue comes DiskWarrior. DiskWarrior builds a new directory using information from the damaged directory, recovering files and folders that may have appear lost. The new directory is error-free, and is also optimized for maximum directory performance. When installed on your Mac, DiskWarrior can also tap into your hard drive’s built-in hardware diagnostics, and warn you of an impending drive failure.

If you’re experiencing “sick directory symptoms”, or just doing preventative maintenance, simply boot your Mac from the DiskWarrior CD (the CD contains the required System software). The whole process on an 80 GB drive takes about ten minutes, and it’s the best ten minutes you can spend to keep your Mac running smoothly.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski