Diskwarrior cleans up after Time Machine / Leopard

Today I spent most of three hours solving an issue with my primary Final Cut Pro video drive (quite a scare, as it holds ALL the footage for my current project), a brand new Lacie Quadra 500gb which suddenly decided to fail on me. I strongly suspect that Time Machine, the new backup / recovery software bundled with Mac Os X 10.5 ("Leopard") is to blame, as I decided to turn it on yesterday, and a similar error occurred a few weeks ago after using Time Machine. I contacted Lacie support, which equals an online formula where you have no chance of knowing when they will actually get back to you (disappointing, Lacie!).

I have an Apple Care Protection plan, which I strongly recommend - they're cheaper in the US and completely transferrable - so I called Apple customer support in the UK which is better than the third party company working for Apple out of Stockholm. After explaining the issue, I was put through to a higher level technical representative ("the über apple geek"). He had heard of similar issues, but was not sure this happens due to Leopard / Time Machine. Like several online fora suggested, he told me to get DiskWarrior which, once downloaded, immediately fixed the drive (unlike disk utility).

He also made sure to leave his email address in order to check back whether I found a solution, in return for which I submitted the Diskwarrior logfile for him to follow up.

I have been complaining a lot about the lack of pro support at Humac in Denmark (they absolutely suck, to put it bluntly) but must say I am once again impressed by Apple support. If you know what you want and how to get through to the right people at Apple, they are very, very good.

My friend and co-director Andreas, recently lost a full external drive due to an error at Humac and they have yet to NOT make an error in a transaction with me (also, they have been copying applications and disk images off my hard drive - thanks for respecting my privacy!). I recommend anyone who use their mac for serious stuff to go somewhere else. And get an Apple Care Protection plan. If you run into a problem like this, take it easy, spend 10 minutes googling, and then call Apple. If they ask you to hand in your unit to Humac, my advice is to insist on getting it done elsewhere.