Micromat TechTool Pro - 11.0 User Guide

©2019 Micromat Incorporated. All rights reserved.

This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under
license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms
of such license. The information in this manual is furnished for informa­tional use only, is subject to change without notice and should not be
construed as a commitment by Micromat Inc. Micromat Inc. assumes no
responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in
this book.

Except as permitted by such license, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of Micromat Inc.

Trademarks

TechTool Pro is a registered trademark of Micromat Inc.

Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Inc.

User’s Guide and
Reference Manual

www.micromat.com

Contents

User’s Guide and

Reference Manual ..................................................ii

Installation and System Requirements ............ 1.1

Introduction ....................................................................1.2

System Requirements....................................................1.2

Installing TechTool Pro...................................................1.2

What’s Installed ..............................................................1.5

Personalization and Registration ................................1.5

Contacting Technical Support .....................................1.6

About Micromat Inc. ......................................................1.6

Overview of TechTool Pro .................................. 2.1

Summary of Features ....................................................2.2

Summary of Features ....................................................2.2

TechTool Pro Interface ................................................... 2.2

TechTool Pro Menu ......................................................... 2.4

Install/Remove Techtool Protection ............................................ 2.4

TechTool Pro Manual ...................................................... 2.5

Troubleshooting Using TechTool Pro ............... 3.1

Preventive Maintenance ...............................................3.2

Troubleshooting Hints ..................................................3.2

Backup Before Repairing ................................................................. 3.2

Be Prepared ..........................................................................................3.3

Eliminate Easy Problems First ........................................................3.3

Simplify/Isolate ................................................................................... 3.3

Keep Your Software Up-to-Date ................................................... 3.3

Make Use of Available Resources .................................................3.3

Document What You Do ..................................................................3.4

Recovering Data from Damaged Drives ....................................3.4

Repairing Drive Problems ...............................................................3.4

Optimization ...................................................................3.5

Testing Components ......................................................3.5

Using TechTool Pro ............................................. 4.1

Launching TechTool Pro ................................................4.2

Full Disk Access ...............................................................4.3

Sample Diagnostics Section .........................................4.3

Tests ................................................................... 5.1

Automatic Testing ..........................................................5.2

USB .......................................................................................................... 5.2

Cache......................................................................................................5.2

Processor ...............................................................................................5.3

Network .................................................................................................5.3

Thunderbolt ......................................................................................... 5.4

FireWire .................................................................................................5.5

Manual Testing ................................................................5.5

Check Computer .............................................................5.6

Conguration ......................................................................................5.7

Memory Test ........................................................................................5.8

SPD Data .............................................................................................5.10

Surface Scan ......................................................................................5.11

SMART Check ....................................................................................5.13

NVMe Support ..............................................................................5.15

Partition Map .....................................................................................5.16

Volume Structures ...........................................................................5.17

Video Memory ..................................................................................5.19

Fans Test ..............................................................................................5.20

Sensors Test........................................................................................5.21

Battery Test .........................................................................................5.21

File Structures ...................................................................................5.23

Bluetooth ............................................................................................5.24

Network Interfaces ..........................................................................5.25

Tools .................................................................... 6.1

eDrive ..............................................................................6.2

TechTool Protogo ...........................................................6.5

Partition Repair ..............................................................6.5

Volume Rebuild .............................................................6.6

File Optimization ..........................................................6.8

Volume Optimization................................................. 6.10

Volume Cloning .......................................................... 6.12

Duplicate Cloning ........................................................................... 6.13

File Sync Cloning .............................................................................6.13

Disk Image Cloning .........................................................................6.14

Data Recovery ............................................................. 6.15

Protection ...........................................................................................6.15

Drives ...................................................................................................6.17

Trash .....................................................................................................6.18

Wipe Data .................................................................... 6.20

Overwrite Pattern ............................................................................6.20

Overwrite Level ................................................................................6.20

Select Item To Wipe… button .....................................................6.20

Wipe Selection… button ..............................................................6.20

Wipe Volume… button ..................................................................6.20

Wipe Free Space… button ...........................................................6.21

Internet Speed ............................................................. 6.21

System Maintenance .................................................. 6.22

Cache Rebuild .............................................................. 6.23

Volume Journaling ...................................................... 6.23

Home Permissions ....................................................... 6.24

Disk Permissions .......................................................... 6.25

Processor Check ........................................................... 6.26

Local Network .............................................................. 6.27

Video .............................................................................. 6.27

Video Geometry .................................................................................6.27

FaceTime Camera ..............................................................................6.28

Audio ............................................................................. 6.29

TechTool Protogo ............................................... 7.1

Interface ...........................................................................7.3

Devices Pane .......................................................................................7.4

Proles Pane ........................................................................................7.4

Prole Editor ........................................................................................7.6

Using a Protogo Device .................................................7.8

TechTool Pro Reports ......................................... 8.1

TechTool Protection ........................................... 9.1

Volume Usage .................................................................9.2

Directory Backup ............................................................9.3

Trash History ...................................................................9.4

SMART Check ..................................................................9.5

Power On Self-Test .........................................................9.7

I/O Check ..........................................................................9.8

RAID Status ......................................................................9.8

iv

Battery Check ..................................................................9.9

E-mail Alerts ................................................................. 9.10

TechTool Remote .............................................. 10.1

Requirements .............................................................. 10.2

Using TechTool Remote ............................................. 10.2

Push Notications ...................................................... 10.3

TechTool Pro Menu Options ............................ 11.1

TechTool Pro ................................................................ 11.2

About TechTool Pro ........................................................................11.2

Check for Update… ........................................................................11.2

Hide TechTool Pro ...........................................................................11.2

Quit TechTool Pro ............................................................................11.2

Mode .............................................................................. 11.2

Help ................................................................................ 11.2

Commonly Asked Questions........................... 12.1

Tips, Short Cuts, and Hidden Features ........... 13.1

macOS Versions ........................................................... 13.2

TechTool Pro Key Commands .................................... 13.2

Useful Apple Key Combinations ............................... 13.2

Basic Open Firmware Commands (PowerPC Macs) 13.2

Handy Terminal Commands (for Geeks only) ........ 13.3

Macintosh File Systems ................................... 14.1

Hierarchical File System ............................................. 14.3

Volume Header ............................................................ 14.3

B-Trees ........................................................................... 14.4

Catalog File ................................................................... 14.6

Extents File ................................................................... 14.7

Allocation File .............................................................. 14.8

Attributes File .............................................................. 14.8

Startup File ................................................................... 14.9

HFS Wrapper................................................................. 14.9

Journaling ................................................................... 14.10

Glossary ............................................................ 15.1

v

1.1

Installation and System Requirements

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing TechTool Pro! We have worked
hard to make TechTool Pro the most powerful and easy­to-use problem-solving utility available for the Macintosh.
With TechTool Pro you will be able to:

• Protect your computer and data.

• Create an emergency repair partition.

• Diagnose and repair problems with your drives.

• Optimize your drives.

• Clone a volume.

• Recover data from damaged drives.

• See what devices and services are running on your local
network.

• Test critical computer components and sub-systems.

• Perform routine maintenance on your computer.

• Determine the cause of problems that cause your Macin­tosh to crash.

• Test new equipment.

• Make sure that your computer is running as fast as it
should be.

Most importantly, TechTool Pro allows you to test your
computer like a professional without the need of years of
experience or a computer degree. TechTool Pro allows you
to check a variety of components in your Macintosh with
a simple click of your mouse. When TechTool Pro nds a
problem with your computer it will suggest steps you can

take to correct the situation.

Consider TechTool Pro your personal Macintosh techni­cian—always ready to help and only a mouse click away.

System Requirements

• Intel-based Macintosh

• OS X 10.10 or later

• DVD-ROM drive for installing from disk

• 1 GB RAM or higher

These requirements may change with future updates.

Installing TechTool Pro

TechTool Pro uses an automated installer to place the
TechTool Pro application and any ancillary les in their
proper locations.

NOTE If you suspect that your hard drive is damaged
or that there may be other computer problems, do not
install TechTool Pro until it is repaired. We recommend that
you run TechTool Pro before installation to verify that your
desired installation volume does not have any problems.
To do this, you may start up and run TechTool Pro from
another Mac or an eDrive. For instructions on running a
check of the computer see the Sample Diagnostics Section
under Using TechTool Pro later in this manual.

1.2

To install:

• Double-click on the TechTool Pro Installer icon.

• Enter your administrator password when prompted.

• Read the explanatory text on the installer screens and fol­low the prompts.

TechTool Pro will be installed in the Applications folder on
the startup volume. If any previous versions of TechTool
Pro are installed in your applications folder, they will be
removed.

NOTE If you are having trouble with TechTool Pro,
your installation may be corrupt. Running the installer to
replace your copy of TechTool Pro may help.

NOTE The TechTool Pro Installer contains an Uninstall
option. To Uninstall TechTool Pro, click the “Customize” but­ton on the third page of the Main Install screen.

1.3

Then choose “Remove TechTool Pro...

NOTE Next, uncheck “Install TechTool Pro,” and check

“Remove TechTool Pro”

TechTool Protection

When you launch the installed TechTool Pro application,
the program checks to see if the TechTool Protection is
installed. If it is not, a dialog appears giving you the option
to install TechTool Protection. TechTool Protection includes
program functions that operate automatically in the
background, such as periodic hard drive SMART checks,
Volume Usage, Trash History, etc. These functions are con­gured via the TechTool Protection pane that is installed in
the System Preferences. You can choose Cancel if you do
not wish to install TechTool Protection at this time.

1.4

What’s Installed

When you install TechTool Pro you install the TechTool Pro
program package. This contains the main program com­ponents in one convenient location on your hard drive.

By default, the TechTool Pro package is installed in the Ap­plications folder on your startup volume:

• Applications/TechTool Pro

The program’s preferences are stored on a per user basis in:

• ~/Library/Preferences/com.micromat.techtoolpro.plist le

The TechTool Pro Report will be stored in:

~/Library/Application Support/TechTool Pro/

TechTool Pro.reports

If you install TechTool Protection, the following les will
be installed:

Personalization and Registration

The rst time you launch TechTool Pro, you will be prompt­ed to enter your serial number. Your serial number is your
proof of ownership of TechTool Pro. Keep it in a safe place
since you may need it when you make future updates or
upgrades. If you lose your serial number, we may be able
to provide it to you if it is registered. In addition, registra­tion is required to receive free technical support for Tech­Tool Pro. (This is subject to change without notication.)

You may register your serial number online. Simply direct
your browser to the Micromat web site at www.micromat.
com.

If you do not have internet access, you may call Micromat
Sales at 707-304-5993 and ask them to register for you.

• ~/Library/PreferencePanes/TechTool Protection.prefPane

1.5

Contacting Technical Support

About Micromat Inc.

Micromat provides technical support to its customers
by telephone or email. For a current listing of telephone
numbers and other contact information, please visit our
website at www.micromat.com. Technical support is avail­able Monday through Friday (excluding public holidays),
from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM PT.

If you wish to contact technical support by telephone you
will need to have your TechTool Pro serial number and ver­sion number ready. Our automated phone attendant will
require you to enter this information before connecting
you to a technician. Please be near your computer when
you phone, since our technicians will need to ask you
questions about your system, and will attempt to guide
you through solving any problems.

Please have the following information ready for the sup­port technician, and be sure to include it in any email you
send to Micromat.

• A brief description of your problem.

• Version number of your TechTool Pro software.

• Type of Macintosh and conguration. (Example: Intel iMac

3.06GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB hard drive.)

Micromat Computer Systems Inc. has been developing
Macintosh diagnostic utilities since 1989. As the rst com­pany to oer diagnostic products for Macintosh, Micromat
has pioneered many new technologies for helping Macin­tosh users bring their computers back to life and to keep
them running their absolute best.

Technical Support

707-566-3860

[e-mail]

Micromat, Inc

5803 Skylane Blvd.
Suite C
Windsor, CA 95492

http://www.micromat.com

1.6

2.1

Overview of TechTool Pro

Summary of Features

64 - Bit

TechTool Pro is a full-featured computer diagnostic and
repair utility. It includes routines to check your computer’s
hardware, software, and peripherals. If TechTool Pro nds
problems with your computer system, it will let you know
and will provide straightforward advice on how to pro­ceed. If the problems are of a type that may be repairable
by software, then TechTool Pro will oer you the option to
attempt repairs.

TechTool Pro can perform a number of automatic checks
and routines. These are designed to forewarn you of im­pending problems and to increase the chances of success­ful data recovery and repair in the case of disaster. These
automatic features are fully congurable by you.

TechTool Pro also includes a number of features that allow
you to more eectively work with your computer and
data. These include defragmentation and optimization
to enhance drive performance, data recovery routines
to rescue data from damaged drives, and Wipe Data to
securely delete sensitive information. You may even set
up an emergency boot partition on your drive (without
reinitializing your drive) that includes TechTool Pro. Then,
if problems arise, you can boot from the emergency parti­tion and use TechTool Pro to attempt data recovery and/
or repairs.

TechTool Pro is a 64 - bit application. This allows it to take
full advantage of 64-bit processor Macs, providing greater
memory allocation size for RAM testing, Volume Rebuild,
and Volume Optimization.

TechTool Protogo Integration

TechTool Protogo is now integrated into TechTool Pro. With
TechTool Protogo, you can build diagnostic startup disks
that you can use to troubleshoot a variety of Macintosh
computers and portables. More information about using
TechTool Protogo is available in the Protogo section of this
Manual.

2.2

TechTool Pro Interface

Even though TechTool Pro is an extremely powerful pro­gram, it is designed to be easy to use. When you launch
the program you will see the TechTool Pro application
window.

There are three main categories available within the Tech­Tool Pro program itself–Tests, Tools, and Reports. When
you launch the program the Tests window appears. Use
the Category Selector bar in the upper left corner of the
window to change categories as desired.

At the bottom of the application window is a bar graph for
each processor core. This graph displays processor use for
each core in real time.

In addition to the three TechTool Pro categories, there is
the TechTool Protection pane in the System Preferences.
This is where you congure the automatic background
routines of TechTool Pro.

The Tests category is where you congure and perform
tests to check the functioning of your computer’s hard­ware, check for volume corruption, etc. The Tools category
is where you perform various stand-alone functions such
as data recovery, le/volume defragmentation, eDrive
creation, etc. The Reports window displays test results and
other feedback from operations performed in the Tests
and Tools categories. The report information is displayed
in a tabular sortable format.

The Tests and Tools windows are divided into three main
areas. The top half of the window is the Stage. This is
where you view feedback about the currently running
operation. Multiple tests can be queued up and the
queue is displayed in the lower area of the stage. Tests are
performed from left to right. Hovering the cursor above a
queued item pops up a tooltip providing details about the
particular test. Tools cannot be queued since they should
not be interrupted as they perform their specic func­tion. To the left beneath the stage is the Task Selection list.
Select the Test or Tool that you wish to use from the list.
Congurable options for that function will appear to the
right in the Conguration area. Once conguration is com­plete, click the appropriate button in the Conguration

2.3

window to add the test to the queue or to begin using the
selected tool. Items in the test queue are automatically
executed in the order they were chosen—left to right. You
can remove a test from the queue by clicking the cancel
button to the lower right of the queued test icon. You can
cancel all queued tests, including the currently executing

Help Center. Simply choose TechTool Pro Help from the
Help menu while running an installed copy of TechTool
Pro. This will bring up the TechTool Pro Help screen with
indexed and searchable online documentation.

Notication Center

test, by clicking the Stop button on the lower
right side of the stage.

As TechTool Pro performs it various tests and other func­tions, it keeps track of what is done and what is found. This
information can be examined in the TechTool Pro Reports
window. The Reports window summarizes the results of
all tests and is covered in detail in the Reference section of
this manual. Select the Reports category from the Cat­egory Selector bar in the upper left side of the program
window to view the report.

NOTE Because some TechTool Pro operations need
low-level access to the computer, they require system
privileges in order to run. When this is necessary, TechTool
Pro will display a dialog requesting the password for an
administrator account. For security reasons, MacoOS only
keeps system level privileges active for a certain amount
of time. Consequently, you may need to re-enter the ad­ministrator password more than once as you use
TechTool Pro.

Online help is available for TechTool Pro through the Apple

TechTool Pro supports Notication Center alerts. You can
congure how these alerts display in the Notications
pane in System Preferences.

TechTool Pro Menu

TechTool Pro includes special menu items in the TechTool
Pro menu.

Install/Remove TechTool Protection

TechTool Pro can manually install or remove the TechTool
Protection system preference pane if desired. To do so,
simply choose this menu item.

Sync Results to iCloud

Enable this menu option to save recent test and tool
results to iCloud. See TechTool Remote section of this
manual for more information.

2.4

TechTool Pro Manual

The TechTool Pro manual is written for the typical Macin­tosh user. It assumes that you are familiar with the basic
operation of your Macintosh and MacoOS. The manual
explains the many features of TechTool Pro and how to use
the program eectively.

The rst ve sections of the manual are introductory.
They include installation instructions, an overview of the
program, and general troubleshooting information. The
following eight sections, from Tests to Menu Options, are
the main reference portion of the manual. They pro­vide detailed explanations about each of the program’s
features. The next two sections include commonly asked
questions, tips, shortcuts, and hidden features. These are
followed by an overview of the Macintosh le system.
This section is fairly technical and may be of interest if you
want more details about the inner working of the le sys­tem. An understanding of the le system provides a better
understanding of the types of problems that may occur
with the volume structures and also the issues that must
be addressed when repairing them. The manual ends with
a glossary, which explains the technical terms used in the
manual, and an index.

As you read through the manual you will encounter two
special icons:

Pay close attention when you see this icon. It
indicates that the information that follows is extremely
important. You should read and understand it before
proceeding. Failure to do so could lead to improper use of
the program and possible loss of data.

This icon indicates that the information to fol­low provides clarication or supplemental information.
Although the information may not be critical, it is highly
recommended that you read it in order to use the pro­gram most eectively.

2.5

3.1

Troubleshooting Using TechTool Pro

Preventive Maintenance

Troubleshooting Hints

One of the most valuable functions of TechTool Pro is its
ability to assist you in nding and repairing problems with
your computer before they get out of hand. For maximum
protection, it is important that TechTool Pro is actually
installed on your system. TechTool Pro includes automatic
features that can regularly check your drive hardware and
backup volume directories. These features are congu­rable from the TechTool Protection pane in the
System Preferences.

In addition, it is a good idea to run the TechTool Pro tests
on a regular basis (for example, monthly) to more thor­oughly check your system. This will help ensure that your
computer is running at its full potential and minimize
the chance of crashes and data loss. Using TechTool Pro’s
Check Computer you can quickly and easily run a compre­hensive set of tests to check your computer for
proper operation.

It is critical to keep backups of valuable data. A hard drive
will always fail at some point. Although TechTool Pro can
often recover your data or bring your drive back to life
when this happens, it cannot do the impossible. If the
drive has failed mechanically or electronically, then no
software can repair it. The insurance and peace of mind
provided by a backup is important. A little time spent
maintaining backups and checking your system regularly
may save you many hours of recovery and repair down
the road.

Computers are complex electronic devices. Consequently,
they can be dicult to troubleshoot. Their proper opera­tion depends on the reliable functioning of both sophisti­cated hardware and software. TechTool Pro was designed
to simplify the process of diagnostics and repair in the
event of a computer problem. It can also help you nd and
correct small problems before they become big problems.

Be sure to backup your data regularly. Consider keeping
archival backups. This means that instead of having only
one backup you would keep several backups made on
dierent dates. That way if you should discover a le was
damaged, and was backed up damaged, then you might
be able to locate an undamaged version in a prior backup.
It is critical to keep backups since a drive may develop
a problem at any time. If the problem is an electronic
problem, a mechanical problem, or a volume structure
problem that is so serious that it can not be repaired or
the data recovered, then a valid backup would be your
only recourse.

Following are a few tips to help ensure that your computer
is up and running as soon as possible if problems do arise:

Backup Before Repairing

If you are experiencing problems, be sure your backups
are current. If possible, immediately backup any important
data that is not already saved elsewhere. You may need to

3.2

use the data recovery routines in TechTool Pro to do this if
your volume does not mount. Do this before performing
any repairs. It may be impossible to retrieve your data later
if the problems get progressively worse as the computer
is used.

Be Prepared

Set up a preventive maintenance routine so that you can
locate and address problems before they get too seri­ous. Consider using TechTool Pro to set up an emergency
eDrive on your hard drive before problems arise. That way
you can boot and run the program from the eDrive in the
case of problems on your normal startup volume. Keep
current backups of your work. Know where to nd your
TechTool Pro serial number in case you need to call Micro­mat Technical Support.

Eliminate Easy Problems First

Use TechTool Pro to repair the startup disk’s permissions.
Log out and then log back in as a dierent user and see if
the problems still occur. There may be a corrupted prefer­ence in the original user’s account. Start up the computer
in Safe mode (holding down the shift key during startup).
This disables third party routines that may be causing
problems during startup. Run TechTool Pro’s Check Com­puter while booted to the TechTool Pro eDrive to see if it
reports any problems. It’s possible one of the above items
will help pinpoint or solve the problem.

Simplify/Isolate

Eliminate as many variables as possible. If your problem
appears to be with an internal volume, then power down
your machine and disconnect all external devices. If it is
with an external drive/volume, then connect only that
drive to the computer. Startup and run TechTool Pro from
the TechTool Pro eDrive. This will eliminate the possibil­ity of system corruption on your normal startup volume
when testing.

Keep Your Software Up-to-Date

Many computer problems are actually software problems.
The producers of most software release regular updates
to address incompatibilities and other issues that they dis­cover. Do your best to have current versions of software,
drivers, etc. Staying current may keep problems from
developing in the rst place. Updating an older piece of
software may actually solve a nagging problem.

Make Use of Available Resources

There are many sources of assistance available to help
you solve problems. These include local Macintosh Users
Groups, specialized newsgroups on the Internet, websites,
listservs, and technical support provided by software and
hardware vendors.

3.3

Document What You Do

As you try to solve your computer problems, keep notes
about what you do and the outcomes of these actions.
This can be a valuable reference for you later and can be
extremely helpful if you need to talk to a technical support
representative. Knowing exactly what was done and the
results (including any error messages) can make problem
solving much easier. In addition, if you have problems at
a later time, you may be able to spot a pattern that would
otherwise elude you.

Recovering Data from Damaged Drives

Files are more likely to be recoverable by TechTool Pro’s
data recovery routines if its automatic Protection features
have been enabled for your volumes. Congure these op­tions within the TechTool Protection pane of the
System Preferences.

Repairing Drive Problems

You probably already understand how critical the proper
operation of your hard drive is for your computer. It con­tains the data that allows the computer to boot, as well as
the programs you use and the les you’ve created. Tech­Tool Pro includes powerful diagnostic and repair routines
to keep your drives functioning correctly.

drive” and “volume” are almost interchangeable. Although
a hard disk can contain more than one volume (multiple
partitions), a volume cannot contain more than one hard
drive. (This is not entirely true. Some forms of RAID disk
setups can make many drives appear as one volume).
DVDs and CDs may also appear as one or more volumes.

When you view the contents of a volume in the Finder,
you’re not typically seeing everything on the volume.
Every volume contains many invisible les and data les.
This allows the computer to access the data on that par­ticular volume. Items such as the le catalog or directory,
the extents B-tree, and a host of other objects, dictate
how data is stored on a particular device (see the Glos­sary section of this manual for denitions of these terms).
These items comprise the “volume structures” of a volume.
In most cases, when a drive fails and then is repaired by a
utility such as TechTool Pro, it is not the physical drive itself
that is being repaired. It is the software that makes up the
volume structures. If there is a problem with the structure
of a volume, it can prevent the computer from being able
to boot or prevent you from having access to your data.
If there is an actual problem with the physical drive, like
an electrical or mechanical problem, software will not be
able to correct the problem. TechTool Pro is unique in that
it can check the mechanical and electronic aspects of a
drive, as well as repair the volume structures.

In most cases, this manual will refer to a drive as a “vol­ume.” A volume is simply a unit of storage that appears
to the computer as one “logical device.” The terms “hard

3.4

To check for disk problems, run the Surface Scan test, the
SMART check (if applicable), and the Volume Structures
test. These tests do a thorough check of the drive hard-

ware and should locate any problems within a volume’s
directories. If TechTool Pro nds problems, it will let you
know and provide advice on how to proceed. It would
be wise at this point to stop and make a backup of your
important les if necessary. If the problem was a volume
structure problem, you could attempt to repair it using the
Volume Rebuild tool in TechTool Pro. If it appears that a re­pair is possible, TechTool Pro will provide feedback about
the changes it proposes to make. If you’re satised that
the proposed repairs appear reasonable, then go ahead
and accept them.

After a successful repair the volume will be in good shape.
If the volume structures cannot be repaired, you should
reinitialize the volume and restore your data.

Optimization

In order to gain maximum performance from a hard drive
volume, it is a good idea to defragment/optimize it occa­sionally. This can be particularly important when working
with multimedia les where maximum data throughput is
critical. If a multimedia le is fragmented, then it may not
be able to be read fast enough from the drive for smooth
playback. This can lead to dropped video frames or to
gaps in audio playback.

Before optimizing, always check the volume structures of
the volume (and repair if necessary). The volume structure
tests are found in the Tests section of TechTool Pro. Once
the volume passes the volume structure tests it should be
safe to optimize it.

Testing Components

For your computer to operate correctly its components
must be working properly. TechTool Pro includes a
number of tests that will exercise many of the chips and
other critical components of your system and let you
know if any problems are found. You can easily check your
computer’s memory, cache, processor, video memory, and
much more. Many of these tests are run when TechTool
Pro launches. Others, such as the Memory Test, can be
performed from within the Tests area of the program.

Optimization rearranges the data on the volume so that
the data for each le resides sequentially on a contiguous
area of the drive and the free space is consolidated. Opti­mization is available in the Tools section of TechTool Pro.

3.5

4.1

Using TechTool Pro

Launching TechTool Pro

TechTool Pro will be installed in the Applications folder on
your startup volume by default. Do not move the TechTool
Pro application out of the Applications folder. To launch
TechTool Pro simply double-click on the TechTool Pro pro­gram icon in the Applications folder.

The program Installer also adds a TechTool Pro icon to the
dock. An alternative method of launching the program is
to click on the program icon on the dock.

4.2

Full Disk Access

In macOS 10.14 and later, Apple has introduced several
new Privacy categories found in the Security & Privacy
preference pane in System Preferences. These new cat­egories provide for additional security for your Mac and
prevent unauthorized software from gaining access to
sensitive areas of your computer. Applications like Tech­Tool Pro require Full Disk Access to perform operations like
volume cloning and disk maintenance, such as volume
testing and repair.

On Macs running 10.14 or later, TechTool Pro will prompt
you to grant Full Disk Access when the application is
launched if access has not already been granted. If you
wish to grant access other than when the application is
launched, you may choose Grant Full Disk Access... from
the TechTool Pro menu.

When granting Full Disk Access, a sheet will drop down
containing instructions for granting access. The rst step
is contained within a button, which is clicked to begin the
process of granting full disk access.

1. Click here to open the Security & Privacy system
preference

2. Click on the padlock icon in the lower left corner of
the Security & Privacy sytem preference and enter
your administrator name and password to make
changes.

3. Drag the TechTool Pro application icon below into the
Full Disk Access table.

4. Choose ‘Later’ when asked to quit TechTool Pro. Quit­ting TechTool Pro is not necessary.

5. Close the Security & Privacy system preference win­dow.

Sample Diagnostics Section

After launching TechTool Pro you will see the TechTool Pro
Application window.

TechTool Pro does a check of a variety of system compo-

4.3

nents automatically on launch. The results of these tests
are displayed in the gauges on the stage.

To do a more thorough check of additional components,
including your computer’s hard drives, as well as any other
hard drive connected to your computer, select Check
Computer from the Tests category and then click the
Check Computer button on the right. This single mouse
click initiates a suite of tests that run automatically, one
after the other. If problems are found, the Report will pro­vide information on how to proceed. Information about
more in-depth testing and additional features of TechTool
Pro is available in the following sections of this manual.

4.4

5.1

Tests

TechTool Pro includes options to test various hardware
components, drives, and other aspects of your computer
system. These include tests that run automatically at
program launch as well as tests that you select to run
from within the Tests category. These testing options are
covered below.

Automatic Tests

When you launch TechTool Pro, a group of ve hardware
tests run automatically. On completion, the test results are
displayed on the gauges in the stage area at the top of
the screen.

These tests can also be run and the gauges displayed after
completion of manual testing by clicking the

refresh button on the lower right side of the

stage or by pressing the return or enter key. Details of the
ve tests follow.

USB

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It is a protocol for con­necting devices to a computer. The rst iteration of USB can
operate at 1.5 Mbps or 12 Mbps. The USB 2.0 standard has a
raw data rate at 480 Mbps, and the latest USB 3.0 standard a
rate of 5 Gbps. USB is present on all recent Macintosh models.
In addition, USB ports may be added via PCI cards or as USB
hubs attached to existing ports. Typical USB devices include
keyboards, mice, joysticks, game pads, and other low-band­width, low-cost devices. Unlike FireWire, USB controls periph­eral devices in a master/slave relationship. USB oers several
benets such as low cost, expandability, auto-conguration,
hot-plugging and outstanding performance. It also provides
power to the bus, enabling many peripherals to operate
without the added need for an AC power adapter.

TechTool Pro checks the built-in USB bus in your computer
to ensure that it is functioning. If the test passes, the speed
of the USB interface is displayed in the USB gauge. If the test
fails or if no USB interface is recognized, this will be indicated
on the gauge. TechTool Pro cannot test the functioning of the
USB ports since this would require additional hardware.

Cache

Cache is fast RAM (random-access memory) that is used to
store data for CPU operations. Cache speeds up process­ing by storing frequently used instructions. Since the
cache is built into the CPU itself, it can be accessed at a
faster speed than memory attached to the standard sys-

5.2

tem bus. A good analogy to the cache would be a bulletin
board that holds frequently used phone numbers on Post­It™ notes. The numbers would be available on the board
for quick reference. That way you would not need to take
the time to look them up in the telephone book (analo­gous to main memory) every time they were needed.

TechTool Pro checks for the presence of cache and, if
found, tests it and displays its speed on the Cache gauge.
If the cache tests fail or if no cache is detected, this will be
indicated on the gauge.

lions of instructions per second. Although each individual
instruction is very simple, the fact that so many calcula­tions are done so quickly allows your computer to perform
extremely complex tasks within a reasonable amount
of time.

TechTool Pro veries the operation of your CPU chip(s)
with both machine-level native instruction tests and more
complex system-level data operations. When the Proces­sor tests complete, the processor speed is displayed on
the Processor gauge.

Processor

Every computer contains one or more CPUs (Central
Processing Units). These are the “brains” of your computer.
If more than one processor is present, they may reside on
individual chips (such as in a dual processor G5), may exist
as multiple cores on one chip (such as in an Intel Core 2
Duo iMac), or both (such as in a Dual Quad Core Mac Pro).
The CPU is the main component that dictates a machine’s
overall speed of operation. A slower CPU with an ecient
instruction set may actually provide better performance
than a faster CPU with a less ecient design.

Although the CPU is the master component in a computer,
its function is easily understood. It takes data supplied by
other components, moves it, does simple logical opera­tions or math operations, and outputs the results. The
magic lies in the vast amount of data processing it can do
in a very short amount of time. Your CPU processes mil-

5.3

Network

All MacoOS capable computers include Ethernet network­ing capability. The ability to print, communicate with other
computers in your local network, and connect to internet
services is dependent on proper conguration and opera­tion of the networking components.

Ethernet is the most widely installed local area network
(LAN) technology. Ethernet was originally developed by
Xerox and is specied in the IEEE 802.3 standard. An Ether­net LAN may be hard wired using a variety of cable types
or it may be wireless. The most common Ethernet systems
use 10Base-T cabling and provide transmissions speeds
of up to 10 Mbps. Fast Ethernet or 100Base-T provides
speeds of up to 100 Mbps, Gigabit Ethernet supports up to
1000 Mbps, and 10-Gigabit Ethernet goes all the way to 10
billion bits per second.

AirPort is Apple’s name for the IEEE 802.11 wireless net-

working standard. The original AirPort implementation re­leased in 1999 is based on the IEEE specication 802.11b.
It transmits data at a maximum speed of 11 Mbps and
has a typical range of 100 feet. The newer AirPort Extreme
released in 2003 is based on the 802.11g specication. It
has a maximum speed of 54 Mbps and range of 50 feet at
full speed. The newest AirPort devices are based on the

802.11n protocol which increases performance even fur­ther to a maximum of 600 Mbps. Both AirPort and AirPort
Extreme transmit on one of 11 channels in the

2.4 GHz band.

The Network test performs the following functions on the
built-in network interface:

ware itself. This requires specialized test equipment. If the
problem appears to be faulty hardware you will probably
need to contact a qualied technician.

Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt, also known as LightPeak, is a high-speed
hardware interface developed through a partnership
between Apple and Intel. It utilizes the Mini Display Port
connector to connect to peripherals and displays at high
speeds. The rst generation operated at up to 10 GB/s, and
was rst introduced on MacBook Pros released in February

2011. Newer Macs come equipped with Thunderbolt 2,

which utilizes speeds up to 20 GB/s.

• Network Check 1—This test checks the availability of the
network services for the system.

• Network Check 2—This test checks whether a network host
name is reachable using the current network conguration.

NOTE It is necessary to have at least one other net­work device attached (printer, router, or another comput­er) to use these tests since it is necessary to query another
device to determine communication abilities.

When the tests complete, the speed of the network
interface is displayed on the Network gauge. For multiple
network interfaces, the fastest one is displayed. If the test
fails or if no network interface is detected, this will be
displayed as well.

Note that TechTool Pro cannot test the networking hard-

5.4

Thunderbolt can be used to connect to hard drives and
other multimedia devices. A display can be connected via
Mini Display Port at the end of a Thunderbolt chain.

TechTool Pro checks the built-in Thunderbolt bus in your
computer to ensure that it is functioning. The Thunderbolt
ports themselves are not checked.

If Thunderbolt is present and the tests pass, the speed
of the Thunderbolt interface is displayed in place of the
FireWire gauge. If no interface is detected, the FireWire
test will run instead. A failure will be indicated on the
gauge.

FireWire

FireWire is a cross-platform implementation of the high­speed serial data bus dened by IEEE Standard 1394.
FireWire was conceived by Apple and then developed
within the IEEE 1394 Working Group. It moves larger
amounts of data between computers and peripheral
devices than previous data busses. It features simpli­ed cabling, hot swapping, and transfer speeds of up to
400 Mbps. The newer IEEE 1394b specication, termed
FireWire 800 by Apple, handles data rates of 800 Mbps.

FireWire is integrated into many Macintosh models prior
to those equipped with Thunderbolt. Most of these
machines include FireWire ports that operate at up to 800
Mbps, although earlier models may use the 400 Mbps
interface. FireWire ports may also be added via PCI cards
or FireWire hubs attached to existing ports.

FireWire is intended for use with multimedia peripher­als such as digital video cameras and other high-speed
devices such as hard disk drives and scanners.

TechTool Pro checks the built-in FireWire bus in your
computer to ensure that it is functioning. Note that the
program itself cannot check the FireWire ports to verify
that data is being sent and received properly. This would
require special loopback hardware not normally available.

the gauge.

Manual Testing

To run any of TechTool Pro’s manual tests, click the Tests
tab if necessary to display the Test Selection window.
Select a test from the Test Selection list and congure it as
desired in the Test Conguration window to the right.
Then click the Run button in the Conguration window to
add the test to the test queue. An individual test can be
stopped as it is running by pressing the Stop button

on the lower right of the test icon in the queue or

by pressing Command-period. All queued tests can be
stopped by pressing the large Stop button on the lower
right side of the stage or by pressing Command-Option­period. As a test runs, progress information is displayed on
the stage. Upon completion of a test or group of tests, the
results are displayed in the Job Results From Last Run
window on the left side of the stage. Selecting a test from
this list displays detailed test results on the right side of
the stage. All test results are also stored in the TechTool
Pro Report. The report can be viewed by selecting the
Reports category. Details about the individual tests follow.

If the tests pass, the speed of the FireWire interface is
displayed in the FireWire gauge. If the test fails or if no
FireWire interface is detected, this will be indicated on

5.5

Check Computer

In addition to the hardware checks that are done auto­matically at program launch, you can use Check Computer
to easily run a more intensive group of tests to check
other components of your computer, including drive and
volume tests. You might consider using Check Computer
once or twice a month as part of a program of preventive
maintenance for your computer. Even though problems
with your computer may not be apparent, they could
be developing in the background. It is best to nd and
correct them at the rst opportunity, before they become
so severe that you lose data and/or they may no longer
be correctable. All that is required to do a comprehensive
suite of tests with TechTool Pro is one click of the mouse.

Choose Check Computer from the Tests category to bring
up the Check Computer Conguration screen.

The Conguration screen displays an image of your com­puter with the computer model and date of manufacturer
listed below (this information may not be available if the
computer’s logic board has been replaced). An icon for
each hard drive attached to the computer appears to the
right of the computer graphic. Hover the cursor over a
drive icon to reveal a tooltip displaying the drive identier,
connection type, and volumes on the drive.

Click the Check Computer button to queue up and run all
tests on the computer and all available volumes/drives.
Feedback about the tests is displayed on the stage as the
tests are run. Progress and result information are
listed there.

At the conclusion of the tests, all results are saved to the
Report. Any test failures are listed there, along with advice
on how to proceed.

5.6

The following tests are run by Check Computer.

• Memory Test—checks the computer’s available RAM.

• Surface Scan—checks attached available hard drives for
physical bad blocks.

• SMART Check—checks the built-in hard drive
SMART parameters.

• Volume Structures—checks all attached available Macin­tosh formatted volumes for directory corruption. Note
that this test cannot be performed on the current startup
volume, since it requires unmounting the volume. Boot the
computer and run the test from another location (such as
an eDrive) to test the normal startup volume.

• Video Memory—checks the video RAM.

• File Structures—checks for specic le type corruption.

For further details about a test, refer to the specic test’s
description later in this manual.

Check Computer Conguration

The Conguration button allows the user to congure
which tests run during the Check Computer suite. Click­ing Conguration opens a preferences window with a list
starting with general Check Computer settings, followed
by specic settings for the drive and volume tests. With
Check Computer selected, each test can be activated or
deactivated as a whole.

Selecting any of the tests in the left column allows the
selection of which drives or volumes are tested by a given
test. Unchecking the box next to a drive removes it from
the test queue. Surface Scan, SMART Check and Partition
Map will list available devices, while Volume Structures
and File Structures will list available volumes.

Clicking Reset Defaults will restore default settings: all
tests will run and all eligible drives will be tested when
Check Computer is run.

NOTE Any tests that are not available for a given Mac

will be disabled in the tests list.

5.7

NOTE The startup volume will display as disabled.
Starting up from an eDrive or Protogo device will allow
testing the usual startup volume.

Memory Test

Random Access Memory (RAM) is one of the most impor­tant components in your computer. Because almost every
operation done on a computer passes through RAM, its
accuracy is critical to the proper operation of your com­puter. It is also one of the components most susceptible

to damage and failure. This is because RAM upgrades
are common and hence RAM is handled more than most
other components. RAM is extremely susceptible to dam­age from static electricity and handling it can expose it
to this hazard. Also, like any chip, RAM is susceptible to
overheating and thermal uctuations.

Most other failures on your computer are more obvious
than a RAM failure. For example, if your hard drive begins
to malfunction, you will probably start to see read and
write errors appear via dialogs displaying messages like,
“Could not write le because of a disk error.” However,
RAM errors are much less obvious since software uses
dierent areas of RAM at dierent times. RAM problems
usually manifest as unexplained and inconsistent crashes.
There is no clear error message indicating a RAM failure.

RAM is very susceptible to damage. Static, heat and even
normal air moisture can damage the RAM used to store
your Mac’s workspace. It is possible that damaged RAM
will prevent your Mac from booting. However, the most
common symptom of bad RAM is much more subtle. Usu­ally, the symptom will be an inexplicable system freeze
that is dicult to reproduce consistently. Conventional
troubleshooting techniques won’t isolate the problem. In
fact, standard techniques will prove to be more frustrat­ing since the problem appears only intermittently, leading
you to believe you’ve solved it only to discover later that
the problem still exists and manifests somewhere else.

Unlike physically damaged storage areas on your hard

5.8

drive that can be remapped by software so that they are
no longer used, faulty RAM bits cannot be mapped out
of use. While a technician with adequate equipment and
replacement components can repair a RAM module, the
cost to do this would greatly outweigh the cost to replace
the entire module.

TechTool Pro oers one of the most comprehensive
MacoOS software-based memory testers available for Ma­cintosh. A wide variety of RAM tests allow you to check the
available memory in your Macintosh computer. TechTool
Pro uses special read/write test patterns designed to exer­cise the RAM in such a way as to pinpoint specic types of
RAM failures. TechTool Pro performs the following tests:

(alternatively). The nal pass may travel either direction,
verifying that the last write was successful. This test detects
address faults, coupling faults, stuck-at faults, stuck-open
faults, and transition faults.

• Random Values—This test rst writes a series of random
numbers into memory. Then, on the second pass, the initial
pattern is veried. Testing with random values can help lo­cate intermittent problems. This test is also helpful in check­ing for neighborhood pattern sensitivity. Over multiple runs,
it can help identify temperature sensitivity.

• Solid Bits—This test writes a solid bit pattern into memory,
for example all 1’s. The initial pattern is checked and then
complemented - switched to all 0’s - and checked again. This
checks that all addresses are both readable and writable.

• Stuck Address—On the rst pass, this test writes the address
of each memory cell to that cell itself. On the second pass,
the address is read and veried to ensure address
space uniqueness.

• Checkerboard—This test makes four passes. The rst writes
a pattern (dierent for each run). The second pass read/
veries the pattern and writes the inverse of the original
pattern. The third round travels downward back through
memory as it reads/veries the inverse and then writes the
original pattern. Finally, the fourth round veries the
original pattern. This checks for adjacent bit sensitivity - that
addresses other than the one being modied are aected.

• Extended March C—This test uses a complex algorithm
consisting of six passes through memory. It moves upwards
through memory during the rst three passes, writing and
reading/verifying either zeroes or ones. The next two passes
move downward, reading/writing ones and zeros again

5.9

Choose Memory Test in the Tests category to display the
Memory Test Conguration screen.

Click the Run Memory Test to add the test to the test
queue.

As the tests run, a graphic of the memory conguration
for your computer is displayed on the stage, including
how the slots are populated and the type and size of any

memory installed. In particular, the following information
is shown:

• Slot identier and whether or not a module is installed.

• Module size at that location (if present).

• Type of module at that location (if present).

• Module model at that location (if present).

The individual memory test that is running, amount of
memory being tested, and the progress of testing is
shown in the upper left area of the stage.

If you wish to stop the test, click the cancel button on the
memory test icon in the queue.

NOTE The Memory Test tests available RAM. For best
results be sure to quit currently running processes. Tech­Tool Pro will reclaim the maximum memory not reserved
by other processes.

When the tests complete, the results will be displayed in
the Memory Results area on the right side of the stage

(along with a graphical representation of the results) and
in the Job Results From Last Run pane on the left.

Upon completion of testing, the test results are saved to
the Report.

SPD Data

The Memory Test includes the ability to display ancillary
information about the memory (RAM) installed in your
Mac. Clicking the SPD Data... button will display a table
with information gathered directly from the hardware it­self. SPD, better known as Serial Presence Detect, is a stan­dard used by memory manufacturers to store information
about a memory module. TechTool Pro can read this data,
when available, and display it in table form.

Viewing the SPD information can be useful in identify­ing mismatched RAM, as well as verifying that the RAM
installed in your computer matches the specications for
your particular Mac. Viewing SPD data may also help iden­tify the problematic DIMM if the test discovers memory

5.10

errors.

NOTE Macs with soldered memory chips don’t have a
dedicated SPD chip. As a result, the information displayed
will be more limited.

a few bad blocks when they are manufactured. These are
“mapped-out” by the manufacturer at the factory or when
a drive is reinitialized using the “zero all data” option. Map­ping out bad blocks stores their location in a “bad block
table.” Once a bad block is mapped out, data is no longer
written to that defective area of the disk. Occasionally a
good block will go bad. If this occurs in a block storing a
le, the le may be corrupted.

The Surface Scan test in TechTool Pro scans your physi­cal drives for bad blocks and reports if any are found. In
addition, if a le resides in the area of a bad block, the
program will let you know the le name. The Surface Scan
test reads data from every block on the drive to check the
integrity of the drive surface.

Choose Surface Scan from the Tests category to display
the Surface Scan Conguration screen.

Surface Scan

TechTool Pro can do a Surface Scan test of your hard drives
to check them for bad blocks. Bad blocks are areas of
media that cannot store data reliably. All hard disks have

5.11

All recognized hard drives are displayed on the left side of
the conguration screen. Mouse over a drive icon for vol­ume information. Select the hard drive or volume (particu­lar partition on the hard drive) you wish to test from the
list and click the Run Surface Scan button to add the test

to the queue. To start the Surface Scan from a specied
starting block, click the Starting Block... button. A prompt

The sheet that appears will allow the selection of the start­ing location for the Surface Scan.

As the test runs, the program scrolls live data being read
from the drive across the disk drive image displayed on
the center of the stage.

NOTE The Surface Scan test may take several hours
to complete on large hard drives since it must read and
check data from every block on the drive.

NOTE Starting in macOS 10.13, Surface Scan is not
available on the physical disk containing the startup
volume. A TechTool Protogo device or eDrive on a separate
physical disk can be used to run Surface Scan on these
disks.

The pane on the left side of the stage displays information
about the drive and test progress. This includes:

• Device description

• Device serial number (if available)

• Number of blocks on the device

• Number of blocks processed

• Elapsed time

• Estimated time to completion

If bad blocks are found, the pane on the right side of the
stage displays the block number and, if a le resides in
that area, the le name. This information will also be avail­able in the Report once the test completes.

SATA is the most common types of hard drive. These are
typically pre-installed in new Macintosh computers and
are generally used in USB and Thunderbolt enclosures.
TechTool Pro should not normally report bad blocks for
these types of drives. The drive controller in them auto­matically tries to map out bad blocks as they are encoun­tered. It will do this unless either the bad block is in a
critical area that cannot be mapped out at the moment
or the bad block table is full. If this occurs, TechTool Pro

5.12

will report a bad block and you will ultimately need to
do a low level reinitialization of the drive. When the drive
is reinitialized, the entire platter is accessible so that bad
blocks can be mapped out if possible no matter where
they occur.

WARNING Reinitializing a drive erases all data on
the drive. If possible, be sure to backup your data before
reinitializing.

You can use Apple’s Disk Utility to reinitialize your drive.
Be sure to choose the Security Option to “zero out data.”
Choosing this option will map out bad blocks, if possible,
during the reinitialization. This may take several hours
(depending on the size of your drive). If the reinitializa­tion is successful, the drive should be ne at that point.
We suggest, however, that you do a Surface Scan a few
times in the next month or two just to be sure no new bad
blocks are developing. If they are, then the drive is prob­ably failing and you should consider replacing it. If a low
level reinitialization fails, this indicates the drive is faulty
and needs to be replaced.

SMART Check

SMART stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting

Technology. This technology was developed through the
eorts of the SMART Working Group (SWG), a consortium
of major hard disk manufacturers, to increase the reliabil­ity of hard drives. SMART routines are now incorporated
into most new hard disk and solid state drives. Although
the SMART specication was developed by the SWG, each
drive manufacturer uses their own proprietary routines in
their drives. The routines monitor important drive parame­ters as a drive operates and stores the results in the drive’s
SMART registry. An examination and analysis of these
parameters can aid in the prediction of drive failure. This
could provide the warning you need to back up your data
and repair or replace a drive before it fails. It is estimated
that SMART monitoring can predict 70% of drive hardware
failures before they occur.

SMART technology monitors a drive as it is used and looks
for unusual behavior. In rotational drives, the routines
keep track of disk performance, bad sectors, calibration,
CRC (data) errors, disk spin-up time, distance between the
head and the disk, temperature, features of the media,
heads, motor and servomechanism. For example, motor
or bearing failure can be predicted by an increase in the
drive spin-up time and the number of retries required
to spin-up the drive. Excessive use of error correction
routines could indicate a broken drive head or contamina­tion on the head. Spotting these types of errors early may
prevent future catastrophe.

SMART Technology continues to be utilized for Solid State
Drives (SSDs). Because SMART originated on rotational

5.13

drives, some attributes (such as spin-up count) are unused
or set to static values, while others have been added to
keep track of potential failures specic to solid state tech­nology, such as wear leveling.

Choose SMART Check from the Tests category to display
the SMART Check Conguration screen.

Select the drive you wish to test from the drive list on the
left. Click the Run SMART Check button to add the test to
the queue. As the test runs, a pane on the left side of the
stage displays the name of the device being tested, as well
as any volumes residing on the device. A pane on the right
displays a bar graph showing the results for each
SMART parameter.

The graph lists each parameter identier (if available from
the specic drive manufacturer) followed by the param­eter number (in parentheses). A green bar indicates that
the parameter is well above the failure threshold. As it
approaches the threshold, it turns yellow. When the pa­rameter falls below the failure threshold, it will be shown
in red. Upon completion of the test, the results are saved
to the Report.

SMART check will report either warning or failed results. A
failed result means that the drive will fail at any time and
should be replaced immediately. In a failed state, other
system and SMART utilities will always agree, though the
wording may vary between utilities. If the overall result
is failing, one or more sliders for SMART attributes will
indicate failure as well. A warning result means that one or
more of the SMART attributes for a given drive are above
acceptable parameters, and the result can change from
failing to failed at any time. In this state, system utilities
may still report a passing result, but that result is almost
always temporary and will change to a failed result within
a short period of time

If SMART Check reports failed or warning and you contin­ue to use it, be sure to keep good backups of the data on
the drive. It is possible the drive will fail in the near future.
If the failure happens within the drive’s warranty period,
you might want to consider contacting the drive manufac­turer. They will typically replace the drive if it fails SMART.

5.14

NVMe Support

The solid state drives (SSDs) found in MacBooks released
in 2015 and later as well as MacBook Pros and iMacs
released in 2016 and later, utilize a new connection type:
NVMe (Nonvolatile Memory Express). NVMe drives do not
utilize the same SMART paradigm utilized in drives that
use SATA connections. They do still track their SMART
health internally, but present that data dierently. Tech­Tool Pro presents the SMART data from these drives using
a dierent data format. The overall health will still report
Passed, Warning, or Failed, base in part on the following
attributes:

Available Spare Space Below Threshold: This ag is
set to yes if the Available Spare attribute falls below the
Available Spare Threshold. This indicates that the drive is
failing, and the overall health will be set to “failing.”

Over Temperature Threshold: This ag is set to yes if
the drive’s temperature exceeds the maximum set by the
vendor. This indicates that the drive could be damaged
and will set the overall health to “warning.”

Media in Read-Only Mode: This ag is set to yes when
the device can no longer be written to. This will set the
overall drive health to “failing.”

Volatile Memory Backup Device Failure: This ag is set
to yes if the volatile memory backup device has failed.
However, not all NVMe devices utilize a volatile memory
backup device. Overall health will be set to “warning.”

NVM Subsystem Reliability Degraded: This ag is set
to yes when the device reliability has been compromised.
This may be due to signicant media errors, an internal
error, the media being placed in read only mode, or a
volatile memory backup device failing. Overall health will
be set to “failing.”

5.15

NOTE SMART is only available for SATA or NVMe
drives, and Thunderbolt drives typically will pass SMART
data. FireWire and USB drive seldom pass the SMART
calls necessary to perform the SMART test routines even
though the drive in the housing supports SMART. If an
extension is installed that allows USB or FireWire drives to

pass their SMART data, they will be listed as available to
test in the SMART Check conguration.

Partition Map

In addition to volume structures for each volume of a
drive, the volume header also contains information about
the partitions of the drive, called the partition map, along
with a small invisible partition, the EFI partition, which
stores certain startup variables. The partition map por­tion of a drive’s header includes information about where
the partitions are stored on that drive, along with space
reserved for the drive’s boot loaders. The partition map
region also contains the EFI partition, though it is not
technically part of the partition map itself. The test also
veries Core Storage physical volumes if any Core Stor­age volumes are present. Errors in the partition map can
prevent a drive from mounting or prevent access to data
on a particular partition.

The Partition Map test will scan the partition map, along
with the EFI partition, and any Core Storage partitions
present.

The test will report success or failure upon completion. If
any repairs are necessary, they can be made with the Parti­tion Repair tool.

Select Partition Map from the Tests selection to display
the Partition Map conguration screen. Select the drive to
be tested and click Run Partition Map to add it to the test
queue.

5.16

Volume Structures

There are a number of invisible les, settings, and parame­ters that the Macintosh le system uses to locate les, free
disk space, and for other maintenance and management
routines on Macintosh volumes. These are known col­lectively as the “volume structures.” The Catalog and Disk
Directory are part of the volume structures. Among other
things, the volume structures keep track of the folders
and folder hierarchy on a volume, what les are stored on
a volume, and where all the individual pieces that make
up those les are located. Individual les may actually be
stored in many pieces scattered about across the surface
of a disk. Damage to a volume’s critical data structures can
result in lost or damaged les and may even necessitate a
complete reinitialization of the volume (which will
erase it).

Volume structure damage may manifest in a number of
ways. It can appear as missing les or folders. It can show
up as le corruption, so that you receive an error when
trying to open a le or launch a program. It can lead to
problems when trying to copy a le from one location to
another or when trying to empty the trash. In the worst
case it may make a volume unrecognizable by the system.
Generally, volume structure problems get worse over time.

It is best to catch them early when chances of recovery
and repair will be greatest. For this reason it is a good
idea to check the volume structures regularly (perhaps
monthly) as part of a program of regular preventive main­tenance.

TechTool Pro can scan your volumes for problems related
to the numerous structures that are necessary for the
volumes to function properly.

TechTool Pro will analyze and can often repair problems in
the following attributes of a HFS volume:

• Boot Blocks—The boot blocks are created when a volume is
blessed. If they are corrupted, you may not be able to boot
the computer from the volume.

• Master Directory Block—This block of data is created when
the volume is created and contains important data about
the rest of the volume. It is present on all HFS volumes and
is similar to the HFS+ Volume Header. Because most HFS+
volumes contain an HFS wrapper, they will contain a Master
Directory Block.

• Volume Header—This block of data is created when an
HFS+ volume is created and contains important data about
the rest of the volume such as its name, number of les and
folders, and the amount of free space available on
the volume.

• Allocation File (Bitmap)—This le acts as the main directory.
It keeps track of the blocks that are allocated for use and the
blocks that are free.

• Extents File (B-Tree)—This le contains the extent data for
the entire volume. Extents are the separate pieces that make

5.17

up a discontiguous le.

• Catalog File (B-Tree)—This le keeps track of all the les and
folders on the volume.

• Attributes File—This le tracks all of the attributes of each le
and folder on a volume. Some attributes include whether the
le is locked and the last time the volume was backed up.

• HFS Wrapper—The parameters within this le contain the
information used by the computer ROM to determine what
program will boot the computer. In almost every case, this

will be congured to point to the System.

NOTE For a detailed explanation of the volume struc­tures see the Macintosh File Systems section later in the
manual.

TechTool Pro can also analyze and repair problems on
volumes formatted with Apple’s new APFS le system,
and can be run on this type of volume without starting up
from an eDrive or other secondary disk. When full docu­mentation becomes available, greater documentation will
be provided here.

NOTE To test a volume while it is the active startup
volume, the le system must be ‘frozen’ for testing. During
this time, applications will become unresponsive. This is
normal, and applications will become responsive again
once the test has completed.

In addition, volumes formatted MS-DOS (FAT32) and ExFAT
can be veried and repaired. These volume formats are

commonly found as the default for ‘thumb’ ash drives, as
well as memory cards used in cameras and other media
devices.

Select Volume Structures in the Tests category to display
the Volume Structures Conguration screen.

Select the volume you wish to test and click the Run Vol­ume Structures button to add the test to the queue.

NOTE In order to test the volume structures of a
volume, it must be unmounted. This means that you can­not do a volume structure check of the current startup
volume. To do this, you must reboot the computer and run
TechTool Pro from another volume, such as from an eDrive.

NOTE TechTool Pro may be able to recognize and test
volumes that are damaged and do not mount normally on
the desktop.

As the test runs, feedback is provided on the stage.

5.18

The progress of testing and elapsed time is displayed in
the Volume Structures pane on the left side of the stage.
The particular area of the volume structures being exam­ined is shown on the right side of the stage in the Valida­tion Progress pane. When an individual test completes, the
indicator to the right of the test will turn green if it passed
or red if it failed. As the tests run, live data being read from
the volume is scrolled across the drive displayed in the
center of the stage.

If problems are found on a volume during testing, a failure
message appears on the stage at the completion of test­ing and is also saved in the Reports. In the case of failure,
be sure you have important data from that volume backed
up (if possible). Then, proceed by using TechTool Pro’s
Volume Rebuild tool to attempt to repair the problem. If a
volume structure problem cannot be repaired successfully,
the next step would be to reinitialize the volume (using
Apple’s Disk Utility) and restore the data.

Video Memory

VRAM (Video RAM) is memory that holds the image that is
displayed on your computer’s screen. Like the other criti­cal components of your computer video circuitry, VRAM
must always be fully functional for graphics to be correctly
displayed. Damaged VRAM can cause missing bits, screen
noise, system lock ups, or freezes.

The Video Memory tests employ the same tests that are
used in the Memory tests. For test details please refer to
the Memory Test section earlier in the manual.

Choose Video Memory in the Tests category to display the
Video Memory Conguration screen.

Click the Run Memory Test button to add the test to the
test queue. As the test runs, the computer’s screen will dis­play strange patterns and/or colors. This is normal. When

5.19

the test completes, the results will appear on the stage
in the Job Results From Last Run and the Video Memory
Results panes.

The Video Memory test results are also saved to
the Reports.

NOTE TechTool Pro tests the video memory for the
main display. To check a second display you will need to
designate it as the main monitor before testing. This is
done via the Displays pane in the System Preferences.

Fans Test

Most Macintosh models have a selection of fans that are
used to regulate the temperature of various components.
Components that typically have fan cooling include
processors and hard drives. Dierent Mac models use

assorted fan layouts, using as many as ve fans. For Macs
without fans, the Fans Test won’t display in the Tests Selec­tion.

TechTool Pro’s fan test modulates the speed of any avail­able fans from their current speed upward and then back
to the base speed to verify that your Mac can utilize its
fans to increase cooling if needed.

To start the Fans Test, select the Fans Test from the Tests
Category screen and click the Run Fans Test button. A
graphic will appear in the stage for each fan and an anima­tion will accompany a display of the current rotational
speed along with the minimum and maximum for the
appropriate fan. The test will conclude with a table listing
the results for each fan.

5.20

Sensors Test

Macs are equipped with a number of sensors that are
used to monitor temperatures, voltages, and currents of
various components on and attached to the motherboard.
The Sensors test gathers the current values reported by
the various sensors and compares them to a database of
known minimum and maximum values. If any of the sen­sors falls outside of the current range, a failure is reported.
In the event of a failure, it is recommended to take your
Mac to an authorized Apple repair center.

Battery Check

To start the Sensors Test, select the Sensors Test from
the Tests Category screen and click the Run Sensors Test
button. An animation will display on the Stage, and at the
conclusion of the test, a list of results will be displayed.
To get more information about a sensor category, click
the disclosure arrow next to that category. In the event
of a failure in a given category, it will automatically be
expanded to show you the individual pass and fail reports
for each sensor in that category.

5.21

Laptops and iOS devices contain batteries intended to
be used as the primary power supply. The condition of
the battery is determined by the battery’s total capacity
and how long that charge will last. The Battery Check test
will report the condition of the battery along with other
important statistics.

When the Battery Check test selection is selected, batter­ies available for testing will be displayed. Selecting the
internal battery (for laptops) or an available iOS battery
will display basic battery information, including the cur­rent charge, condition and capacity.

To register your iOS device for testing, it must be con­nected via a cable prior to launching Techtool Pro. Once

registered, it can be tested while connected via a cable
or Wi-Fi, and will persist in your devices list for testing in
subsequent launches.

For iOS batteries, a colored dot will appear next to the
device icon to indicate its status.

A green dot indicates that the device is currently

connected to the computer.

A blue dot indicates that the device is currently
connected via Wi-Fi. To test over Wi-Fi, the iOS device
must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the Mac per­forming the test.

A clear dot indicates that the device has been con­nected in the past, but is not currently connected.
When running the test, Techtool Pro will attempt to
reach a device in this state over Wi-Fi, but may not
succeed.

NOTE If prompted on the iOS device when connecting in
to the computer it may ask to “Trust” or “Don’t Trust” the com­puter. For the device to be accessible for testing, “Trust” must be

selected.

NOTE If you have trouble getting Techtool Pro to initially
recognize your iOS device, restarting both the iOS device and
computer may help.

NOTE For Wi-Fi testing to work reliably, you will need to
enable Wi-Fi syncing in iTunes. To do this, connect the iOS device
and open iTunes. After selecting the device in iTunes, scroll
down to the Options section and ensure that “Sync with this
iPhone/iPad over Wi-Fi” is checked.

Clicking Run Battery Check will check the current status of
the selected battery and display additional health infor­mation. If the Condition of the battery reads ‘Replace Soon’
or ‘Replace Now’ the battery will need to be replaced.
Batteries should be replaced by an Apple certied repair
center.

5.22

File Structures

The File Structures test in TechTool Pro checks a variety of
le types for corruption. The test checks each individual
le to ensure it conforms to the specications for that
le type. If there is anything unusual, TechTool Pro lets
you know which les may be corrupted. There is no way
for TechTool Pro to repair a corrupt le, since there is no
way to know what the correct data in the le should have
been. If corrupt les are found, you should delete them
and then restore them from a known good source.

NOTE If a le is agged during testing, this does not
necessarily mean the le is bad. It simply means that there is
something atypical about the le based on its le type. If you are
having problems with the computer or with an application that
might be eected by that le, consider temporarily removing it
or replacing it with a new copy if possible.

TechTool Pro checks the le type specications to ensure they
are valid. It cannot check actual data held within the le itself. For
example, TechTool Pro can check to be sure that a GIF graphics
le meets all specications for that le type. However, it is not
possible to tell is some of the pixels within the graphic image are
incorrect, which could cause the image to display incorrectly.

NOTE A le’s type is determined by its extension. This
is a three or four character code appended after a period
to the end of the le name. MacoOS does not normally
display the extension in the Finder (although you can
change the Finder preferences to display this information).
If a le has the wrong extension, the File Structures test
will ag it since the le type will be misidentied.

Choose File Structures in the Tests category to display the
File Structures Conguration screen.

The File Structures Conguration screen lists each rec­ognized Macintosh formatted volume attached to the
computer. Select the volume you wish to test. To the right
of the volume selection area are three check boxes. Check
the boxes to indicate the type of les you wish to check.
The choices are:

• Check Databases (e.g. plist and xml les)

• Check Image Files (e.g. bmp, gif, jpg, png and ti les)

• Check Time-base media (e.g. MPEG, MP3, PDF les)

5.23

Once you have selected the le type(s) you wish to test,
click the Run File Structures button to add the test to the
queue. As the test runs, feedback is provided on the stage.

On the left side of the stage the File Structures pane dis­plays information and test progress, including:

• Volume

• Current State

• Number of les processed

• Number of problems detected

TechTool Pro tests the following le types:

• PLIST, XML

• BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG, TIFF

• MPEG, MP3

Additional le types may be added in the future.

The full le path name of the le currently being checked
is displayed below the drive graphic. The right side of the
stage displays any problems detected and the names of
the corresponding les. Hover the cursor over a lename

to display the full path to the le. A complete list of prob­lem les is saved to the Report after the test completes.

Upon completion of testing, the stage displays the results
in the File Structures pane on the right.

The volume name, number of les validated, and number
of problems detected are listed in the File Structures pane.
Select a lename from the File Problems Detected list on
the right and press the Show File button bring up a Finder
window with the selected le selected.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that is used extensively
for connectivity, both for devices and internet connec­tions. In addition to input devices such as mice and
keyboards, Bluetooth may be used to connect to phones,
smart watches, audio devices and more. Problems with

5.24

Bluetooth can result in lost connections to devices, inter­mittent audio or dropped internet connections.

To run the Bluetooth test, select the test from the Test
Selection and click Run Bluetooth.

Network Interfaces

Macs utilize a variety of interfaces to connect to networks.
Common examples are Ethernet and Wi-Fi, but other con­nections, including FireWire and Thunderbolt can be used
to connect to a network. Network interface failures can
result in lost internet connections.

The Bluetooth test will report a passed or failed result,
along with information about the Bluetooth adapter.

NOTE Connected Bluetooth devices will briey dis-

connect during this test.

5.25

The Network Interfaces test scans each active network
adapter for connectivity and reports any problems found.
To run the Network Interfaces test, select the test from the
Tests Selection and click Run Network Interfaces.

The test will cycle through any available network connec­tions. Possible categories for network adapters include:
Ethernet, Wi-Fi, FireWire, Bluetooth, and VPN. Other adapt­ers are also tested, though they likely t under one of the
categories above. USB and Thunderbolt Ethernet adapters
would fall under the Ethernet category, for example.

As the test runs, the icon for each test will be shown, along
with network interface information for the adapter being
tested.

The Network Interfaces test will report a passed or failed
result for each network interface tested. The result for each
network interface will be reported in a table on the stage.

5.26

6.1

Tools

TechTool Pro includes a number of tools that you can
select from the Tools category. These include:

• eDrive—create, remove, mount, or restart the eDrive parti­tion

• TechTool Protogo—build a standalone diagnostic drive

• Partition Repair—repair a disk’s partition map

• Volume Rebuild—rebuild and repair a volume’s directory

• File Optimization—defragment les on a volume

• Volume Optimization—consolidate free space on a volume

• Volume Cloning—create a clone or disk image of a volume

• Data Recovery—damaged volume or Trash data recovery

• Wipe Data—securely delete data from a volume

• Internet Speed—test the speed of your internet connection

• System Maintenance—run system maintenance scripts

• Cache Rebuild—rebuild selected system caches

• Volume Journaling—enable or disable le
system journaling

• Home Permissions—attempt to rebuild home folder permis­sions

• Disk Permissions—verify or repair disk permissions (avail­able for macOS 10.12 or earlier)

• Processor check—run processor benchmarks

• Local Network— see what Bonjour enabled devices and
services are running on your local network.

• Video—monitor calibration and FaceTime Camera verica­tion

• Audio—manipulate and monitor the audio signal

Select a tool from the list to display its conguration
screen on the right.

Tools cannot be queued on the dock like Tests, since they
cannot be interrupted while they perform their individual
functions. The various tools are described in detail below.

eDrive

Use TechTool Pro’s eDrive tool to create an emergency
startup partition containing TechTool Pro on one of your
hard drives. This new partition is created WITHOUT the
need to reformat the drive on which it is created. The
eDrive contains a basic MacoOS system for your computer
as well as a copy of TechTool Pro. If you ever have trouble
with your normal startup volume, you can simply restart
your computer from the eDrive. This will give you immedi­ate access to the tools you need for recovery and repair. It
eliminates the need for a bootable DVD or ancillary hard
drive for system volume repair or maintenance. This may
be particularly attractive for use on a portable computer.
With an eDrive installed, you will not need to carry a repair
DVD with you on the road.

WARNING Always remember to backup important
data prior to performing major operations such as eDrive
creation or removal, optimizations, and volume rebuilds.

6.2

Choose eDrive from the Tools category to display the
eDrive Conguration screen.

Use the MacoOS Source Volume pop-down menu to select
the volume containing the MacoOS system components
you wish to copy to the eDrive. The MacoOS version and
build will be listed beneath the pop-down menu.

NOTE FileVault must be disabled on the MacoOS
Source Volume prior to creating an eDrive. It can be re­enabled once the eDrive has been created.

Use the eDrive Destination Volume pop-down menu to
select the volume on which you wish to create the eDrive.
You may choose the active system volume or an external
volume. The volume size and amount of free space on the
volume is displayed beneath the pop-down menu.

NOTE The eDrive partition takes up 19 GB on the
eDrive Destination Volume using macOS 10.12 and later,
otherwise the partition needs 17 GB (this may change
with future updates). Approximately 30% additional free
space is needed to add the eDrive partition. In addition,
there should be at least 10% to 15% free space remaining
on the eDrive volume after the eDrive creation for optimal
performance.

NOTE An eDrive cannot be created on a RAID volume
since the partitioning of a RAID is controlled by the par­ticular RAID software.

6.3

eDrive status information is displayed in the eld below
the two pop-down elds. If an eDrive currently exists, this
is indicated in the status information eld and the two
pop-down menus will be inactive. Only one eDrive is al­lowed at a time.

To create an eDrive, select the eDrive Destination Volume
and the MacoOS Source Volume from the appropriate
pop-down menus. Then click the Create eDrive button.

A prompt will appear allowing the selection of the eDrive
size. The maximum size allowed is determined based on
the overall available free space left on the destination
volume.

The eDrive creation process occurs in ve steps.

• Partitioning—the drive is checked and the eDrive
partition created

• Applications—included applications are copied to the
eDrive from the MacoOS Source Volume

• Users—the Users folder is copied to the eDrive from the
MacoOS Source Volume

• MacoOS Files—the necessary System and Library les are
copied to the eDrive from the MacoOS Source Volume

Progress is displayed on the stage as the eDrive partition is
created and les copied to it.

As les are copied to the eDrive partition, their names will
ash by below the animated stage graphics.

It typically takes between a half hour and an hour to create
an eDrive. However, if there is not enough contiguous free
space on the eDrive Destination Volume to hold the eDrive
partition, it may take longer since les will need to be moved
out of the way during the Partitioning. You can press the Stop
button on the lower right side of the stage to stop the eDrive

6.4

creation. This will result in incomplete eDrive which you can
remove using the Remove eDrive option discussed below.

Use the Remove eDrive button to remove an existing
eDrive and return the space used by the eDrive partition
back to the original volume.

Click the Restart eDrive button to restart the computer
from the eDrive. You can also restart from the eDrive us­ing the standard MacoOS method of choosing the eDrive
as the startup volume after restarting while holding
down the “option” key. When the computer boots from
the eDrive, TechTool Pro will automatically launch. When
you quit TechTool Pro while started from the eDrive, the
Startup Disk pane appears so that you can select the vol­ume from which to restart.

TechTool Pro automatically unmounts the eDrive from
your desktop when your computer boots from a startup
volume containing a valid installation of TechTool Pro. This
is to protect the eDrive from possible corruption during
regular computer use. We strongly suggest that you do
not alter the contents of the eDrive for this reason. Doing
so may make it unavailable during an emergency. When
the eDrive is unmounted, it will not appear as a startup
choice in the Startup Disk pane of the System Preferences.
You can click the Mount eDrive button if you wish to
mount the eDrive volume on the desktop.

WARNING Do not use your computer for regular op-

erations while booted from the eDrive. Use it for emergen-

cy recovery and repair only. The eDrive contains a minimal
MacoOS system. Programs other than TechTool Pro may
not function as expected and this could cause problems
and possible data loss when using other applications.

NOTE The version of macOS on an eDrive should not
be updated while the eDrive is the current start up disk. To
make sure the version of macOS is up to date, remove the
eDrive and create a new one after applying any operating
system updates to the source volume.

TechTool Protogo section of this manual.

TechTool Protogo

TechTool Protogo can create a bootable drive that con­tains TechTool Pro as well as Disk Utility and several other
utilities. If you use a portable device, you can carry it with
you and have it readily available as needed. The device
you create can also be updated and additional software
can be added to it. You can think of it as the ultimate Ma­cintosh toolbox.

To open the Protogo window, click Open TechTool Pro­togo, or choose TechTool Protogo from the Mode menu.
For more information on using TechTool Protogo, see the

6.5

Partition Repair

The partition map of a volume keeps track of where
the partitions reside on the hard drive. Aside from any
volumes represented on your Desktop, these partitions
include the EFI partition, which is important to the Mac’s
startup process, and information about any Core Storage
drives installed on your Mac. If the partition map is dam­aged, the system can lose access to one or more parti­tion on the drive, which can result in data loss or prevent
startup.

Partition Repair attempts to correct any errors in the
partition map, restoring access to all partitions. It will also
attempt to repair errors found in the EFI System Partition,
Core Storage Physical Volume partitions, and space provi­sioned for boot loaders.

To use Partition Repair, select it from the Tools Selec­tion list. Select the drive to repair, and click Run Partition
Repair.

Partition Repair will rst double-check the drive for errors,
and then proceed with repairs, if required.

NOTE In some cases, the only possible repair will be

to reformat the drive. If this is the case, a warning dialogue
will be displayed. Be sure that all data is backed up before
accepting the repair in this case.

Volume Rebuild

The volume structures of a volume keep track of where ev­ery le and folder reside on a hard drive. This information
is stored in a number of data structures, several of which
are arranged as “trees”. As data is written to and read from
a drive, the layout of the data in these tree structures may
become lopsided. This complicates the data structures
and causes a slowdown in accessing data as the lopsided
tree branches are traversed. For further information about
the volumes structures, refer to the Volume Structures test
earlier in this manual or the Macintosh File Systems sec­tion later in this manual.

Volume Rebuild attempts to build new volume structures
from scratch, fully optimizing the directory data structures
as it does so. In addition, if the volume structures are cor­rupted (as determined by the Volume Structures test), a
volume rebuild may be able to correctly reconstruct them,
resolving the problem.

6.6

When running Volume Rebuild on APFS volumes, a full
directory optimization is not yet available. However, direc­tory errors can be repaired.

Select Volume Rebuild in the Tools category to open the
Volume Rebuild Conguration window. Select the volume
you wish to rebuild from the volume list.

NOTE In order to rebuild the volume structures of a
volume, it must be unmounted. This means that you can­not do a volume structure rebuild of the current startup
volume. To do this for HFS volumes, you must reboot the
computer and run TechTool Pro from another volume,
such as from an eDrive.

do its best to repair a corrupted volume, this is not always
possible depending on the extent and seriousness of the
corruption. There is always the chance that an attempt at
repair may make problems worse and recovery afterwards
more problematic.

Click the Run button to start the volume rebuild. Progress
is displayed on the stage as the rebuild progresses.

If you want to stop the volume rebuild, click the Stop but­ton on the right side of the stage. This will safely terminate
the rebuild and leave the original volume
structures untouched.

WARNING A Volume Rebuild should not be per­formed on a drive with bad blocks. If the Surface Scan
nds bad blocks, the drive should be backed up and
replaced. No further repair is possible.

WARNING Before attempting to rebuild a volume, be
sure any important data is backed up rst if possible. Use
the routines in TechTool Pro’s Data Recovery tool if you
cannot backup les normally. Although TechTool Pro will

6.7

NOTE Volume Rebuild does not ocially support

non-Apple RAID volumes. Your results may vary.

If TechTool Pro can rebuild the volume structures, it will
display a Technical Comparison Data screen for
the volume.

The Technical Comparison screen provides important
technical information about both the original directories
and the newly created directories. This includes details
such as the total number of folders, les, etc. This data can
help you decide whether or not to commit to the rebuild.

6.8

Dierences between the new and old directories are high­lighted in color. Green indicates a normal change and red
indicates an unusual and possibly problematic change.
Click the Replace button to replace the original directories
with the newly rebuilt ones. Click the Cancel button to
keep the original directories.

WARNING If there are RED changes in the Technical
Comparison, it would be prudent to press the Cancel
button and verify that important data is backed up before
proceeding with the rebuild. An incorrect rebuild usually
requires reinitializing the volume and restoring the data.

File Optimization

File Optimization should be used as part of a general disk
maintenance routine for your Macintosh. Although a frag­mented drive will not cause your Macintosh to malfunc­tion, it may keep it from performing to its full potential.

As les are written to and read from a volume, the le sys­tem instructs the drive mechanism where to store the le
data. It can place this information anywhere there is avail­able free space on the volume. If there is not a contiguous
free area large enough to store a le, then the le system
will fragment the le. It will save pieces onto dierent
areas of the drive. This is transparent to you. Although a

le appears as one complete logical item, in most cases
it is actually physically scattered around the disk in many
pieces. Fragmentation complicates the volume structures
and makes the drive work harder to read the les, possibly
slowing down performance. File optimization defrag­ments the individual les on a volume.

Click File Optimization from the Tools category to display
the File Optimization Conguration screen.

Select the volume you wish to inspect or optimize from
the volume list on the left. Click the Preview Optimization
button to display the amount of le fragmentation for the
selected volume. Upon completion, the size and names of
all fragmented les are listed on the right side of the stage,
as well as the total number of fragmented les. Click on a
le name from the list to show the full path to the le or
click the Show button to open a Finder window with the
le selected in it.

Click the Run File Optimization button to defragment
any fragmented les on the selected volume. Progress is
displayed on the stage during defragmentation.

NOTE File Optimization supports Mac OS Extended

volumes only.

NOTE Running File Optimization from your startup

volume can only defragment inactive les.

6.9

NOTE Starting in macOS 10.13, File Optimization is
not available on the physical disk containing the startup
volume. A TechTool Protogo device or eDrive on a separate

physical disk can be used to run File Optimization on these
disks.

WARNING Before optimizing, you should perform a
Volume Structure test to be sure there is no corruption
in the disk’s directories. Optimizing a corrupted volume
would most likely spread the corruption as le fragments
are moved around on the hard disk.

File Optimization is fairly time consuming. It may take
several hours to complete (you might want to start it at
the end of the day and let it run overnight). You can stop
the process if you wish by clicking the Stop button on the
lower right side of the stage. When you click this button,
TechTool Pro will nish defragmenting any les it is work­ing on and gracefully stop the process.

WARNING Do not force quit TechTool Pro when it is
in the process of optimizing. An unexpected quit during
optimization could cause le corruption.

To fully optimize a volume by defragmenting all individual
les and consolidating the free space, run Volume Optimi­zation.

Volume Optimization

Volume Optimization should be used as part of a general
disk maintenance routine for your Macintosh. Although
a fragmented drive will not cause your Macintosh to mal­function, it may keep it from performing to its
full potential.

As les are written to a volume, they may be scattered
around on the hard drive. This fragments the free space
on the hard drive. The Macintosh le system sometimes
needs to allocate large contiguous blocks of free space for
certain operations, such as for swap space. If it cannot do
this, system performance may suer. Volume Optimization
displays a graphical representation of the free and used
space and also optimizes the volume by consolidating the
free space on it.

Select Volume Optimization in the Tools category to dis­play the Volume Optimization Conguration screen.

6.10

Select the volume you wish to inspect or optimize from
the volume list on the left. Click the Preview Optimization
button to display information about the volume and a
graph of the volume space usage on the stage.

Click the Run Volume Optimization button to perform a
volume optimization of the selected volume. Progress is
displayed on the stage as the free space is defragmented.

6.11

The stage displays a dynamic bar graph showing the dis­tribution of data and free space on the drive. The higher
the bar, the more data is stored in that area of the drive. As
the optimization progresses, the area of the volume cur­rently being optimized will be displayed in ashing yellow
in the bar graph. The goal of volume optimization is to
move all data to the beginning of the drive and all the free
space to the end.

NOTE To optimize a volume, it must be unmounted.
This means that you cannot optimize the current startup
volume. To optimize the normal startup volume you must
boot the computer and run the program from another
location, such as an eDrive.

NOTE Volume Optimization supports Mac OS Ex­tended volumes only.

WARNING Optimizing should only be performed on
otherweise healthy drives. Before optimizing, you should
perform a Volume Structure test and a Surface Scan test

to be sure there is no corruption in the disk’s directories or
bad blocks present on the drive. Optimizing a corrupted
or damaged volume would most likely spread the corrup­tion as le fragments are moved around on the drive.

Volume Optimization is fairly time consuming. It may take
several hours to complete (you might want to start it at
the end of the day and let it run overnight). You can stop
the process if you wish by clicking the Stop button on the
lower right side of the stage. When you click this button,
TechTool Pro will nish relocating any les it is working on
and gracefully stop the process.

WARNING Do not force quit TechTool Pro when it is
in the process of optimizing. An unexpected quit during
optimization could cause serious directory corruption.

WARNING Be sure to backup prior to performing
any Volume Optimization. This is especially true when
performing an optimization on non-Apple RAID congura­tions. Many non standard RAID congurations (5, 50, etc.)
have not been tested, and your results may vary.

NOTE In some cases, the Volume Optimization tool
may report that the Volume Header has become frag­mented. In this case, you can use the Volume Cloning tool
to optimize the volume, described below.

Volume Cloning

TechTool Pro oers the ability to create either a duplicate
clone of an entire disk, or a le sync clone that copies
every le on a disk to a backup drive, and then syncs
changed les for subsequent clones. If the disk selected
for cloning is a startup volume, the clone can also be
bootable. A duplicate clone oers the possibility (but not
a guarantee) that les lost on the original volume may be
recoverable from the clone.

Disk Image cloning saves the clone to a le. This is advan­tageous if another drive is not available. If a disk image of
a bootable volume is created, the image may be restored
to a disk using Apple’s Disk Utility (located in /Applica­tions/Utilities). The resulting drive can also be bootable.

NOTE Volume Cloning is only available on systems

running MacoOS 10.5 or later.

6.12

Duplicate Cloning

File Sync Cloning

To create a Duplicate clone, select Duplicate Cloning from
the drop-down menu. Only disks or partitions larger than
the source partition will be available as a destination for
the clone.

Checking ‘Verify destination copy’ performs a verica­tion on the destination volume after the copy to ensure a
proper duplication from the source volume.

Checking ‘Restore destination name’ restores the destina­tion volume to its original name. Otherwise, the name of
the source volume will be used.

WARNING Be sure to verify that the volume you are
using as the destination for a volume clone does not con­tain any les before you erase it. All les on the destina­tion volume will be lost.

6.13

File Sync Cloning is another option. By choosing File
Sync Cloning, the destination volume does not need to
be erased. Subsequent clones will only copy les that are
new or have changed since the last sync.

Choosing ‘Skip newer destination les’ ignores newer
les on the destination volume. Files on the destination
volume that have changed since last sync will not be
replaced. If only the le size diers, the destination le will
be replaced.

Choosing ‘Enable destination ownership’ copies owner
and group permission settings from the source volume
to the destination volume. This allows the volume to be
bootable after sync. Otherwise, the owner and group set­tings of the current user and group will be used.

Optimizing with Cloning Tool

If the Volume Optimization tool reports that the direc­tory of a volume is too fragmented to optimize, you can
achieve the same eect using the Volume Cloning tool

and an empty partition on an available drive that is large
enough to contain all of the data on the volume to be
optimized.

Begin by creating an empty partition that is the same size
or slightly smaller than the source drive using a program
such as Disk Utility. Next, set the Volume Cloning tool to
use the File Sync Clone method, with the volume to be
optimized as the source and the new partition as the des­tination. Click Clone to Volume... This process optimizes
the data as it is copied.

After cloning is complete, verify the clone by holding ‘op­tion’ at startup and verify that the clone starts up the Mac
as expected. Then, start up from an eDrive to complete the
process.

After starting up from the eDrive, return to the Cloning
tool, this time selecting the Duplicate Cloning method.
Reverse the source and destination, setting the clone as
the source and your original hard drive as the destination.
Click Clone to Volume... which will restore the data to the
original drive, maintaining its optimized state.

Disk Image Cloning

Disk Image cloning saves the clone to a le, rather than a
disk. To create a disk image clone, choose the source, the
type of disk image. Clicking Clone to Disk Image... will dis­play a dialogue box in order to choose where to save the
resulting disk image le. TechTool Pro will then copy the
contents of the target drive to a .dmg le. Double-clicking
the resulting .dmg le will mount the image, giving the
user access to the les and folders contained within.

Read/Write - Choosing this option creates a .dmg le that
mounts as a virtual disk when opened. The .dmg le will
be the same size as the disk being cloned, and les can be
added to it when it is mounted.

Read/Write “sparse” disk image - Choosing this option
creates a .sparseimage le. It is the same as Read/Write
option except that the size of the image le when un­mounted will be close to the amount of data contained in
the image, rather than the size of the disk.

6.14

Read/Write “sparse” disk bundle - Choosing this option cre­ates a .sparsebundle le. It is the same as the “sparse” disk

image, except that the le is saved in “blocks,” so as to be
more eciently backed up by tools such as Apple’s Time
Machine.

Read-Only disk image - Choosing this option creates a
.dmg le. It is the same as the Read/Write option except
that it cannot be modied when mounted.

the location of deleted les. This information allows Tech­Tool Pro to recover a deleted le, again assuming it hasn’t
already been overwritten. Directory Backup and Trash His­tory are congured via the TechTool Protection pane in the
System Preferences. We strongly suggest enabling these
features since they dramatically increase the chance of
successful data recovery. However, even if the Protection
features were not enabled prior to a problem, TechTool Pro
may still be able to recover les from a corrupted drive by
scanning the entire drive for directory data.

TechTool Pro’s data recovery routines consist of
three parts:

Data Recovery

TechTool Pro’s data recovery routines are designed to help
you recover accidentally deleted les/folders or to recover
les/folders from a corrupted volume that no longer
mounts on the desktop. You should only try to recover
personal data that is not already backed up. Don’t try to
recover application or system les, since such les typical­ly don’t operate properly by themselves. These les should
be restored from their original source.

The options in Data Recovery work in conjunction with
the data saved in TechTool Pro’s Directory Backup les
and Trash History. Directory Backup les are backups of a
volume’s directories. They contain important le location
data, allowing TechTool Pro to easily nd les that haven’t
already been overwritten. The Trash History is a record of

6.15

• Protection—recover les/folders based on previously saved
Directory Backup les

• Drives—recover les/folders based on scavenged
directory data

• Trash—recover deleted les based on the Trash History

These options are covered in detail below.

NOTE Directory Backup and Trash History are not
available on the current startup volume in macOS 10.13
and later. See note in Trash History section under Techtool
Protection.

Protection

Use this data recovery option to try to recover les or fold­ers from a corrupted volume when TechTool Protection
had been congured to save Directory Backup les for

the volume.

To display the Data Recovery Protection conguration
window, choose Data Recovery from the Tools category
and then click the Protection tab.

The left side of the conguration window shows the Direc­tory Backups list. Each recognized volume along with its
associated Directory Backup les indented beneath the
volume name is listed here. The Directory Backup les are
identied by the date and time they were created. Typi­cally, you would select the most recent available Direc­tory Backup le since it will most accurately represent the
state of the volume contents. TechTool Protection saves a
maximum of three Directory Backup les for each volume,
deleting the oldest one when necessary to save a new
one.

NOTE If a volume is badly corrupted, it is possible
that the Directory Backup les cannot be read on it and it
will not show up in this section of Data Recovery. In that
case, try scavenging the entire hard drive in the Drives
section.

NOTE Data Recovery is not available for Solid State
Drives because TRIM permanently deletes data almost im­mediately after it is emptied from the trash.

Once you have selected a volume from which to recover
data, enter the search options on the right side of the con­guration window. Enter a search string in the “Folder or
le name to locate” eld (the search is not case sensitive).
Then select the desired Search Criteria from the bullet list.
The options are:

• Contains—search for le/folder names containing the speci­ed string

• Starts With—search for le/folder names beginning with
the specied string

• Whole Words—search for le/folder names that exactly
match the specied string

• Ends With—search for le/folder names ending with the
specied string

NOTE When searching for a le using the Whole
Words option, you must include the le’s extension (if
present) as a part of the le name. This is a three or four
letter identier (which is normally hidden by the Finder)
after a period at the end of the le name. If you don’t
know the extension for the le, you might consider using
the Contains search criterion instead. Press the Locate Files
button to begin the search.

As the search is performed, progress will be displayed on

6.16

the stage. When complete, the Data Recovery window will
appear listing all les and folders that were found based
on the search criteria, as well as other data about the
found item.

Select the le or folder of interest from the list. If the item
is displayed in black, it is still available on the volume via
the Finder. Click the Show button on the upper right to
display it in a Finder window. If the item is displayed in
red, it is not available via the Finder (the item has been
deleted, the volume is not mounted, etc.). In that case,
click the Restore button on the upper right to recover the
data. A save dialog box will appear letting you choose a
destination for the recovered items folder. The item will be
located in a subfolder whose name is the date and time of
the recovery.

NOTE Directory Backup les are copies of the volume

structures at an earlier time. Consequently they are not
a completely accurate map of the location of les and
folders on a volume. If a le has been moved or overwrit­ten since the Directory Backup le was made, this will not
be reected in the Directory Backup le. In that case the
recovered le will be corrupt. Be sure to open or check
recovered les to be sure they are valid.

Drives

Use this data recovery option to try to recover les/fold­ers from volumes for which no Directory Backup les are
available. It will be slower since the entire hard drive (not
just an individual volume) must be scanned for directory
information.

To display the Data Recovery Drives conguration win­dow, choose Data Recovery from the Tools category and
then click the Drives tab.

The left side of the conguration window shows the
Drives list. Each recognized drive is listed here.

Once you have selected a drive from which to recover

6.17

data, enter the search options on the right side of the con­guration window. Enter a search string in the “Folder or
le name to locate” eld (the search is not case sensitive).
Then select the desired Search Criteria from the bullet list.
The options are:

• Contains—search for le/folder names containing the speci­ed string

• Starts With—search for le/folder names beginning with
the specied string

• Whole Words—search for le/folder names that exactly
match the specied string

• Ends With—search for le/folder names ending with the
specied string

NOTE When searching for a le using the Whole
Words option, you must include the le’s extension (if
present) as a part of the le name. This is a three or four
letter identier (which is normally hidden by the Finder)
following a period at the end of the le name. If you don’t
know the extension for the le, you might consider using
the Contains search criterion instead. Press the Locate Files
button to begin the search.

As the search is performed, progress will be displayed on
the stage. When complete, the Data Recovery window will
appear listing all les and folders that were found based
on the search criteria, as well as other data about the
found item.

Select the le or folder of interest from the list. If the item
is displayed in black, it is still available on the volume via
the Finder. Click the Show button on the upper right to
display it in a Finder window. If the item is displayed in
red, it is not available via the Finder (the item has been de­leted, the volume is not mounted, etc.). In that case, click
the Restore button on the upper right to copy it to a folder
on the desktop named TechTool Pro 8 Recovered Files. The
item will be located in a subfolder whose name is the date
and time of the recovery.

Trash

Use this data recovery option to recover deleted les/fold­ers. This will only work to undelete items from volumes
for which Trash History was active prior to the deletion
and which were deleted within the time frame congured
to record deleted les. . Trash History is congured in the
TechTool Protection pane of System Preferences. You must

6.18

run the installed copy of TechTool Pro when un-deleting
les, since the Trash History is maintained by the current
startup system. This option will not be available when
booted to another disk.

NOTE If the Finder is set to Empty Trash securely
(set via the Finder Preferences under the Finder menu), de­leted les cannot be recovered since they are immediately
overwritten when the Trash is emptied.

To display the Data Recovery Trash conguration window,
choose Data Recovery from the Tools category and then
click the Trash tab.

Click the Show Trash History button to display the Trash
History window.

6.19

All items that were moved to the Trash within the time
frame congured for Trash History will be listed. If the item
is displayed in black, it is still available via the Finder on
the volume. Click the Show button on the upper right to
display it in a Finder window. If the item is displayed in
red, it is no longer available via the Finder (the item has
been deleted). In that case, click the Restore button on the
upper right to copy it to a folder on the desktop named
TechTool Pro Recovered Files. The item will be located in a
subfolder whose name is the date and time of the recov­ery.

NOTE Be sure to open or check a recovered le to
verify that it is valid. Trash History keeps a record of the
location of les deleted from a volume. A le that has
been deleted from the Trash can be overwritten by the
le system at any time. If this happens, the le data is
unrecoverable by any standard means. When TechTool Pro
recovers such a le, it will most likely be unusable.

NOTE Trash History displays the deleted les for the
current user. If you want to recover les for a dierent user,
you must rst log into that user’s account and run Tech­Tool Pro from there.

Wipe Data conguration screen.

The following functions and controls are available from
the Wipe Data screen:

Wipe Data

When a le is saved to a disk an entry is made for the le in
the disk’s directory. This directory entry records where the
pieces of the actual le are stored on the disk. When a le
is deleted from the disk, only its directory entry is deleted.
The le data itself is still left on the drive and the locations
occupied by the data are made available to be used to
store other information. Until the data is actually overwrit­ten by new information it is possible for the data to be
recovered using a data recovery tool such as TechTool Pro.

There are times when one needs to permanently delete
a le for security reasons. To permanently delete the data
from the drive it must be completely overwritten. This is
the purpose of Wipe Data. TechTool Pro oers a variety of
methods to securely overwrite the data.

Select Wipe Data from the Tools category to display the

6.20

Overwrite Pattern

You may choose to overwrite selected data multiple times
with the following patterns:

• Binary 0000–Overwrites the le with all zeros.

• Binary 1010–Overwrites the le with alternating ones
and zeros.

• Binary 1111–Overwrites the le with all ones.

• Random ASCII Characters–Overwrites the le with pseudo­random pattern of zeros and ones. This can be helpful when
trying to hide the fact that a le has been wiped.

Overwrite Level

Select the number of times the selection will be overwrit­ten. The higher the number, the more secure the overwrite
(and the longer the overwrite will take). Although over­writing the data once is normally sucient to permanent-

ly erase the data, some government agencies specify that
data must be overwritten a specic number of times to be
considered securely deleted. The overwrite choices are:

• 1-Pass Overwrite

• 3-Pass Overwrite

• 7-Pass Overwrite

• 35-Pass Overwrite (referred to as the Gutmann method)

Select Item To Wipe… button

Click this button to select the item you wish to wipe. You
can choose a le, folder, or entire volume. If you choose a
volume, you can wipe either the entire volume or only the
volume’s unused free space. When you select an item its
full path name will appear in the eld below the buttons.
This allows you to verify what item will be wiped before
actually committing to the wipe.

Wipe Free Space… button

Click this button to overwrite the free unused space on
the selected volume the specied number of times with
the selected pattern. Progress is displayed on the stage as
the overwrite occurs.

WARNING Once the data is overwritten by TechTool
Pro’s Wipe Data routines there is no possibility of recover­ing the data. Conrm that you have made the correct se­lection by checking in the information eld at the bottom
of the Wipe Data Conguration screen before committing
to the wipe.

Wipe Selection… button

Click this button to overwrite the selected le or folder
the specied number of times with the selected pattern.
Progress is displayed on the stage as the overwrite occurs.

Wipe Volume… button

Click this button to completely overwrite the entire volume’s
contents the specied number of times with the selected
pattern. Note that ALL data on the volume will be lost. Prog­ress is displayed on the stage as the overwrite occurs.

6.21

Internet Speed

The Internet Speed tool can be used to test the speed of
the internet connection from your internet service provider
(ISP). Click the Run Internet Speed button to start the speed
test. The speed test will check the download and upload
speeds, along with metrics for ping and jitter.

Download - The rate of the current internet download
speed

Upload - The rate of the current internet upload speed

Ping - Time taken to reach the test server

Jitter - A measure of the variation in packets received

from the server

The System Maintenance tool allows direct control of run­ning these tasks, as well as a quick check of when each was
last run.

The System Maintenance conguration pane will display
the last time each of the scripts have been run by your
system. The ability to run each one manually can be espe­cially useful if you nd that they have not been run in their
respective timeframes.

Daily -Cleans old log and temporary les, updates inter­nal accounting of system information.

NOTE Actual internet speed often varies com­pared to the speed advertised by the ISP. Variations
can be caused by network congestion or signal quality,
among other things.

System Maintenance

The Mac OS runs a series of processes on set intervals which
perform a variety of tasks to perform maintenance on your
system. These processes are intiated by scripts, which
are les which are used to call and run system processes.
These tasks are run on daily, weekly, and monthly intervals.

6.22

Weekly - Updates unix database les.

Monthly - Updates internal usage accounting, cleans

additional log les.

To run the System Maintenance tool, choose which
maintenance task to run from the System Maintenance
conguration and click Run System Maintenance.

NOTE The System Maintenance tool is not available

from eDrives or Protogo devices. See note below.

Cache Rebuild

in troubleshooting font menus which either do not
display or display incorrectly.

To run the Cache Rebuild tool, choose which caches
should be rebuilt, and then click the Run Cache Rebuild
button.

Cache les are used to store frequently used information for
quick access. The Mac OS utilizes a series of these cache les
to optimize performance. The Cache Rebuild tool provides
a selection of system caches that can be rebuilt for trouble­shooting purposes.

Boot - Rebuilds cache responsible for connecting appli­cations to the operating system. Can be used to trouble­shoot unexplained OS behavior.

NOTE The boot cache rebuild takes eect after
restarting .

Kernel - Rebuilds the system kernel cache along with
system extension caches, which can speed up load times.
This can be used to troubleshoot unexplained application
behavior, if extension related.

DNS - Rebuilds the domain name service cache, which
can be useful for troubleshooting problems loading
remote content. If the DNS records on your Mac are
incorrect, then you may experience errors retrieving
data from remote servers.

Font - Rebuilds the font database. This can be useful

NOTE The System Maintenance and Cache Rebuild
tools are not available when started from an eDrive or
Protogo device. These tools only apply when used from
your normal startup disk.

Volume Journaling

Journaling is a feature of the HFS+ le system that provides
protection against volume corruption and data loss. It is
supported by MacoOS 10.2.2 and above. When journaling is
enabled for a volume, the le system logs read/write trans­actions as they occur. If the computer should unexpectedly
quit, then the le system will have access to a record of
incomplete transactions in its “journal” on the drive and
can quickly return the le system to a consistent state. This
protects against volume structure problems and the need
to test for or repair them after an improper shutdown.

6.23

Journaling adds a small amount of extra overhead to le
reads and writes. In most cases the performance degrada­tion will not be noticeable. However, for les requiring
high transfer speeds, such as large video, graphics, or
audio les, the reliability provided by journaling may not
justify the performance slowdown when accessing the
data. For more a more technical explanation of volume
journaling, see the Macintosh File Systems section later in
the manual.

The Volume Journaling tool in TechTool Pro allows you to
turn journaling on or o for your HFS+ volumes. Choose
Volume Journaling in the Tools category to display the
Volume Journaling conguration screen.

Each available writable HFS+ volume will be listed in the
conguration screen. When you select a volume from the
list, the appropriate button on the lower right side of the
screen will activate so that you can toggle the state of
journaling for that volume.

Home Permissions

Like the rest of your Macintosh, the les and folders in
your home folder have a set of permissions that determine
what users and apps can do with them. If these permis­sions are somehow changed, this can cause a variety of
issues. Some of these issues include:

• Changes made to settings aren’t preserved.

• You need to enter a password to move items in your
home folder.

• Apps quit unexpectedly when launched, or you get a
message that there isn’t enough application memory
to run an App when there should be enough free
memory.

• Your Mac begins to run slowly, but you’ve ruled out
other reasons this might happen.

• You get messages that a library needs to be rebuilt,
such as your Photos library.

The Home Permissions tool attempts to reset the permis­sions of the les and folders in the current user’s home
directory to their default values. After restarting, issues
like the ones above can be resolved if their underlying

6.24

cause is that the permissions of les and folders in the
current home directory are incorrect.

To reset the permissions of the current user’s home direc­tory, click Run Home Permissions. Techtool Pro will then
run the underlying system process to reset the les and
folders in the home directory to their default values.

WARNING Resetting the permissions of a home direc­tory can take quite some time if the user folder has a large
number of les and folders, and canceling this process
should be avoided.

NOTE Changes made by resetting home permissions
may not take eect until the system has been restarted.

Disk Permissions

The Macintosh operating system is based on the UNIX
operating system. Like UNIX, it uses permissions in the le
system. Every le and folder has a set of permissions as­sociated with it that determine what users are allowed to
read from, write to, or execute it. Permissions may become
corrupt for one reason or another. Incorrect permissions

can cause a wide variety of problems. They can make les
or folders unavailable, they can keep applications from
launching or working properly, and if the incorrect permis­sions are on system les, may even cause Finder problems
or make the computer unable to boot from that system.

Each system volume contains a Library/Receipts folder.
This folder holds package les that each contain a “Bill of
Materials” le (with extension.bom). These Bill of Materials
les store the correct permissions for the associated pack­age—typically system and application packages. TechTool
Pro makes use of this information to verify and repair
permissions. Repairing permissions is easy to do and could
well solve an annoying problem with the computer or an
application.

To verify/repair the disk permissions for a volume, select
Disk Permissions from the Tools category. This opens the
Disk Permissions Conguration window.

In the conguration window, select the volume whose
permissions you would like to check or repair. Then click
the Verify Disk Permissions button to check the permis­sions or the Repair Disk Permissions button to repair any

6.25

permissions that may be incorrectly set. Upon completion,
any les with incorrect permissions or whose permissions
were repaired will be listed in the Reports window.

NOTE macOS no longer supports repairing disk per­missions as of macOS High Sierra (10.13).

To begin the check, select Processor Check from the
Tools Selection, and click Run Processor Check.

Processor Check

Processor check is a benchmarking tool for your Mac’s
processor. A series of algorithms are used to gauge the
performance of the processors. The following algo­rithms are utilized for the benchmark:

Dhrystone - Benchmarks performance using a com­plex algorithm utilizing integer operations. Measures in
Dhrystone Millions of Instructions per second (DMIPS).

Whetstone - Uses a similar algorithm to Dhrystone,
instead using oating point operations. Measures
in Whetstone Millions of Instructions per second
(WMIPS).

Linpack - Measures processor performance utilizing
oating-point linear algebra. Output is in Megaops,
millions of 64-bit operations performed per second.

6.26

The testing algorithms will run and the results will
display on the stage, along with additional technical
information about the installed processor.

Local Network

The Local Network tool displays what Bonjour en­abled devices and services are running on your local
network. This tool lists the IP addresses of all network
devices as well as the port number of any services run­ning on the selected device.

NOTE Handheld devices such as iPhones, iPod
touches and iPads will only appear in the Local Network
device list if they are running iOS 5 or later, which enables
Bonjour support.

their corresponding port numbers.

As a device becomes active or inactive, the green light will
blink. Once the device is active, the light will stay green.

NOTE If you switch networks or a device is no longer

part of the network, press the “Clear History” button.

Video

The Video area includes options for checking your com­puter’s display and FaceTime compatible cameras. Choose
Video in the Tools category to display the Video congura­tion screen. Use the tabs at the top of the conguration
screen to choose either Video Geometry or FaceTime
Camera.

Video Geometry

The Local Network tool can be helpful in debugging net­work problems (e.g. with a printer, AirPort Express, etc.). It
can also help with security issues by revealing what ports
are open and which applications are using them. Clicking
on a given network device will reveal a list of services and

6.27

Technicians use video geometry patterns and color
screens as an aid in calibrating a monitor and checking it
for defects. You may also nd them helpful for conrming
your monitor’s color output and for making adjustments if
your monitor has calibration controls.

Click the Video Geometry tab in the Video conguration
window to bring up the Video Geometry
conguration screen.

following eects:

• Bars–Displays a series of vertical color bars.

• Text–Displays a screen full of black on white text characters.

• Noise–Displays a constantly changing randomly colored
noise pattern.

• Cycle–Displays changing colored, animated text on a solid
colored background.

TechTool Pro oers a number of test screens. Each screen
is available via a button that shows the color/pattern that
will be displayed. Simply click on a button to display the
test pattern. Click again anywhere to return to the Video
conguration screen.

Use the Primary Colors area to choose among the follow­ing solid colors:

• Red–Paints the entire screen red.

• Green–Paints the entire screen green.

• Blue–Paints the entire screen blue.

• Yellow–Paints the entire screen yellow.

• White–Paints the entire screen white.

• Black–Paints the entire screen black.

Use the Animate check box to turn on or o an animated
pattern within the solid colored screen.

Use the Test Patterns area to choose among the

6.28

FaceTime Camera

Use the FaceTime Camera tool to display the output from
any attached FaceTime compatible cameras. Output from
up to four cameras can be displayed simultaneously so
that you can compare the outputs from dierent cameras.
You might nd this tool handy to use in the case where
a camera does not appear to be providing a signal when
used in other software. TechTool Pro directly accesses the
camera signal and displays it if present.

To use the FaceTime Camera tool, click the FaceTime Cam­era tab in the Video conguration window to bring up the
FaceTime Camera conguration screen.

When you press the Start button, a window will appear for
each recognized camera displaying the output from the
camera. Press the Stop button to terminate.

Audio

MacoOS delivers today’s professional standard for au­dio resolution–24-bit, 96 KHz. Core Audio manages all
audio as 32-bit oating-point data. This allows your Mac
to eciently handle 24/96 as well as higher resolutions
that may become common in the future. Core Audio also
delivers highly optimized sample rate converters to allow
programs that do not yet use this high-resolution format
to provide data to MacoOS without truncation.

audio to enter your Mac, travel through the system to your
application and then pass back out to your monitoring
system (speakers). Historically, Mac OS oered audio pros
excellent latency of about 10ms.

The Core Audio HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) pro­vides ultra low latency communications between applica­tions and I/O devices that is measurably more ecient
than previous solutions. M-Audio reports latency as low
as 40 samples on MacoOS from the company’s audio in­terfaces. That translates into 1ms throughput latency–and
you get this performance in a full multi-channel environ­ment.

TechTool Pro’s Audio tool lets you check the audio input
and output of your computer. Like the Video tests, all Au­dio tests are non-qualied tests. This means that there are
no pass/fail marks. It is up to you to determine whether
the computer audio input or output is acceptable. The
audio tests require stereo output to test properly. Without
stereo output the tests will be monophonic.

Choose Audio in the Tools category to display the Audio
conguration screen.

MacoOS delivers the best audio performance in desktop
computing. The most fundamental measure of audio per­formance is throughput latency. That’s the time it takes for

6.29

From this screen you vary the audio signal and monitor
the outputs. The input and output sources are determined
by the setting in the Sound pane of the
System Preferences.

The left side of the conguration screen is the Audio Out­put area. In this area you can set various output options.
The Sine Wave section has sliders that control the volume,
frequency, and balance of a sine wave. Use the Start/Stop
Tone button to begin or end the tone. To the right of the
Sine Wave area is the Chromatic Scales button. Press­ing this button plays back a series of chromatic scales.
Beneath the above areas is the Speech Synthesis area. To
hear synthesized speech, simply type the text you would
like to hear in the text eld and then press the
Say Text button.

The right portion of the Audio conguration screen dis­plays a dynamic frequency bar graph of the audio
input signal.

By adjusting the varying the audio output you can subjec­tively determine whether or not your audio circuitry and
speakers are working, whether the two audio channels
are balanced, and whether the full frequency and volume
range is being produced through each channel.

6.30

7.1

TechTool Protogo

The full functionality of TechTool Protogo is now included
as a part of TechTool Pro. TechTool Protogo can be ac­cessed from the Mode menu in TechTool Pro or from the
Tools selection.

TechTool Protogo can create a bootable drive that contains
TechTool Pro as well as Disk Utility and several other utili­ties. If you use a portable device, you can carry it with you
and have it readily available as needed. The device you
create can also be updated and additional software can be
added to it. You can think of it as the ultimate Macintosh
toolbox.

Using TechTool Protogo to create a diagnostic device is
easy. If you have an old iPod, a ash drive, a portable hard
drive, or just a standard-sized external hard drive, you
can use TechTool Protogo to congure it to be a bootable
device containing utility programs of your choice.

Protogo comes with proles for several standard system/
utility congurations so that you can easily set up a device.
Simply select the device, the desired device prole, and
press a single button. You can also create and save your
own proles that include the custom components you
desire (even including third party utilities). The standard
proles range from a minimal bootable system with Tech­Tool Pro on it (such as used to come on the TechTool Pro
DVD), to a full-blown macOS installation including a Finder
and multiple utility programs.

A device created by Protogo boots and runs software
much faster than from a DVD. It also includes memory
swap space for the Mac OS, which increases speed and
stability as well. In addition, you can re-congure the
device at any time to add new utilities, updated versions
of software, or newer Mac OS versions.

With TechTool Protogo, you can set up a
device to:

• Diagnose and repair hard drive problems

• Test major computer components

• Predict drive failures

• Optimize and defragment hard drive volumes

• Rebuild volume directories

• Recover data from damaged volumes

• Repartition hard drives without losing data

• Boot dierent macOS versions from
dierent partitions

• Run a variety of utilities

TechTool Protogo gives you the power to create and main­tain your own toolkit for the Macintosh–exactly the way
you want it–on one portable device. Just plug it in and all
your tools will be there at your ngertips.

7.2

The TechTool Protogo Interface

TechTool Protogo runs when launched from TechTool Pro.
To launch the program, click Open TechTool Protogo after
choosing the TechTool Protogo Tool or choose TechTool
Protogo from the Mode menu. After the program has
launched, you will see the main TechTool Protogo window.

The main window is divided into three panes with a
button bar at the bottom. The upper pane is the Prole
Viewer. This is a visual summary of the currently selected
device and the prole. The two panes beneath the Prole
Viewer display information about the storage devices
attached to the computer and about the available device
proles, including any custom proles you may have cre-

ated. Use the New and Delete button below the Proles
pane to create or delete proles. Click the Edit button to
bring up the Prole Editor to set up a device prole the
way you wish. Click the Build TechTool Protogo button to
completely erase the selected device and congure it us­ing the selected prole. These options are covered in more
detail below.

Prole Viewer

The upper pane in the Protogo window is the Profile Viewer. The
top left of the pane displays an icon for each Mac OS version
included in the profile. Beneath this is a series of icons indicating
the applications that are included on the volumes in the profile.
The application icons move across the screen and disappear into
an icon of the currently selected device. The lower portion of the
pane displays the profile name and the beginning of the profile
description. To view the full description, click the Edit button at
the bottom of the screen (or double-click the profile name in the
Profiles pane).

7.3

Devices Pane

Proles Pane

The Devices pane is the lower left pane in the TechTool
Protogo window. It displays an icon for each device avail­able for use by Protogo.

Click on a device icon to select it for use by the program.
Listed next to each device icon is its name, device type
and identier (e.g. External FireWire (disk1)), and size. Click
on the Eject button beneath the Devices pane to eject the
selected device.

The Proles pane is the bottom right pane in the TechTool
Protogo window.

A prole is a complete device conguration, including any
volumes (partitions) and their contents. Both the included
default proles and any custom proles you have cre­ated will be displayed in the Proles pane. You can create
proles for use on devices ranging from 4GB ash drives
containing a minimal bootable system with one or two
utilities all the way up to large hard drives with full instal­lations of MacoOS along with multiple utilities or other
software.

The Proles pane displays a Prole Strip for each available
prole.

7.4

Each Prole Strip includes the prole name, the number
of volumes on the prole, and a brief description of the
selected prole.

On the right side of the strip is a bar graph indicating the
amount of used and free space on
the device.

• MacoOS Recovery HD Prole–Backup your Recovery parti­tion, along with TechTool Pro. (Must have a valid recovery
HD present.)

NOTE: Only Intel-based Macs are supported by Protogo

Proles Menu

The graph colors indicate the following:

• green–space used on the selected device by
the prole.

• white–free space available on the selected device.

• red–insucient space on the selected device to build the
prole.

TechTool Protogo includes several default proles:

• MacoOS Minimal Prole – creates a bootable MacoOS
partition based on a minimal system installation that boots
Intel-based Macs (similar to a bootable CD or DVD with no
Finder).

• MacoOS Basic Prole – creates a smaller copy of the active
MacoOS system installation.

• MacoOS Full Copy Prole–will create a full copy of the active
MacoOS system installation.

7.5

The Proles menu is located in the menu bar. In it, you will
nd options to Reset Defaults, Save, and Load. Reset De­faults will reset the Proles back to the state they were in
when the program was rst installed. Save allows export­ing the current list of proles, preserving any customiza­tions. Load allows importing of saved prole congurai­tons.

All proles contain a default list of applications. For
MacoOS, these are:

• TechTool Pro

• Console

• Disk Utility

• System Information

• Terminal

For the Recovery HD Prole, the partition will contain:

• TechTool Pro • Disk Utility

• Reinstall OS X • Firmware Password Utility

• Console • Network Utility

• Terminal • Safari

• Restore from Time Machine Backup

Use the following buttons beneath the Proles pane to
work with proles:

• New–click this button to bring up the Prole Editor screen
and create a new prole. Details about the Prole Editor are
covered below.

• Delete–click this button to delete the
selected prole.

• Edit–click this button to bring up the Prole Editor screen
with information about the selected prole. You can then
alter the conguration as desired. Details about the Prole
Editor are covered below.

• Build TechTool Protogo Device–click this button to copy the
contents of the selected prole to the selected device.

WARNING Be sure that any important data on the
device is backed up before choosing Build TechTool Pro­togo Device, since the entire device, including all volumes
currently on it, will be completely erased. Any data on the
device will be lost.

Prole Editor

Click the New button or Edit button beneath the Proles
pane to bring up the Prole Editor. The Prole Editor is
where you create and/or congure a device prole to your
specications.

7.6

At the top of the screen is the Prole Name eld. Simply
enter the desired name for the prole into the eld.

On the right of the Prole Name eld is the Select Prole
to Copy pop-down menu. Use this menu if you wish to
copy an existing prole’s attributes into the Prole Edi­tor so that you can produce a modied version of that
prole. This is often easier than creating a new prole from
scratch.

Beneath the Prole Name eld is the Description eld. En­ter whatever you like in this eld for a prole description.
This information will be displayed in the Prole Viewer on
the main Protogo screen.

On the left, below the Description eld, is the Volume List.
This displays a Volume Strip for each volume currently
included in the prole.

The Volume Strip shows an icon for the device. To the
right of the icon are a number of elds:

• Name–enter the desired name for the volume.

• System–choose what Mac OS version, if any, to install on the
volume from the pop-down menu.

• Format–choose the desired volume format from the pop­down menu.

• Disk Usage–this eld displays the total amount of disk space
used by the volume.

• Additional Space–enter the amount of additional space you
wish to include on the volume. Use the pop-down menu on
the right of the eld to choose whether this will be indi­cated in MB (megabytes or million bytes) or GB (gigabytes
or billion bytes).

Click the Add Volume button beneath the Volume List to
add a new volume (partition) to the prole. Click the De­lete Volume button to delete the selected volume (parti­tion) from the prole.

To the right of the Volume List is the Content List. This dis­plays a list of the utility programs on the selected volume.

Click the (+) button to bring up a File/Folder Selection

7.7

dialog to select a le or folder containing a utility you wish
to add to the selected volume. It will be placed in the Ap­plications/Utilities folder on the volume. Click the (-) but­ton to delete the currently selected le or folder from the
list. Click the Show File button to display a Finder window
showing the original location of the selected le or folder.

Using a Protogo Device

Once Protogo has nished building a bootable device, it
can now be used to start up a Mac to perform a variety of
troubleshooting tasks. There are several ways to start up
from the new device.

Protogo Launcher

NOTE Not all application programs are self-con-

tained. If a program consists of multiple parts, then simply
copying a program le into a prole may not produce a
working program on the device.

Click the Save button on the lower right of the Prole
Editor to save the current state of the prole and return to
the TechTool Protogo window. Click the Cancel button to
cancel any changes made in the current Prole Editor ses­sion and return to the TechTool Protogo window.

NOTE The proles are saved in the le “~/Library/Pref­erences/com.micromat.protogo.proles.plist” (where “~”
refers to the current user’s folder).

7.8

To start up from devices created using the MacoOS Mini­mal prole, double click the Protogo Launcher. The Mac
will then restart from the Protogo Device.

Startup Disk

Startup Manager

Once Protogo has nished conguring your device, it will
be visible in the Startup Disk Preference Pane under Sys­tem Preferences. Select the device to boot from, then click
the Restart... button.

A Protogo device can also be selected using the Startup
Manager. To start up from a device in this way, do the fol­lowing:

1. Startup or restart your Mac.

2. Immediately upon hearing the startup chime, hold
down the Option key until the Startup Manager ap­pears. The Startup Manager is a screen which displays
the disks available that can start up your Mac.

3. Using the arrow keys, select the device you wish to
start up from.

4. Press the Return key.

The Mac will now start up from the selected device.

7.9

8.1

TechTool Pro 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 saved in Reports. Detailed
results of every test can be displayed in the report, as well
as advice on how to proceed if problems are found. When
TechTool Pro is run from an installation on a hard drive, the
results are saved cumulatively into the Reports. You can go
back and refer to earlier results if desired. Having the re­sults of previous tests available may allow you to pinpoint
when a problem developed and also be helpful as refer­ence should you need to contact technical support.

The Reports are both sortable and searchable, making
it easy to locate results for specic tests, volumes, and
drives. For example, you can choose to display only test
failures if desired. The Report can be printed or saved as a
webarchive document if desired.

Choose the Reports category to display the
Reports window.

The Reports window is designed to provide convenient
access to details about each test that was performed.
The left side of the Report window contains the Report
Summary in a standard columnar database format. The
right side of the window displays the details for the item
selected in the Summary area.

If TechTool Pro has been run on more than one computer
(such as when booting and running the program from an
external hard drive), you can use the pop-down menu at
the top of the Summary area to choose the specic com­puter whose results you wish to display in the Report.

8.2

Use the Job Selector pop-down menu to select among the
following:

• All Jobs

• Failed Jobs

• Cancelled Jobs From Last Run

• Jobs From Last Run

• Failed Jobs From Last Run

• Overall Summary

Type a string of characters in the eld to the right of the
Job Selector pop-down menu to search for specic items.
For example, you might want to display results for all
entries containing “SMART” or “Hitachi”.

Beneath the Job Selector pop-down menu is a colum­nar list of all items meeting the chosen criteria. The four
columns are:

• Time Stamp—when the test/ tool executed.

• Job—the test/tool name.

• Status—test/tool result (Passed, Failed, Canceled, etc.)

• Target—component tested (volume name, hard drive
name, etc.)

The list can be sorted in either ascending or descending
order by clicking on the column descriptor at the top of
the column. For example, you might sort by Time Stamp to
see all tests run on a certain day or sort by Target to easily
locate all tests performed on a certain volume. Columns
can be re-ordered if desired by dragging the column

descriptor left or right to the desired location.

To display further information about a specic item in the
list, simply click the list entry to select it. Details will be
displayed in the area to the right. These include specic
information about the item tested, results, and advice on
how to proceed in the case of a problem. You may need to
use the vertical scroll bar to view all the test/tools details.

The following buttons are available at the bottom of the
Reports window:

• Clear Selection—deletes the current selection from the list.

• Save as…—saves a report as a webarchive document.

• Print—opens a print dialog box in order to save a report.

NOTE To select multiple consecutive items in the
Summary Report, hold down the shift key while clicking
on the items. To select multiple non-contiguous items,
hold down the command key while clicking on the items.

8.3

9.1

TechTool Protection

TechTool Pro oers a number of features you can congure
to run automatically in the background as your computer
operates. The features are controlled by TechTool Protec­tion. (For details about installing TechTool Protection, see
the Installation and System Requirements earlier in this
manual.) You can congure TechTool Protection to monitor
the free space on your volumes, save pointers to deleted
les to assist in their later recovery, backup your volumes’
directories, check your hard drives’ built in SMART rou­tines, monitor logs for Power On Self-Test and I/O errors,
keep track of the status of any connected RAIDs, and send
you e-mail alerts in case problems are detected. The auto­matic features are congured via the TechTool Protection
pane in the System Preferences.

At the top left of the TechTool Protection pane is a but­ton to either Run or Stop TechTool Protection’s automatic
background routines. To the right of this button is a check
box to control whether or not a TechTool Protection icon
appears in the menu bar. Clicking this icon shows a menu
displaying the status of TechTool Protection as well as an
option to open the TechTool Protection pane.

The various TechTool Protection features are described in
detail below.

9.2

Volume Usage

It is generally recommended that the amount of free
space on a volume not fall below about 15%. Lack of free
space can lead to serious volume corruption. TechTool
Protection can be congured to automatically monitor the
amount of free space on your volumes and to alert you it
exceeds a certain threshold.

Select Volume Usage from the list in the TechTool Protec­tion pane to bring up the Volume Usage screen.

threshold is exceeded, a popup message appears on the
screen to alert you. If the E-mail Alerts option of TechTool
Protection is active, an e-mail will be sent to the cong­ured address with a warning as well. Below the congura­tion options is a graph showing the volume usage for the
selected volume. The graph’s bar will be green if the usage
is below the threshold and red if the threshold
is exceeded.

Directory Backup

The purpose of Directory Backup is to periodically save direc­tory information for your volumes called Directory Backup
Files. These are backup les of critical volume structure data.
They are located in the main hard drive/Library/Application
Support/TechTool Protection folder. Directory Backup les
can greatly assist TechTool Pro with recovering data from cor­rupted drives. They may also help recover les that have been
deleted if the Trash History in TechTool Protection was not
enabled when the les were deleted. The Directory Backup
screen allows you to select the volumes you wish to protect
and how frequently they are protected.

Click the check box next to Volume Usage to turn on the
Volume Usage options. Check the box beside each volume
you want monitored.

Use the Free Space Warning Threshold to set the free
space threshold for the selected volumes. If the free space

9.3

NOTE Directory Backup les are not backups of your
actual data. Rather, they are backups of the volume struc­tures for the entire volume. It is very important to keep at
least one backup (preferably two) of your actual data on
another location to be safe.

NOTE Directory backups are not kept for drives
encrypted by FileVault 2 for security reasons. Directory
Backup is also not available for SSD drives. Data Recovery
is not possible for these devices because the TRIM feature
overwrites data immediately.

Select Directory Backup from the feature list in the
TechTool Protection pane to display the Directory Backup
screen.

Click the Directory Backup check box to enable the fea­ture. Check the box beside each volume you wish protect.
Use the Backup Interval eld to set the number of hours
between directory backups. To backup the directories of
the selected volumes immediately, click the Backup Now
button. To have Directory Backup les saved to more than
one location, click on the Locations… button, then click
the + button to backup to another volume.

The Latest and Previous elds display the dates of the last
two directory backups (if present) for the currently select­ed volume. TechTool Protection saves up to three directory
backups per volume. When newer directory backups are
done, the oldest is deleted.

WARNING Be sure that each of your volumes has a
unique name. This is especially important for removable
media. The Protection le uses the volume name as an
identier.

NOTE Directory backups not available on the current
startup volume in macOS 10.13 and later. See note in Trash
History section below.

9.4

Trash History

TechTool Protection can save pointers to deleted les for
a specied number of days in a Trash History le. Assum­ing a deleted le has not been overwritten since it was
deleted, you can use Data Recovery in the Tools category

to easily “undelete” the le.

Use the Trash History eld to set the number of days for
which you would like to track the location of deleted les.
As long as a deleted le has not been overwritten, you
can undelete it within that time period. To undelete a le,
go to Data Recovery in the Tools category of TechTool Pro.
Click the Show Trash History button in the Trash section
to bring up the Trash History window for the current user.
Select the le you wish to undelete and click the Restore

button. The selected le will be saved to a folder named
TechTool Pro Recovered Files on the desktop.

NOTE If you have set the Finder Preferences to se­curely delete les when you empty the Trash, then deleted
les are immediately overwritten and cannot be recovered
by any means–including using TechTool Pro. The same is
true if you empty the Trash using the Secure Empty Trash
option, or have FileVault 2 enabled. As mentioned earlier,
Solid State Drives utilize TRIM which overwrites data as
soon as it is deleted, so Trash History does not support
SSDs.

NOTE Directory Backup and Trash History are not
available on the current startup volume in macOS 10.13
and later due to new restrictions in the OS. In 10.13 and
later, directly opening the directory for the active startup
volume while System Integrity Protection is enabled is no
longer allowed.

SMART Check

TechTool Pro can automatically query your drive’s SMART
registry on a regular basis and alert you if problems are
developing. This may provide advance warning of drive
failures before they become catastrophic. More informa­tion about SMART monitoring is available in the Tests
section of the manual under the SMART Check.

Choose SMART Check from the feature list in the TechTool

9.5

Protection pane to bring up the SMART Check screen.

Click the On button to enable SMART Check. Click the
box beside the drive name of each drive you want to be
checked automatically. Use the Check Interval eld to
set the number of hours between SMART checks. To do a
SMART check immediately, click the Check Now button.
Below the Check Now button, the following information
is displayed:

• Drive identier

• Connection type

• Date and time of the last SMART check

• Result of the last SMART check (Passed, Failing, or Failed)

• Names of volume(s) on the drive

When a SMART check event occurs, a popup message ap­pears on the screen to alert you. If the E-mail Alerts option
of TechTool Protection is active, an e-mail will be sent to
the congured address with a warning as well.

Like TechTool Pro, the TechTool Protection SMART check
will report either failing or failed results. A failed result
means that the drive will fail at any time and should be
replaced immediately. In a failed state, other system and
SMART utilities will always agree, though the wording may
vary between utilities. A failing result means that one or
more of the SMART attributes for a given drive are above
acceptable parameters, and the result can change from
failing to failed at any time.

In the event of either type of SMART failure, you might
consider running the SMART Check in the Tests category
to get more detailed information about which SMART
parameter(s) failed. This may help you determine the se­riousness of the issue and would be valuable information
to provide the drive manufacturer should you decide to
contact them for assistance.

9.6

Power On Self-Test

The Power-On Self Test (POST) is an automatic test that is
run by your Mac’s hardware each time your Mac powers
up, before MacoOS is loaded. The test runs either from a
cold start or upon a restart of the system. POST checks the
basic functioning of RAM, Processor and boot ROM.

TechTool Protection checks your Mac’s logs for the results
of this test daily and displays them. If a failure result is
reported, you may have heard a number of system beeps
instead of the normal startup chime. Some failures don’t
result in an error tone. You can check for the POST test re­sult in System Information.app in the Diagnostics section
of the system report. If the tones do occur, the number of
beeps indicates the potential issue with your Macintosh:

1 beep = No RAM installed.

2 beeps = Incompatible RAM types installed.

3 beeps = No good banks.

4 beeps = No good boot images in the boot ROM or bad

system conguration block.

5 beeps = Processor is not usable.

In addition, if problems are found in RAM, portions of RAM
may be shut o. RAM in such a state can’t be tested, so
checking for POST errors can help to identify faulty RAM
that wouldn’t be detected otherwise.

TechTool Protection pane to bring up the Power On Self­Test screen.

The Power On Self-Test will display the result of the most
recent test as recorded in the system logs.

Choose Power On Self-Test from the feature list in the

9.7