Customer Reviews

Techtool Pro 5 [Old Version]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I was running TechTool Pro 4.61, and received the upgrade to version 5. When I tried to boot from the DVD to do the recommended installation, the software corrupted my directory to the point where my mac could not be booted from the hard drive. After 24+ hours of going back and forth with a clueless and rude tech support, I got this email, which I will be qouting in its entirety:

"If TechTool Pro froze while optimizing from the DVD, it can cause volume corruption.

If you are unable to repair the volume corruption, you will need to erase the drive and perform a clean install.

If you perform a clean install, that would be a good time to create an eDrive since a corrupted volume can affect the ability to create an eDrive.

Thank You
Micromat Inc.
Technical Support Team"
So there you have it- a OS X disk utility that even its own tech support admits can destroy your data. Still feel like buying it?

I've used TechTools since Version 2 and have never regretted spending the money. However, Version 5.0.0 had problems. Now that the release is up to 5.0.6, I am again very happy with this product. I have multiple Macs and will have this product on all soon.
If you use this as recommended (from another disk or with an e-drive) it is easy to fix problems that occurs over time. The speed of checks and repairs has greatly improved. File and volume optimizations are painless and fast. The GUI is intuitive and easy to use.

I liked the graphic display of the volume optimization better in Version 4 but the display in version 5 is adequate. The hardware tools are good (maybe a little too flashy) and give me warm fuzzies about the health of my hardware. All in all worth the money invested over the years.

TechTools is not a substitute for backups and backup drives. For the cost of one license, you can buy a good 1Tb second drive and do wonders on the health of your data and greatly ease the process of disk maintenance. I highly recommend you buy a backup drive before you get TechTools.

I have Tech Tool 3 & 4 so I felt it was time to upgrade to version 5. First let me say I use SoftRAID for Mac. This review will not apply to if you don't use SoftRAID. SoftRAID is a program that creates a mirror of your hard drive in real time on a second disk.

I got my copy of Tech Tool Pro 5 and installed it without a hitch on my PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz, (running OS X 0.4.11). I rebooted using the DVD for the startup disk and all went well, however when I went to use the Tech Tool Pro tools such as:

1. Create eDrive a separate partition for booting Tech Tool 5 or

2. File optimization or

3. Volume optimization or

4. Hard disk defrag.

nothing works. I quick call to tech support confirmed that TTP 5 will not work with SoftRAID. Nowhere on the website does it say it's not compatible with SoftRAID.

I wish I could tell you more about how beautiful the interface is and how well it works, but I can't. The only thing I can tell you is customer support was very friendly, I got a RMA and I was able to send it back.

If you use SoftRAID look else where.

John Schubert

I skipped many versions since I hate Micromat's paid upgrades, and their customer support has not been that great. For example, they replied to an email I sent them but it took them about 3 months!

I bought version 5 about a year ago, and it is a solid product. Upon launch the following message is displayed:

"You should always backup before using any disk utility."

Any utility like this one implies a risk of data loss. Although I did have problems with Micromat and a hard drive back when I was using OS 9, so far I have not had a single problem with version 5. Utilities like this one should not be used as a substitute for frequent backups of important data.

Plus:
Thorough set of tests and tools, including memory and video memory tests.
Directory backup.
Configurable notifications.
Trash history.

Minus:
Some of the included utilities can be found for free.
Just like with other suites, the individual tests and tools are not always the best available.

For example, if I wanted to repair a directory, my choice would be DiskWarrior. If I wanted to defragment a drive, my choice would be iDefrag. TechTool Pro seems to do a good job at defragmenting files and dealing with free space fragmentation, but iDefrag goes beyond that and also puts specific types of files in their optimal location within the hard drive. As a side note, since a reviewer mentioned the long time it takes to defragment, I would take it as a sign that it is doing a good job. In my case, if I'm going to defragment one of my drives I expect to wait 5-8 hours. Speed will vary depending on the partition size, fragmentation, computer speed, etc.

I mainly use TTP for preventive monitoring and diagnosis, and so far it has worked great. I also have Drive Genius as well as other utilities including the aforementioned ones.
I will add reviews for other Mac utilities. After seeing the 2-star rating for TechTool Pro I felt compelled to offer my perspective. It is not such a bad product. I don't know if it means much these days, but Tech Radar gave it 5 stars and MacWorld 4 mice.

Defragging a half-full 500 GB Internal HD on a PPC G4 MDD running 10.4.11 used to take 20 minutes with TT Pro 4. Just bought and installed TT Pro 5. After defragging for FOUR HOURS, the same drive is only 1/3 complete. This is an upgrade?

These are the same folks that have charged major dollars for every TT Pro upgrade for the last five years. I was one of the very first to order TT Pro 4 on the $229 Protegé 2 GB Flash Drive. IT IS STILL ADVERTISED TO THIS DAY on their website as "compatible with ANY MAC WITH A FIREWIRE PORT" and there is a testimonial from some IT guy saying how with a Protegé there "no need to carry a FW cable around."

THIS IS FALSE ADVERTISING. What they should say but STILL DON'T is "compatible with ANY MAC WITH A FIREWIRE PORT AS LONG AS IT ISN'T RECESSED like many early iBooks and PowerBooks. Recessed FireWire ports require our FireWire 'adaptor cable' which will cost you an additional $25 plus S+H."

Even after I called and raised hell they have never changed this blatant falsehood - nor will you find any mention whatsoever of this 'adaptor cable' anywhere on their website.

Stay with TT Pro 4. You will be happy you did.

I like Techtool Pro, it runs a hardware check when you start up, so you can quickly see how your hardware is running right out of the gate, and the SMART check is really cool because it shows results from all 20 tests it ran, I heard other products just say passed, so Techtool gives much more info about whats going on with your Mac. I haven't had to fix a directory so I can't attest to how it performs there, but watching the file defrag and optimization run was impressive as it moved stuff around. With a 30 day guarantee, I don't think you can go wrong using Techtool.

Review - Tech Tool Pro v5.07 Techtool Pro 5
November 2010

Can be considered the "Swiss Army Knife" of software technical tools to evaluate, repair and maintain your Mac hardware. Reliable, wide-ranging set of features, an All-In-One software suite. A venerable veteran among Mac software tools - a great value for Mac users.

1. Allows you to test new components, existing critical components and sub-systems.
2. Optimize drives, diagnose and repair problems with hard drives. Recover data from damaged drives. Protect your computer and data.
3. Perform routine maintenance to help run your Mac faster and more reliable.
4. Determine the cause of Mac crashes.
5. Create an emergency repair partition, just in case.

Key Features:

Tech Tool works in three modes: Tests, Tools and Reports. The application can run either installed on the CPU, or booted directly from the DVD. I did both operations on my two Mac G4s, and they worked fine with no problems (my software version is 5.07, running Leopard Mac OS 10.58). Haven't experienced the problems other reviewers have mentioned and list some tips below that should help.

Many of the tests and tools focus on evaluating, repairing and protecting the hard drive of your Mac, probably because this is where much of the wear and tear happens and the most likely component in need of repair or replacement.

The software interface provides enough explanation so that I didn't need to look at the printed manual to get them to work. But reading the well laid out manual helped me understand what results I would be getting with the more advanced tools and also avoid some pitfalls (like force quitting while optimizing a file or volume - that can cause file or directory corruption). The manual also provided troubleshooting tips such as starting up in safe mode to eliminate easy problems first.

1) Test Suite:

Test your hardware to see if you have a failure or potential failure somewhere among your components. Provides a display of five hardware tests that run automatically when the application is launched. These test results are displayed as gauges for the system's USB, Cache, Processor, Network and Firewire components.

Other System tests include RAM and video memory, SMART parameters, surface scan for bad blocks, file and volume structures.

The SMART technology test is the industry standard hard drive test used by major hard disk manufacturers to increase reliability of hard drives. SMART monitoring can predict 70% of drive hardware failures before they occur. SMART test works for ATA & SATA drives only.

Some tests can be quite fast or quite lengthy, depending on how thorough you want to be.
The SMART check test for each hard drive is quite fast. Meanwhile, a surface scan for bad blocks can take several hours depending the capacity of the drive, but is very handy for checking for damage after a hard drive crash.

Tech Tool was aware and made use of the dual processors in my G4 MDD CPU.

2) Tools Suite:

Tools include data recovery, hard drive de-fragmentation and volume efficiency optimization.

Worried that sensitive files on your computer may be uncovered even after you delete them?
How about securely wiping just that one file or folder on your hard drive, rather than the entire hard drive or partition as well? With the Wipe Data Tool, you can perform a 35 pass overwrite with a random or binary overwrite pattern on your target file, without affecting your own existing files. Worked fast on my test and could not recover the test file.

Other tools include Data Recovery to recover data from damaged volumes or trash data recovery.
Provides for a fast search. Disk Permissions Tool can verify and fix directory permissions.
During one scan, Tech Tool spotted a problem with one of my volume directories and fixed it. It also found problems with permissions on my one of drives and fixed most, though not all of them.

You can de-fragment files or volumes to free up space and allow your computer to store files more efficiently. Provides a graphic display of the files being moved. Reminds me of the old days when Norton Utilities ran on the Mac. De-fraging is still helpful for me because I regularly use my Macs to back up my Tivo and other large video files, filling them up with GBs of files before I can move them to external hard drives.

While it may not replace my utility programs, Tech Tool can supplement many of them, such as Disk Utility or Data Rescue. It was convenient to have one suite of tools rather than having to launch multiple applications, making it more likely that I would use them. I expect I may graduate to other, more specialized programs, but Tech Tool is a good basis to start.

3) Reports:

Keeps and displays a log of your tests and tool runs, which you can print out for your maintenance records. Works only with the application installed, not in bootable DVD mode.

Other Notable Features:
1. Ability to setup email notification by the CPU in case of impending hard drive failure or problem.
2. eDrive feature allows you to create an emergency startup partition containing both Tech Tool and a minimal version of the Mac OS X system on one of your hard drives. This allows you to boot up your computer if there is a problem with your normal startup volume, and provides access to the tools for recovery and repair, with no need for a bootable DVD or external hard drive. This partition is created without the need to reformat the drive you place it on.

Proactive recovery features:
1. Can turn on the Protection Directory Backup option active on a volume to increase the changes of recovering data.
2. Rebuild Volumes allows it be run more efficiently or easier to repair volume corruption.
3. Enable Volume Journaling on HFS+ volumes to help protect against volume structure corruption.

Other Tools include:
1. Video geometry test patterns for calibrating your monitor, such as checking for deal pixels on LCD displays.
2. An audio calibration test allows you to select the frequency tone, chromatic scales or use text speech to test the sound output on your audio system.

Tips to enchance performance and avoid getting into trouble:
1. Avoid running too many other applications while using Tech Tool.
2. Reboot CPU after use to free up any system resources that may have been used by the application.
3. When starting a process you selected in Tech Tool, check the time estimate and avoid interrupting the processes you start until they are done.

Tech Tool Pro 5 offers effective tools for both novices and power users.

The application includes proactive features to improve your chances of recovering your data in the event of a drive failure. It is geared towards preventing problems with a series of automatic checks and routines. If these measures are followed correctly, they should lessen the impact of problems should they occur.

Warning: Do NOT use this utility. Tectool Pro 5 corrupts hard drives.

I booted my mac from an external hard drive and ran all of the TechTool tests on my internal hard drive (Macintosh HD) to make sure the drive was OK... all tests passed. Then I ran file optimization and volume optimization on the internal drive. TechTool said everything went OK, but when I rebooted using my internal hard drive the Finder crashed. I had to reboot from my external drive. I then ran Disk Utility on my internal hard drive only to find disk errors... TechTool Pro had corrupted the directory of my hard drive.

Good products , works well on my Mac OS X 10.4 system. Completed all checks. Very valuable application.

bottom line, half the functions did nothing, despite booting in several different ways....
I would not purchase another micromat product in the near future