Alsoft’s DiskWarrior Combats Directory Damage

The folks at Alsoft, makers of DiskExpress Pro and PlusOptimizer, have released DiskWarrior, a new disk repair utility that takes an unique approach to recovering data from misbehaving drives. DiskWarrior focuses exclusively on complete directory data, pulling out as much information as possible and then creating a new, optimized directory, which the user can preview before saving changes. DiskWarrior won’t be able to repair corrupted or damaged files (and doesn’t seem to offer other traditional file-based features, like an "undelete" option), nor would it be able to help if a disk’s directory is badly damaged. Nonetheless, it might be useful for recovering folders or files that have suddenly gone missing, or nipping subtle directory problems before they blossom into full-fledged catastrophes. DiskWarrior is available from Alsoft for $70, and supports HFS and HFS Plus volumes on IDE, SCSI, and USB devices. DiskWarrior requires a 68020 processor or better (including PowerPC), at least 16 MB of RAM, and System 7.1 or higher.