What's the best hard drive repair / recovery / maintenance software?

[Morisato]

I recently discovered this old OLD software that was supposedly leaps beyond it's competitors called spinrite.

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

It's probably old news for anyone who did any research on finding this type of software but this is my first time researching the matter and coming across this. The problem is that this software is PC only it seems. I was wondering if there is an equivalent software that could do just the same for my Mac. Or can this software already run on Mac considering that Mac is now intel based and can run Windows in bootcamp? The website says that I could remove my HD and place it into a PC system, but I don't have a PC system so that's not an option for me.

Any help would be appreciated. I don't really need to recover any HDs, but I want to keep my HDs happy.

 

[bdj33ranch]

When I purchased AppleCare for my iMac it came with a version of TechTools. There is an even more comprehensive suite if you buy the retail version. I haven't used it very often in the past 3 years.

I have had good success just doing the following:
I have a bootable clone I update fairly regularly. Before cloning I boot from the clone and use the built in OSX disk utilities to 'repair disk' and 'repair permissions' on the primary HD. There is seldom any issues with 'repair disk' but always a long string of 'repair permissions' fixes. I then run awhile off the primary drive, using several different programs, just to make sure everything is still working right. Then I clone to the clone drive and put it away until the next time.

Actually just did this last evening because my wireless internet was acting up - problem solved after 'repair permissions' - but who knows if that was actually a permissions problem or the genie of internet access was just testing me.

Best advice is to ALWAYS have an off-computer backup of your critical files.

 

[MisterMe]

I recently discovered this old OLD software that was supposedly leaps beyond it's competitors called spinrite.

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

It's probably old news for anyone who did any research on finding this type of software but this is my first time researching the matter and coming across this. ...

SpinRite is an MS-DOS utility. Most people who know about it remember fondly Jerry Pournelle's frequent references to the software in his BYTE magazine column.

MacOS X is based on certified UNIX 03. There is no connection between UNIX and MS-DOS. Routine hard drive maintenance by the user is unnecessary with MacOS X. UNIX has a number of tasks that run automatically. In the rare event that you have an issue with your hard drive, then the command line File System Check (aka fsck) run in Single User Mode will repair the rare problem.

 

[ReggaeFire]

There are a handful of major players in the Mac disk repair field. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The one I use the most often is DiskWarrior. It's good for when it's a software issue, it's pretty fast and replaces the directory instead of trying to repair it. It doesn't do any good if it's a hardware issue though.

TechToolPro is a good overall checking utility for when it's unclear if it's a hardware or software issue. It can be very slow though. Like 12 hours to do certain tasks on large disks slow.

DriveGenius is relatively new, but it's what they use (or at least at one time used) at the Apple Store. I own it, but haven't had need to use it much. It's probably a bit between TTP and DW.