" Mike,
After reading your posting from Bob F., I sent a note to Alsoft, the DiskWarrior folks. As I suspected, the wrapper system file correction in Disk First Aid is a code change and not just a directory or file system problem. The Alsoft person also mentioned that there would be a follow-up "Ask Al" topic tomorrow. Today, the "Ask Al" topic discussed what the system wrapper file does on HFS+ disks.

According to Alsoft, DiskWarrior does not currently detect this as a directory problem, but future version will correct the problem. I imagine that Norton Utilities and TechTool will also correct the problem in the future. Maybe, maybe not.

From what I have seen, Disk First Aid 8.6 will correct the system wrapper problems. Since Bob's disk crashed, DiskWarrior was most likely detecting a file system related problem. At any rate, you might want to check the "Ask Al" portion of the Alsoft website tomorrow. [today-Mike]
Thanks,
Steve "

" Hi, I got a B&W G3 300Mhz with 384MB. installed DFA 8.6 and the wrapper problem as mentioned in your reports occured. After the stated repair, I lost my System Folder. The computer gives you a warning if you try to restart, the "System" and "Finder" must reside in the System Folder or the computer will not restart. Funny thing is the computer restarts anyway, but I cannot access Apple Menu items. When you click on the multicolor apple on the corner, all the options are gone except for About this computer.

Tried reparing with DiskWarrior, TTP3, DFA, no help. Booted off a System 9.0.4 disk and try to Sherlock search the Hard Drive, nothing. Computer will always give the previously mentioned warning but always restarts fine. Tried reinstalling Sytem 9.0.4, said repaired certain damaged files, but when you reboot, same problems.

Finally did a Clean Install, with System 9.0 and updated to 9.0.4. Funny thing, when you do a clean install, usually it labels the old System Folder, don't see that old System folder anywhere.

Did the DFA install in a Dual 500 G4, no problems at all.
Irving "

" One more thing about DFA 8.6. I checked some drives that were formatted with SoftRaid, they did not have the wrapper problem, however the drives that I have formatted with Drive Setup exhibit the volume wrapper problem.
John Oswald "

The wrapper problem apparently is only seen after the OS 9.04 Apple driver update (not with any 3rd party driver).

" Hi Mike,
I grabbed DFA 8.6 the day it came out and checked all my computers with OS 9.0.4 to find the same wrapper problems. I noticed no problems till about 4 days later.

I started up my B&W, which also has OSX PB on it, and got the flashing question mark. After a short time, I heard my disk spin up and the computer booted normally. I have not seen this yet on any other machines.

This system is a standard G3/DVD with a 20gig Maxtor ATA drive with two partitions (one for OS X and the other for OS 904), 256Megs RAM and an Orange Micro SCSI card and SCSI disk.

I havn't noticed any other ill effects and the computer has been up for more than 24 hours since. We'll see after the next reboot, but I think I will wait till more reports come in.
Thanks,
Eric W Dahlstrom
Chiron BioInformatics "

I've rebooted my PB G3 and Dual G4 several times after repairing the wrapper problem with DFA 8.6; no problems seen so far.

" Hi Mike,
I just thought I'd let you know that after installing and running Disk First Aid v8.6 it did not report any problems whatsoever, wrapper or otherwise.

Beige G3/433, OS 9.0.4, Maxtor 20GB hard drive (4 partitions--setup using Drive Setup 1.9.2). I use Norton Utilities 5.0.2 as well as Disk First Aid to check the health of my hard drives.
Paul Banfield. "

As I mentioned in the news the other day, every drive I checked that was running OS 9.04/Apple drivers had the wrapper fixed by DFA 8.6, even firewire drives.

" summary fixed all wrapper problems on all drives.
all problems were as the same.

2 Ultra SCSI 160 drives fixed.
1 Ultra ATA Powerbook drive,
1 Firewire external drive.

message wrapper system file needs to be replaced, 0,0 all repaired.

this never seemed to cause a problem on any drives that I know of though.
Frank Farwell "

The worst report so far:

" I upgraded to DFA 8.6 this morning and within two hours my system was corrupted. I thought it was due to Quicken 2000 I was working on at the time of the crash, but now I*m not sure. Disk Warrior, Tech Tools Pro, zapping pram, re-blessing the system folder, attempting to reinstall over the old system, removing all the preference files, all failed to correct the corrupting. I finally had to do a clean install of 9.0.4.
Alan Altman "

This reader notes a tip for installing it with previous OS versions:

" Dear Mike,
I hope this is not so obvious as to waste your time.. but DiskFirstAid 8.6 works on systems below 9.04 as well. The installer will refuse you, but for some reason Apple haven't compressed the DiskFFirst Aid application - if you mount the .smi disk image, the application sits uncompressed in the installer pieces folder. Drag it to the desktop and off you go.
Thanks again for one of the *few* essential websites...
Martin Clark
Wallstreet 250/192/4GB, OS 8.6 British. "

If anyone else has had problems with DFA 8.6, please let me know (include your system/disk details in reports). If you missed last week's news, there are English-North America and English-International versions available.