DiskWarrior 4 Support

DiskWarrior 4 is required for Intel-based Macs. Learn about the new features of DiskWarrior 4 and how to upgrade by clicking here.

Please note that to install DiskWarrior 4 onto your hard disk, your Mac must start up in Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.5. This is a change from DiskWarrior 3 which supported older versions of Mac OS X. Attempting to launch DiskWarrior 4 under older versions of Mac OS X will have different results depending upon the version of Mac OS X your Mac is running. You will either see an error message or, possibly, DiskWarrior 4 will momentarily appear in the dock and then disappear with no message displayed. Please read the system requirements for DiskWarrior 4.

DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 is now shipping on DiskWarrior CD revision 42. This CD is a universal startup CD that can start up both PowerPC and Intel Macs. All Mac models meeting the system requirements for DiskWarrior except the new Mac Pro and Xserve models introduced on 01/08/2008, the MacBook Air introduced on 01/15/2008, the MacBook/MacBook Pro models introduced on 02/26/2008 and the iMac models introduced on 04/28/2008 can be started from the CD. An updated disc that will also start up the most 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 CD.

Need support for DiskWarrior 3? Click here.

Support News

03/17/2008 - Free DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 CD updater available
Owners of DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 can now download a free CD updater to create a new startup CD containing DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1. Please note that the new startup CD will start up the same set of Macs as your current DiskWarrior CD. Your new CD will not start up any Mac that your current DiskWarrior CD can not.

See below for details on what's new in DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 and limitations of Leopard features while started from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or earlier.

01/21/2008 - New DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 released for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) compatibility
DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 is now available for complete compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Version 4.1 offers additional repair capabilities including the ability to repair damaged directory hard links (a new feature of Leopard for Time Machine backups). DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 is the only utility that can repair damaged links, directory loops and other problems that can happen with directory hard links.

Running DiskWarrior 4 version 4.1 on a Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) startup disk while started from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or earlier.

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 CD 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. Click here for additional procedures to rebuild the startup disk.

11/01/2007
DiskWarrior CD revision 41 can start up the new MacBook and MacBook Pro models introduced on 11/01/2007.

10/29/2007 (updates and replaces the entry originally dated 10/26/2007)
DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 will successfully rebuild a disk that has Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard installed or a disk that has been attached to a computer running Leopard.

However, some operating system functionality has changed within Leopard itself. As such, there are some compatibility issues when running an installed copy of DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 while started up from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Alsoft currently recommends that you do not run DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 while the computer is started from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Instead, to run DiskWarrior, you should start up the computer from either:

1) A DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 CD.

2) Any disk that starts up in 10.4.x and then run DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0.

An updated version of DiskWarrior that has complete Leopard compatibility will be released soon as a free download for existing owners of DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0.

What you can expect when running DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 under Mac OS X 10.4.x and rebuilding a Leopard disk.

All features work as expected with two exceptions:

1) You should not use any utility to repair permissions of a Leopard start up disk while started from Mac OS X 10.4.x or earlier. Permissions will either not be be repaired or will be repaired improperly. This is true whether you repair permissions with Apple's Disk Utility, DiskWarrior, or any other third-party utility. Regardless of which utility you use, the same service within Mac OS X is used to perform the actual permissions repair so the behavior is always the same.

To repair permissions of a Leopard startup disk, be sure you've always started your Mac from Leopard. Alsoft also recommends using only the Disk Utility included with Leopard to repair permissions until an updated version of DiskWarrior is released.

Note: If you have used any utility to repair permissions of a Leopard startup disk while started from Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier, Alsoft recommends that you perform an upgrade install of Leopard over your existing Leopard install. This will restore any changed permissions to their original values without altering your data.

2) FileVaults created while started from Leopard are not visible to DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 and cannot be rebuilt (repaired).

What you can expect when running DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 under Mac OS X 10.5 and rebuilding a Leopard disk.

While not recommended (and discouraged), if you do run DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0 while started from Mac OS X 10.5 you might encounter some problems such as:

1) You cannot rebuild FileVaults or disk images.

2) In step 9 (comparing directories) of a rebuild, the progress bar might get to 100% even though the comparison step is not finished and will continue to execute.

3) When performing Check All Files and Folders the progress bar might get to 100% even though the check is not finished and will continue to execute.

4) After rebuilding a disk, DiskWarrior may report that some files or folders have had their permissions changed. This is inaccurate and the permissions have not been changed.

To repeat, an updated version of DiskWarrior that has complete Leopard compatibility will be released soon as a free download for existing owners of DiskWarrior 4 version 4.0.

What about DiskWarrior 3?

For DiskWarrior 3 compatibility, see DiskWarrior 3 Support.

08/07/2007
The current DiskWarrior CD revision 41 can start up the new iMac and Mac mini models introduced on 08/07/2007.

07/16/2007
DiskWarrior CD revision 41 was released to start up the new MacBook Pro models introduced on 06/05/2007. The DiskWarrior application is unchanged and remains at version 4.0.

12/11/2006
When DiskWarrior first opens, it displays a window with a shield as it is loading. At one point it says in the lower-left portion of the window that DiskWarrior is "starting services." If you're running an installed version of DiskWarrior and it freezes when "starting services" is displayed, click here to learn how to continue.