Both are $100 and I have heard both are awesome. Which one is the better utility program and more effective?
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DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro 4?
- Thread starter dferigmu
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DW and TTP do not do the same job.
DW will rebuild your Mac's directory, which is basically a list of what is where on your HD. It does not defragment (optimize) the actual files. It does also claim to retrieve data from damaged disks, but I've never had cause to use this facility.
TTP is more of a disk health-checker, but does do the defrag/optimize job too.
Personally I do not like or trust TTP, and instead use Drive 10 to do my defragging/optimizing (it will also rebuild the directory as DW does). Yes, it is made by the same developer but in almost 3 years of use I've never had a problem with it. Can't say the same for TTP.
There is now also iDefrag (and a soon to be released app from Alsoft, who make DW).
Hope this helps.
DW will rebuild your Mac's directory, which is basically a list of what is where on your HD. It does not defragment (optimize) the actual files. It does also claim to retrieve data from damaged disks, but I've never had cause to use this facility.
TTP is more of a disk health-checker, but does do the defrag/optimize job too.
Personally I do not like or trust TTP, and instead use Drive 10 to do my defragging/optimizing (it will also rebuild the directory as DW does). Yes, it is made by the same developer but in almost 3 years of use I've never had a problem with it. Can't say the same for TTP.
There is now also iDefrag (and a soon to be released app from Alsoft, who make DW).
Hope this helps.
deebster said:
I only have enough money to buy one of them at first because they're all about $100. Which one do you suggest I should buy first, just as a pre-caution?
Then I'd recommend you go for DiskWarrior.
If optimizing is something you feel that you need to do (and opinions are split on this issue), then if you have an external hard disk you could use that to make a bootable clone of your Mac's HD, and then boot up from that to run DW. This saves your precious DW bootable CD from getting used too much.
Or you could erase your Mac's HD and clone back to it from the external disk. Many people do this rather than use any specialist optimizing app. Plus it.
The DW app itself is tiny and can be copied to your Mac's HD as can any other stand-alone app, allowing it to be run from a hard disk instead of its own CD.
If optimizing is something you feel that you need to do (and opinions are split on this issue), then if you have an external hard disk you could use that to make a bootable clone of your Mac's HD, and then boot up from that to run DW. This saves your precious DW bootable CD from getting used too much.
Or you could erase your Mac's HD and clone back to it from the external disk. Many people do this rather than use any specialist optimizing app. Plus it.
The DW app itself is tiny and can be copied to your Mac's HD as can any other stand-alone app, allowing it to be run from a hard disk instead of its own CD.
bousozoku
Moderator emeritus
deebster said:
Since I've had a drive ruined by Drive 10, I don't regard it quite the same.
TTP4 does a lot, including drive recovery, disk defragmentation, directory rebuilding, and the main difference between it and DiskWarrior, hardware diagnostics.
I think both TTP4 and DiskWarrior are good to have and use on a regular basis. If I had to choose just one (and I did), it would be TTP4.
nutmac
macrumors 603
I have used both products extensively and my general feeling is that DiskWarrior 3 does non-destructive repair/maintenance whereas TechTool Pro 4 does more ambitious but more risky repair/maintenance.
Featurewise, you get more for your money with TechTool Pro 4, but it could make things far worse in some situations. In my situation, it killed data on my hard disk 3 times. (I've learned since then to backup data at a regular interval.)
DiskWarrior, on the other hand, does surprisingly little for the money, but it hasn't fried data on my disk once and it works well. I wish it gets updated for newer Macs soon though (its CD won't boot up under latest Macs whereas TechTool Pro's ingenius eDrive works on any Panther capable Macs).
Featurewise, you get more for your money with TechTool Pro 4, but it could make things far worse in some situations. In my situation, it killed data on my hard disk 3 times. (I've learned since then to backup data at a regular interval.)
DiskWarrior, on the other hand, does surprisingly little for the money, but it hasn't fried data on my disk once and it works well. I wish it gets updated for newer Macs soon though (its CD won't boot up under latest Macs whereas TechTool Pro's ingenius eDrive works on any Panther capable Macs).
Didn't Alsoft update the DiskWarrior CD to let it boot the newer G4 and G5 Macs? I have an old G3 so can't verify this though.
However, there should be nothing stopping you from making your own bootable CD, using the free 'BootCD' app, and putting DW (and any other stand-alone utilities) on it. That is if you don't have access to another HD on which to make a clone.
However, there should be nothing stopping you from making your own bootable CD, using the free 'BootCD' app, and putting DW (and any other stand-alone utilities) on it. That is if you don't have access to another HD on which to make a clone.