Hands-On Review--TechTool Pro 4.5.1 (Universal) DVD

We just received our paid for TechTool Pro 4.5.1 (Upgrade $25. + $7.50 shipping/handling) which is on a DVD, a first for MicroMat (MM). The company says the DVD format was needed to accommodate dual booting of Macs with Intel as well as Power PC chips. This version of TechTool Pro is the first release that is compatible with the Intel Macs. The company notes that it is not just a port of the prior PPC version.

Unlike most application software, more than a simple re-compile of the program was required to support the new Intel-based Macs. Because TechTool Pro 4 works with the computer hardware at the lowest levels, it was necessary for Micromat to completely re-engineer the software from the ground up. In order to support the new models, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is required to run the program.

The DVD identifies the Tiger boot versions as 10.4.5 for Intel Macs and 10.4.4 for Power PC Macs.

We used the beta versions of TTP 4.5.1 on our 20" Dual Core Intel iMac without problems and we were interested to see whether the final release was any different. It is at least in size. As installed, TTP 4.5.1 is 58.7 MB. The Beta 2 version was 54 MB. We popped the DVD into our iMac SuperDrive and installed TTP 4.5.1 without incident. Unlike the beta versions which were only available as downloads, the DVD enabled us to install the unique eDrive by booting from it. That process is transparent. The DVD detects the presence of the Intel chip and boots accordingly. Although the DVD label advises patience in the boot process with a possible five minutes needed, it booted normally for us. After booting back into the internal hard drive we repaired permissions without incident.

Now we were ready to try out TTP 4.5.1. MM has over the years repeatedly advised against using any boot media other than a hard drive - internal or external - to run TTP for directory maintenance and volume optimization routines. We reprint the latest (updated Friday, 24 March 2006) advice below as posted on this MM Web page:

We do not recommend that you boot from the TechTool Pro 4 CD to optimize. Mac OS X is designed to be run from a read/write volume (i.e. a hard drive) for proper memory management. When booted from the CD there is no swap space for Mac OS X's virtual memory. In that case, if Mac OS X gets low on memory, the computer will run more slowly. If it runs out of physical memory, it will crash. Any unexpected quit during optimization could potentially cause serious volume corruption and data loss. (This is the reason we always recommend having current backups before optimizing. You never know when something might go wrong--a power failure, bad block, etc.). Since there is no way to know in advance how much memory will be required during optimization, it is best to be safe and only run optimization from a hard drive. We highly recommend creating an eDrive for this purpose. You can then boot the computer and run TechTool Pro 4 from the eDrive to optimize (or repair) your normal startup hard drive volume.

When we ran the TTP 4.5.1 beta applications, we booted from an external hard drive so as to safely perform directory maintenance and volume optimization. This time we used the eDrive. There is no obvious difference to the user between the beta versions and the TTP 4.5.1 release. We ran the Intermediate Suite of tests, which includes everything except a scan of our hard drive. Everything passed with flying colors, in this case green. We ran the directory maintenance routine and found that only benign changes were needed. Then we ran volume optimization. Since we'd performed this procedure with the Beta 2 version on July 10, as previously reported, and eliminated over 2000 frags, there were fewer to resolve this time around--1206 to be exact. That procedure went without a hitch. We quit the application which initiates an automatic reboot into the internal hard drive. Done.

About the only significant difference in the performance of TTP 4.5.1 over our experience with prior editions of the application going back years is its speed. This version is F-A-S-T. We completed all tests and procedures in under an hour! Our test run of the same routines using the Beta 2 edition took about twice as long. But, some variables are different. The Beta 2 had to resolve twice as many frags on our hard drive. And of necessity, we ran the Beta 2 optimization routine on the iMac from an external FW hard drive which is slower than the iMac internal drive. Nonetheless, this version seems peppy.

Overall, we welcome the availability of TTP 4.5.1 as a Universal disk maintenance and repair utility for Intel (and Power PC) Macs. It worked well for us. [Dana Baggett]