in praise of DiskWarrior at DVinfo.net

Malcolm Hamilton · January 19th, 2012, 10:02 AM

Hi all,
I'm on a shoot in Yellowknife (and surviving the cold, thank you to those who posted with suggestions for keeping my EX1 from fogging up!; my fingers froze though), and thought I'd post a quick note about DiskWarrior, which saved me much grief last night.
(I have no connection whatsoever to the company, by the way).
For reasons that are completely beyond me—all I can say is that no matter how dependable a computer is, it can still do odd things for no apparent reason—when I popped the first of two veryfull SxS cards (one 32GB, the other 64GB) into the ExpressCard slot of my MacBook Pro last night, to copy footage off, the card didn't appear on my desktop, as it ALWAYS has in the past.
I popped the card out, and in again, to no avail.
I fixed my permissions with Disk Utility and restarted. Nothing... the card was still not appearing on the desktop.
I was starting to count my remaining (16GB) cards to calculate whether I'd be able to get by (I'm close to the end of my shoot, but not finished), but then I remembered that I have a DiskWarrior bootable DVD in my laptop case. So I ran DiskWarrior and then rebooted, and voila, the SxS card appeared on my desktop properly.
So... I've kept this DVD in my laptop case for years without ever needing to use it. But I used it last night and it saved me a lot of grief.
I'm posting because I think that having a strategy like this to save your ExpressCard slot functionality (if that's what it was) is just as important as having a plan to keep your lens from fogging up!
Regards,
Malcolm

Dave Sperling · January 22nd, 2012, 09:51 AM

I guess I'm confused ??
Not clear what disk warrior actually did ??
Did it fix the OS?
Or reinstall the SxS drivers?

Malcolm Hamilton · January 22nd, 2012, 02:37 PM

I certainly don't understand how DiskWarrior does what it does, which is (from its web site) to eliminate "directory errors—the most common problems Mac OS users have with their disks". There's more information there if you want to read it ("It fixes problems with master directory blocks and alternate directory blocks (HFS)", etc.).
All of that is beyond me. I just know that a very Mac-savvy friend recommended it years ago, and I got it then. I haven't needed to use it often, because for most problems I run into, a simple re-start, or fix of the Disk Permissions (using Disk Utility) is enough.
But two (maybe three) times in the last dozen years (including the other night on my shoot, when my ExpressCard slot stopped working), neither approach above worked, and I was really stuck... and DiskWarrior fixed things. I think you're suggesting I could have downloaded and reinstalled the SxS drivers... that didn't occur to me I'm afraid.
I'm not trying to sell software for the company; I was just so thankful to have been rescued as I was the other night, that I wanted to pass along some praise.
Regards,
Malcolm

Dave Sperling · January 23rd, 2012, 03:40 PM

Not questioning either your post or your actions, just trying to get a better picture of how Disk Warrior worked its 'magic'

January 19th, 2012, 10:02 AM	#1
Malcolm Hamilton Major Player Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 844	in praise of DiskWarrior Hi all, I'm on a shoot in Yellowknife (and surviving the cold, thank you to those who posted with suggestions for keeping my EX1 from fogging up!; my fingers froze though), and thought I'd post a quick note about DiskWarrior, which saved me much grief last night. (I have no connection whatsoever to the company, by the way). For reasons that are completely beyond me—all I can say is that no matter how dependable a computer is, it can still do odd things for no apparent reason—when I popped the first of two veryfull SxS cards (one 32GB, the other 64GB) into the ExpressCard slot of my MacBook Pro last night, to copy footage off, the card didn't appear on my desktop, as it ALWAYS has in the past. I popped the card out, and in again, to no avail. I fixed my permissions with Disk Utility and restarted. Nothing... the card was still not appearing on the desktop. I was starting to count my remaining (16GB) cards to calculate whether I'd be able to get by (I'm close to the end of my shoot, but not finished), but then I remembered that I have a DiskWarrior bootable DVD in my laptop case. So I ran DiskWarrior and then rebooted, and voila, the SxS card appeared on my desktop properly. So... I've kept this DVD in my laptop case for years without ever needing to use it. But I used it last night and it saved me a lot of grief. I'm posting because I think that having a strategy like this to save your ExpressCard slot functionality (if that's what it was) is just as important as having a plan to keep your lens from fogging up! Regards, Malcolm

January 22nd, 2012, 09:51 AM	#2
Dave Sperling Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Tinton Falls, NJ Posts: 780	Re: in praise of DiskWarrior I guess I'm confused ?? Not clear what disk warrior actually did ?? Did it fix the OS? Or reinstall the SxS drivers?

January 22nd, 2012, 02:37 PM	#3
Malcolm Hamilton Major Player Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 844	Re: in praise of DiskWarrior I certainly don't understand how DiskWarrior does what it does, which is (from its web site) to eliminate "directory errors—the most common problems Mac OS users have with their disks". There's more information there if you want to read it ("It fixes problems with master directory blocks and alternate directory blocks (HFS)", etc.). All of that is beyond me. I just know that a very Mac-savvy friend recommended it years ago, and I got it then. I haven't needed to use it often, because for most problems I run into, a simple re-start, or fix of the Disk Permissions (using Disk Utility) is enough. But two (maybe three) times in the last dozen years (including the other night on my shoot, when my ExpressCard slot stopped working), neither approach above worked, and I was really stuck... and DiskWarrior fixed things. I think you're suggesting I could have downloaded and reinstalled the SxS drivers... that didn't occur to me I'm afraid. I'm not trying to sell software for the company; I was just so thankful to have been rescued as I was the other night, that I wanted to pass along some praise. Regards, Malcolm

January 23rd, 2012, 03:40 PM	#4
Dave Sperling Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Tinton Falls, NJ Posts: 780	Re: in praise of DiskWarrior Not questioning either your post or your actions, just trying to get a better picture of how Disk Warrior worked its 'magic'