TechTool Pro 2 Review
By Finlay Dobbie

Norton is the standard in disk repair but it only diagnoses problems on your disk. Apple used to make Personal Diagnostics, which checked all the components of your computer but that mysteriously disappeared. That left Norton practically on its own for a long time. And then MicroMat came along with TechTool Pro, a professional version of it's freeware TechTool program which features basic houskeeping and system information tasks.

So, what exactly is all this? Well, when you start up, you can choose from 3 different interfaces -- Simple, Standard and Expert. I'll cover each of these interfaces seperately, as they are totally different from one another in some places.

The "Simple" interface looks a lot like Norton DiskDoctor. There is a list of volumes and a "Check" button. Select the volume you want and it checks your basic Mac hardware (L1 Cache, L2 Cache, Clock Chip, SCC Chip, VIA1 chip, VIA2 chip, FPU, Processor, PRAM, RAM and ROM), checks the drive mechanism to see if it is functioning correctly, does a surface scan of your disk to check for bad clocks, checks you volume structures (Extents Tree, Catalog File Counts, Catalog File and Volume Bitmap), checks the internal resource structure of files on the volume, checks for valid file dates, bundle bits and custom icons, and checks your system files for errors. Use this if you are a technophobe or if you aren't sure what you're doing.

The "Standard" interface divides up the tests into broad sections: Drives, Chips, RAM and Other. Each of these has a check box so you can set which of these sections you want to test. Below there is a scrolling field which gives you more advanced control over all the tests. It displays the tests that will be performed, i.e. Hard Drive Mechanism, Surface Scan, Volume Structures, File Structures, Finder Info and Optimization for each volume you have, then all the chip tests and the RAM tests, and finally all the System File tests. You may notice another option: Optimization. This does almost the same thing as Speed Disk but not quite as well. It is slower than Speed Disk, but this is reportedly to do with the fact it uses the same copy routines as the Finder instead of the Low-Level ones of Speed Disk, meaning that if your computer crashes in the middle of the optimization process all your files will be intact. I still prefer Speed Disk, but this is good nonetheless. During each test there is a readout of it's progress in the "Information" section next to each test. This is interface is more than adequate for most Mac users.

And now, the "Expert" interface. This will provide absolute bliss for power users. You can run tests on almost any part of your Mac. Each section enables you to select exactly which test you want to perform. There are four "Banks" of tests, each with 8 "Panels" relating to tests. Click on a tab and you have access to all the tests that are run. For instance, for most of the chips you can perform a 10101010 test, 01010101, 11110000, 00001111, 11111111, 00000000, Rotational, Arpeggio, Web, Peal, Minor March and Major March tests on either standard or maximum intensity. I don't know what most of these are, but I'm sure it will provide maximum flexibility for power users and system administrators. All the panels are listed alphabetically down the side. They are; About, Audio, Auto-Pilot, Benchmarks, Cache, Clock, Components, Desktop, Drives, File Recovery, File Structures, File Tests, Finder Info, Floppy, FPU, Internet, Keyboard, Modem, Mouse, Network, Optimization, PRAM, Processor, RAM, ROM, Scanners, Serial Ports, Surface Scan, Video, Video Geometry, Volume Structues and VRAM. The Auto-Pilot panel enables you to perform most tests in a string, one after the other. Some, for example File Recovery, need to be performed by themselves as they need to have continuous user input.

Another feature of TechTool is TechTool Protection, which acts in a similar way to Norton's FileSaver, by running once every shut down and saving the volume structure data to your hard disk so if it gets corrupted, you have a backup.

TechTool Pro is probably the most comprehensive utilities package out there. If you have the dosh, shell out on both Norton and TT Pro 2.

-- Finlay Dobbie
finlay@dobbie.prestel.co.uk

TechTool Pro 2 has been awarded 5 MacoroniMarks out of 5

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