Best Disk Utility

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Level 1

30 points

Best Disk Utility

aloha,
I have been debating and dodging between softwares, as I am not really sure which disk utility software is the best to use for the Mac.

I currently own Drive Genius 2 (version 2.2.1), but it came with a bootable disk that I couldn't get past the screen with Apple logo. it simply hangs.

anybody here know which program is the best to use for disk utility (such as defragment, repair, rebuild, etc.)? please let me know by telling me which software and explain why.

thanks in advance!

Brian

27-inch quad-core 2.66 GHz Intel iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2010 11:51 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 15, 2010 11:59 PM in response to haynboimac

best for repair is diskwarrior 4.2

if you want to defrag it's idefrag

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Answer 2

Jan 16, 2010 7:09 AM in response to haynboimac

I had the same problem and contacted Drive Genius. They are working on a new bootable disk for the new iMacs and said they would let me know when it is available. I think it is a good app and you can boot from the install disk and still use it.
I have Drive Ten and Tech Tool Pro but think Drive Genius may be better,

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Answer 3

Jan 16, 2010 9:49 AM in response to haynboimac

drive genius will NOT recognize a real bad hdd, but diskwarrior YES.

diskwarrior rev.1001 starts every mac till the newest !

beside this, it's better to have it on a bootable extern hdd, as the dvd starts very slowly ..

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Answer 4

haynboimac Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 16, 2010 6:18 PM in response to Sascha H-K

thanks, Sascha, but what I really meant was that I'm looking for disk utility program, as more of a maintenance program to ensure that my iMac runs smoothly. I'm not looking for a disk repair program. but thank you for your advice; I already owned the DiskWarrior just in case something goes terrible.

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Answer 5

haynboimac Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 16, 2010 6:20 PM in response to worm liner

I see... same here, I already sent an email to Drive Genius about the booting issues. am waiting to hear from them.

hmm, I should try to boot up from the install disk then. thanks for your response!

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Answer 6

Jan 16, 2010 6:49 PM in response to haynboimac

I like TechTool Pro, currently version 5.0.6, by Micromat. It can do the expected types of repairs and optimizations (including defragging if you really want to do it). It has a useful optimization option that only consolidates fragmented free space (instead of doing a full defrag), which is more important for Mac OS X operation and does not take as long to complete. You can check drives for bad blocks ("surface scan") and perform other hardware checks that are not directly related to the hard drive.

The best way to use such utilities is to create a small partition (on the internal drive) and install a minimized Mac OS X system there, plus the maintenance utilities you own. Or you can have a small external drive for this purpose, which is how I do it. I have an old FireWire-based iPod with a broken screen that I currently use as my maintenance/emergency startup drive.

Any of those utilities will run faster and more reliably from a real hard drive. And you can easily keep the overall system and utility software up-to-date, when you use a separate boot volume (and not an optical disc).

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