DiskWarrior finds same error every time

[typer16452]

*Every time* I run DiskWarrior it says Critical Values in the Volume Information are incorrect/need to be repaired/etc.

I can literally reboot from the main system, immediately reboot from my external drive, run DW, and have the same result. Is there any way of figuring out what is going on, and fixing it? (I'm getting periodic spinning beachballs which I think are related.)

P.S. This only started after upgrading to SL.

P.P.S. I *am* running version 4.2 of DW.

 

[Mal]

You may have a drive that is beginning to fail, or simply a problem that DiskWarrior is unable to fix for some reason (though usually it's good at telling you that).

I would actually recommend a pretty drastic solution here: backup all of your data, zero the drive, and restore from backup. By zeroing the drive, you'll create a 100% new record and also check for bad sectors. If that works, try DiskWarrior again and make sure the error doesn't come back.

jW

 

[dirt farmer]

Before resorting to Mal's drastic solution, I assume you've contacted DiskWarrior technical support? You probably should.

 

[typer16452]

Before resorting to Mal's drastic solution, I assume you've contacted DiskWarrior technical support? You probably should.

Yeah I contacted them a while back but I don't remember their response and can't find it in my inbox (in any case it didn't solve the problem obviously).

I could do a complete zeroing out of the main drive and then reinstall a clone from SuperDuper, the thing is that of course the clone has the same error(s), but quite frankly I'm not sure if it's worth it to do the whole thing manually (or does Migration Assistant have that ability?).

IOW for the hassle and potential for losing data in doing a complete reinstall, combined with the potential for the clone to recreate the error (although if it *is* a physical sector on the main drive that shouldn't happen in theory) it doesn't seem worth it for the periodic slowndowns I'm experiencing (which are tolerable I guess).

Having said that could someone recommend a utility to diagnose the main drive more thoroughly? DW's Hardware check, and Disk Utility, both find nothing wrong. I've seen Drive Genius (2?) advertised a lot, is this good, or would others recommend Tech Tool Pro instead? (I have paid versions of iDefrag and iPartition so I wouldn't really need any additional tools AFAIK that either of those products bundle.)