Reports & Final Words

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

Introduction

Information about TechTool Pro's reports, system requirements, and pricing. Includes Scott's conclusion.


Reports

As TechTool Pro performs its various tests and other functions, it keeps track of what is done and what results are obtained. This information is available in the TechTool Pro 4 Reports window. The Reports window will automatically appear after running a test.

It keeps a log of all the tests you have run in the past, in case you want to go back and look at your history. I wish other maintenance apps (like DiskWarrior) would keep a history file like this...


System Requirements

  • PowerPC G3 or better. (Beige G3 machines not supported)
  • Mac OS X 10.2.x or 10.3 or greater.
  • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.
  • 256 Megabytes RAM or higher.

Pricing

So how much does TechTool Pro 4 cost?

$97.97 for new users, and $59.97 for owners of previous versions. Micromat even offers a "cross-grade" for owners of Norton SystemWorks or Norton Utilities - provide them with your Norton serial number, and you can buy TechTool Pro for just $59.97.

Conclusion

Nobody else out there has an app that does everything TechTool Pro does. The eDrive feature and the automatic diagnostics/alerts features are quite innovative. Still, I will need to spend more time using TechTool 4's disk repair utilities before I can say how it compares with DiskWarrior's reliability.

It does everything Norton Utilities ever did (with the exception of anti-virus) and much more, and it does everything much more reliably than Norton ever did. As a side note, Symantec recently announced that Norton Utilities for Mac has been discontinued, likely due to being out-competed by apps like TechTool Pro and DiskWarrior.

Micromat also sells Drive 10, a hard disk analysis/repair tool for Mac OS X. It runs the same set of diagnostics on your hard drives as TechTool Pro does, and Drive 10 also has similar directory repair and disk defragmentation tools. If you need a disk utility, get TechTool Pro instead of Drive 10 - it's got a lot more to offer for not much more money.

For what you get with this program - quick and easy fixes to common Mac problems, automatic diagnostics and alerts, and the occasional rescue of invaluable data - $100 is well worth it.