
Strategies for Rebuilding with DiskWarrior Chapter 2: Using DiskWarrior 35
Strategies for Rebuilding with DiskWarrior
Caution: If you suspect there is directory damage on your disk, it is recommended that you
run DiskWarrior before other disk repair utilities. Other disk repair utilities may render the
directory damage irreparable even to DiskWarrior. As you have seen in the previous section,
DiskWarrior shows you your rebuilt disk before finalizing the repairs. This allows you to
preview what your rebuilt disk will look like before you decide to finalize the rebuild. The
other utilities may perform actions on your disk that result in a “repaired” directory
structure but with missing or damaged data, or they will incorrectly begin to “repair” your
directory and then give up when they realize that they have modified the directory to an
irreparable state (for more information on directory structure and directory data, refer to
What Is the Directory? on page 9, "Chapter 1: Introduction."). These cases may prevent
even DiskWarrior from recovering all of your files.
Using DiskWarrior as Preventative Maintenance
The most basic use of DiskWarrior is as preventative maintenance for your disks. Many forms of
directory damage do not manifest themselves until long after the damage has actually occurred.
You can prevent this damage from escalating by running DiskWarrior on your disks regularly.
DiskWarrior will rebuild your disk directory, eliminating all existing directory damage. The re-
built disk directory will also be optimized for maximum disk performance. Simply run
DiskWarrior on a regular basis, and you will be able to prevent minor directory errors from turn-
ing into major catastrophes!
Using DiskWarrior When There Seems to Be a Problem
As you use your computer, particularly after crashes, you may believe files or folders to be
missing, or there may be crashes when files are used. You may have another program, such as
PlusOptimizer, reporting directory damage. You can use DiskWarrior to rebuild your disk direc-
tories, and thus recover the missing files or folders, reduce the likelihood of crashes, or allow
your disk optimization program to optimize your disk.
Previously accessible data suddenly disappearing, an error message stating your drive is not rec-
ognized, a scraping or rattling sound from your hard drive, or your hard drive not spinning may
all be symptoms of hardware problems. Most times, DiskWarrior’s hardware monitoring will be
able to tell you what problems are being caused by your drive. However, the drive’s built-in di-
agnostics will have to detect the malfunction in order for DiskWarrior to report it. For informa-
tion on DiskWarrior’s hardware monitoring, refer to About DiskWarrior’s Hardware
Monitoring on page 44 in this chapter.
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