Diskwarrior directory rebuild and SD! backup

[astrodog]

Hi there
I currently have a bootable backup using SD!. If I use Diskwarrior to rebuild the source drive directory - will the new directory be propagated/copied to the clone at next smart update, or should I run DW on the clone separately??
TIA
Lee

[dnanian]

We copy file-by-file, so the directory itself is not copied, only the files and data it references. A DW fill may affect the things we do copy if directory damage was present, of course, depending on the nature of the problem.

[Zarkov]

Dave-

Since I needed to do a minor DiskWarrior (DW) repair, I was checking the forums for information on DW and SD. Your reply above is interesting. Does it mean that SD does not backup the directory, and by implication the directory is created de novo at each boot?

Perhaps you could give a paragraph or two on best practices for SD and DW, since I see from other forum entries that you have discussed things with Alsoft.

Thanks.

[dnanian]

The 'directory' isn't an entity in itself, Zarkov. It's a structure that HFS+ uses to keep track of where files are kept on the drive. So, there's nothing to 'copy' as such - it's recreated (and maintained) separately on the two drives.

DW is the best disk directory repair tool on the market, bar none. It does a great job of fixing things "inside" the file system (well below what SD! and other applications are dealing with). Some things it fixes aren't relevant any more (it's maintaining disk structures that kind of became obsolete with OS7), so you'll sometimes get false problem diagnostics, but it's invaluable.