Hardware & File Tests

By: Scott Doenges - Revised: 2006-05-17 devin

Introduction

Information about TechTool Pro's various hardware and file tests.

Hardware and File Tests

Cache
Checks for the presence and amount of L1, L2, and L3 cache and display this information. It will also perform a series of memory tests to ensure that the cache memory is functioning properly.

Clock
Helps you verify your clock speed and test the circuits that comprises your Macintosh clock. While this is helpful in diagnosing an ailing machine, you will also find it useful for testing upgrades to verify that advertised gains in clock speed are being realized.

FireWire
Checks the FireWire bus in your computer to ensure that it is functioning. Note that the program can not check the FireWire ports themselves to verify that the data is being sent and received properly. This would require special loopback hardware not normally available.

Main Memory
Offers you the most comprehensive Mac OS X software-based memory tester available for Macintosh. A wide variety of RAM tests thoroughly check your Macintosh memory.

Mathematics
Performs tests by requesting both simple and complex floating point calculations from the system. These are thousand-iteration tests that use a cascading scheme that exponentially increase in complexity.

Network
Locates all available network interfaces recognized by your system and gives you a report on their status. It will also provide you with each port’s MAC address.

Processor
Verifies the operation of your CPU chips using both machine-level native instruction tests and more complex system-level data operations.

USB
Checks the USB Bus in your computer to ensure that it is functioning. Note that the program can not check the USB ports themselves to verify that the data is being sent and received properly. This would require special loopback hardware not normally available.

Video Memory
Tests the Video Memory on the Macintosh motherboard as well as on third-party video cards.

Disk Controller
Checks some of the hardware aspects of the drive itself, including the controller I/O, memory, and head-positioning mechanism. These universal tests are applicable to almost any drive type. Some of the tests can even be performed on CD-ROM drives. These tests include:
  • Diagnostic Check
  • Format Check
  • Rezero Unit
  • Spare Sector
  • Supply Voltage
  • Unit Ready

Read/Write
Confirms that data can be reliably written to and read from various locations on the hard drive. These tests include:
  • Read Buffer
  • Write Buffer
  • Linear Read
  • Linear Write
  • Random Read
  • Random Write
  • Seek

SMART
S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. This test checks and reports on the status of the S.M.A.R.T. routines built into your drive. These routines monitor important drive parameters as your drive is operating. An examination and analysis of these parameters can aid in the prediction of drive failure. This will allow you to back up your data before your drive fails and the data becomes inaccessible.

Finder Info
Checks for problems with the Finder information of the files on your volumes. This test examines Bundle Bits, File Dates, and Custom Icons.

File Structures
Checks for file resource corruption on your volumes. If any damaged files are found, TechTool Pro will let you know which files have corrupted resources.

Volume Structures
There are a variety of invisible files, settings, and parameters that the Macintosh file system uses to locate files, free disk space, and for other maintenance and management routines. Damage to these critical data structures can result in lost or damaged files and may even necessitate a complete reformat of the volume.

Surface Scan
Bad blocks are areas of media that cannot store data reliably. All hard disks have a few bad blocks when they are created, but these are "mapped-out" by the manufacturer when the drive is formatted. Mapping out bad blocks prevents data from being written to these defective areas of the media. Occasionally a good block will go bad. If this occurs and a file resides on that block, the file may be damaged. TechTool Pro will scan your drives for bad blocks and report if any are found.