System Requirements

DiskWarrior 4 supports any locally connected Mac OS Standard (HFS) or Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk including RAID volumes, journaled disks, case-sensitive disks, FileVaults, Time Machine backups and iPods.

Startup Requirements
DiskWarrior now ships on DVD instead of CD. Starting up from the DiskWarrior DVD requires a G4 867 MHz Mac or better (such as a G5 or Intel Mac) with DVD drive and a minimum 512 MB RAM. The computer must also have the latest firmware updates installed. Click here to learn how to repair the directory of a disk in a Mac model that cannot be started from the DiskWarrior DVD.

NOTE: The current DiskWarrior DVD cannot start up the new 13" and 15" MacBook Pro (SD card slot) models introduced in June 2009. An updated disc that will also start up these recent Mac models will be released as soon as Apple, Inc. releases new startup files to Alsoft, Inc. and other developers. Click here to learn how to repair the directory of a disk in a Mac model that cannot be started from the DiskWarrior DVD.

Installation Requirements
To install, you must be started from Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.5 with at least 512 MB RAM. DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 is completely compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The older DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 has some compatibility issues when running an installed copy of DiskWarrior under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (see this support database entry). Alsoft recommends that you don't run DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 while started from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Instead, you should download the free DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 CD Update. This free updater allows you to create a new startup CD containing DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1.

Additional Requirements
If you plan to rebuild the directory on your startup disk, you need to start up from another disk capable of starting up in Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.5, such as the DiskWarrior DVD. DiskWarrior cannot be run while started up from the Apple Mac OS X install DVD.

If you want or need to run DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 from Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier, there are two features of DiskWarrior that are not available for a Mac OS X 10.5 startup disk. First, you cannot repair the permissions of a Mac OS X 10.5 startup disk. Second, you cannot rebuild a FileVault that was created under Mac OS X 10.5. You will be able to rebuild a FileVault that was created on a startup disk that was later upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5. Your DiskWarrior DVD may start up in Mac OS X 10.4 and would therefore have these features disabled for a Mac OS X 10.5 startup disk. See the DiskWarrior manual for additional procedures to rebuild the startup disk.

While started from the DiskWarrior DVD, you cannot repair the permissions of a Mac OS X 10.5 startup disk.

If you wish to enable DiskWarrior's automatic hardware monitoring, you will need to install the DiskWarrior application on your Mac OS computer. To install the DiskWarrior application see the install requirements above. Installing DiskWarrior is not required to run the application from the DiskWarrior DVD to rebuild a disk directory.

Requirements for Older Macs
If you have older PowerPC-based Macs that are not capable of running Mac OS X, DiskWarrior 2.1 is still available for purchase directly from Alsoft. Please contact our Technical Support Department to order.

DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 is available, by request, on CD for old Macs that do not have DVD drives. However, these CDs cannot start up any currently shipping Macs models and can only be obtained by first contacting our Technical Support Department.