DiskWarrior Review | Macworld

Price When Reviewed

$119.95 (plus $8.95 for shipping flash drive)

Best Prices Today: DiskWarrior

For over 20 years, software developer Alsoft has been cranking out some of the best utility software available for the Mac. And if you’ve been a techie at any time between 1998 and now, you’ll know that DiskWarrior was the tried-and-true application to help dig through a damaged hard drive. Whoever had the vaunted DiskWarrior CD-ROM could boot off this, rebuild corrupted directories, and either get the drive running well again or at least put it in a position where the operating system could mount it and data could be recovered from it, and no one seemed to do it better than Alsoft and its Mac-specific focus.

Fast forward to 2024 and version 5.3.1 of its DiskWarrior utility and things are in good shape, but feel as if they’re starting to be left behind where software and file system support.

Find out how DiskWarrior compares to other solutions for recovering data from a Mac hard drive.

DiskWarrior, which supports Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or later, retails for $119.95 for new users and $59.95 for users upgrading to the new version, continues to support the HFS+ format, as well as a wide array of protocols including FireVault 1 and 2, Core Storage for Fusion dries, RAID configurations, and disk images and sparse bundles but has yet to be upgraded to support the APFS format, which is becoming more and more prevalent on new Macs and the file system standard that Apple is pushing its users towards. The software, which has moved on from its classic CD-ROM format, now arrives as a bootable USB flash drive that can be used to boot your Mac in a pinch, and can readily tackle all Macs running HFS+ format volumes. You pay extra for the shipping of this flash drive ($8.95 in the U.S. $21.95 outside the U.S.), and there is no option not to select it during purchase.

DiskWarrior’s ease of use has never let up for a second, and it’s simple to download the software after paying for it, install it, open it, wait a few moments for DiskWarrior to start system services, read through available volumes on your Mac (which will kick off the spinning rainbow wheel, if only briefly), and get to work. It’s here that the software still excels in working with faltering volumes, and gets down to business in terms of locating corrupted directories, rebuilding file structures, and repairing the standard wear and tear that occurs within file systems to get your data back in order.

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Throughout my testing, it was easy to mount and unmount drives and volumes, perform quick tests on them, easily bring up technical specifications, set up automated diagnostics in the preference settings, as well as notifications through alerts, emails, AppleScript programs, or text messages, and it felt as if a great program hadn’t lost a step. This was the DiskWarrior I loved, and I felt if I ran across a severely damaged volume, I’d have what I needed to sort things out and get to the data I needed, the software inspiring the same confidence it had all those years ago.

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That’s the good news.

The bad news comes with the harsh reality that DiskWarrior 5.3.1 continues to lack support for the APFS standard, that more and more drives are heading towards this file system, and that the company’s relative silence as to this matter isn’t reassuring. A representative within the company confirmed that Alsoft is currently working on version 6.0, which will offer full APFS support, but also noted that changes from Apple’s ends, such as not allowing third-party kernel extensions and other technical changes have made the development process that much more difficult and created more roadblocks than had been found in creating previous versions of DiskWarrior. The representative cited Alsoft’s good relationship with Apple, but noted that there was no official date for DiskWarrior 6.0, as tedious as this might be.

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Finally, the lack of a free trial version of DiskWarrior 5.3.1 brings potential customers up against the harsh reality of a steep new user price and a somewhat steep upgrade price, especially when the software lacks APFS support and can only work with certain volumes.

Should you buy DiskWarrior?

Sometimes a great utility gets stuck in development, and it’s hard to know what the developer’s next steps might be. There’s still a great application to be had here, but it needs to figure out its path, and if that includes semi-heated negotiations with Apple to fully support APFS, so be it. Alsoft needs to put itself in a position where it can readily announce that an updated version will be out at a given date and that it will offer APFS support, which will allow it to remain a competitive product. Until that point is reached, it’s hard to guess as to what DiskWarrior’s fate may be, something the customer never wants to hear before making a purchase.