Is there a Mac utility that does low level drive integrity check and repair?

Question

The PGP Whole Disk Encryption for Mac OS X Quick Start User Guide version 10.0 contains the following remarks:

PGP Corporation deliberately takes a conservative stance when encrypting drives, to prevent loss of data. It is not uncommon to encounter Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) errors while encrypting a hard disk. If PGP WDE encounters a hard drive with bad sectors, PGP WDE will, by default, pause the encryption process. This pause allows you to remedy the problem before continuing with the encryption process, thus avoiding potential disk corruption and lost data.

To avoid disruption during encryption, PGP Corporation recommends that you start with a healthy disk by correcting any disk errors prior to encrypting.

and

As a best practice, before you attempt to use PGP WDE, use a third-party scan disk utility that has the ability to perform a low-level integrity check and repair any inconsistencies with the drive that could lead to CRC errors. These software applications can correct errors that would otherwise disrupt encryption.

The PGP WDE Windows user guide suggests SpinRite or Norton Disk Doctor. What recourse do I have on the Mac?

Answer 1

DiskWarrior seems to be highly thought of.

I bought Drive Genius 2 a while back after seeing the folks at the Apple Bar use it on my dead Hitachi laptop drive; it seems to have, um, issues with Snow Leopard though... the disk defragmenter (yeah, I know, you shouldn't bother on HFS+) scrambled my drive to the point of requiring a format and install.

Drive Genius 2's disk scanning tool seemed to work properly though ("Yup, your drive is hosed.")

Answer 2

DiskWarrior is excellent at rebuilding file directories, but it isn't a full blown disk utilty.

If you use Disk Utility to erase the disk and select "Zero Out Data" under "Security Options…" it will mark out the bad sectors.

TechTool Pro and Drive Genius are two established apps that will also check disk integrity.