Alternative to DiskWarrior 5.0 for macOS High Sierra?

Yikes, best to steer clear of such things, especially TechTool Pro.

Mac tends to look after itself, what is the problem you are experiencing.

Sometimes just downloading the Combo updater and installing it can help, as it resets some system files and caches.

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1944?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

You could try Onyx it is free, some people have noticed an improvement to how High Sierra performs by running the Automation task. https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

It is probably the more benign of the aforementioned apps.

Drives that fail can't be "repaired" in any permanent sense of the word, and the need to use data recovery software on a failed hard disk means that some data has already been rendered permanently irretrievable. If you ever need to use such things it means your backup strategy has already failed.

Considering that the Disk "Warrior" product already costs much more than even a 2 TB hard disk drive, it's a poor alternative to a backup strategy.

To learn how to use Time Machine please read https://support.apple.com/HT201250. A reliable backup strategy means you will never face the need to recover lost data.

There are three applications to rebuild Mac directory, as far as I know:

DiskWarrior

https://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior

TechTool Pro

TechTool Pro 9.6

Drive Genius

https://www.prosofteng.com/drive-genius-mac-protection-software

DiskWarrior is considered the best, but only TechTool Pro is currently compatible with High Sierra APFS.

Alsoft had intended a v5.1 update to DiskWarrior to make it fully compatible with High Sierra and APFS, but being in the epicenter of hurricane Harvey caused unplanned delays. The version 5 product should still work on non-APFS drives (it won't recognize APFS drives). Here is more High Sierra related info on DW 5.0. I would advise that you contact Alsoft after 12/27 when they are back from Christmas break, and inquire about when v5.1 and APFS support will be available.

I have used DW for years without issue, and will update to v5.1 when it is released. That said, I seldom use it anymore, other than to rebuild a Disk catalog if it is beyond a certain fragmentation value.

How are you optimising your mac, what app are you using.

The mac does its own version of optimising/ defragging.

Read this for more info.

http://osxdaily.com/2014/01/13/defrag-mac-hard-drive-necessary-or-not/

I've messed up big time (many times) and never made it to rebuild a directory or fix a drive with the first aid from disk utility...

What do you do to mess up the disk such that it needs to be repaired?

As with dialabrain, I've never needed to repair anything in 30+ years, with Disk Utility or with something else.

If I get a drive problem, I reformat it and restore from my backup. If the drive fails again, it goes in the trash. Why would you trust your data on a drive that has inherent problems?

The only ones that have failed on me were Seagate "consumer" backup drives, and two bare drives that had known manufacturing flaws. Guess what brand disk I don't buy anymore.

I've also had a few flakey external enclosures. I bought replacements and no problems with the drives themselves.

I'm familiar with the program and its brethren. There's nothing I'm aware of it can do that can't be done without it. It just makes things a bit easier. I do have Onyx installed and have for many years. The only thing I've ever used it for is to toggle the visibility of files. I can never remember the Terminal command. 😁

Hey guys! @Dialabrain and @Barney-15E you guys seems to forget a very important point! You guys have a knowledge way above mine and many other users, and if something goes wrong you would know exactly what to do, whilst many of us will start panicking and would rely on a ready made solution or easy way around, such as DiskWarrior, Onyx, SuperDupper...

The only thing I know about disks when they "go wrong" is to get rid of them. I don't spend more than the time needed to erase and reinstall. That'w what I would do if I BootCamped it to death.

I have now to torture myself to have Time Machine running on a regular basis...

I never notice it is running.

If that is your only Mac, and you don't have a Time Capsule (I wouldn't buy one, now that they are discontinued), then backup options are difficult to maintain on a laptop.

Another solution would be a smaller, portable drive. Yeah, there are port issues to deal with...

You can use both as a TM backup, connecting to the desktop drive weekly and the portable daily.