[malvolio]

This updates is said to include "support" for OS X. Has anyone tried running it to verify and/or repair their OS X partition yet?
I've been favorably impressed with TTP's ability to repair OS 9.x drives. It would be great if Micromat can do the same for OS X drives.

[bil207]

The new support for OS X that TTP 3.0.4 has it's ability to defrag - optimize the OS X volume. My understanding is that to verify - repair the OS X volume you will have to purchase "Drive Ten" by MicroMat which will be introduced at MWNY. MicroMat has Drive Ten available for preorder on there site with a (sidegrade) discount if you have a registered copy of TTP 3.xxx. I have used TTP 3.0.4 to optimize my OS X partion and it worked fine.

[malvolio]

Thanks for the info, bil. I was wondering why there was OS X support in TTP 3.04, when Drive 10 is in the works.
Sounds like the main benefits of this update will be on the OS 9.x side, since I can already defrag & optimize my OS X partition using either Norton Speed Disk or Alsoft PlusOptimizer.

[gorgonzola]

Yes, it's for the benefit from use in OS 9. Note that the big difference is that TT 3.0.4 runs within Classic in OS X, while Drive10 runs natively.

Check www.micromat.com for more detailed information.

Drive10 does the following natively in OS X:

Unit Ready
Ascertains the drive's ability to receive commands.

* Supply Voltage
Checks the power supply voltage level that powers your drive!

* Self-Diagnostic
Runs manufacturer's self-test on the drive.

* Rezero Unit
Determines the drive's ability to resynchronize and rezero the read/write heads.

* Format Check
Establishes whether the drive was properly formatted during initial setup.

* Spare Sectors
Checks the service tracks to isolate whether there are enough spare blocks for block repairs.

* Surface Scan
Checks entire media surface for defects that could cause read or write errors. Blocks are repaired by remapping.

* Random Read
Used in conjunction with the Random Write test, reads data from a random memory location.


* Random Write
Used in conjunction with the Random Read test, writes data from a random memory location.


* Seek
This test checks the ability of the initiator to position the device heads in preparation for access to a particular logical block.

* Linear Read
Used in conjunction with the Linear Write test, reads a linear set of blocks from the drive.

* Linear Write
Used in conjunction with the Linear Read test, writes a linear set of blocks to the drive.

* Read Buffer
This test is used in conjunction with the WRITE BUFFER command as a diagnostic function for testing the drive's buffer cache and bus integrity.

* Write Buffer
This test is used in conjunction with the READ BUFFER command as a diagnostic function for testing the drive's buffer cache and bus integrity.

* Volume Structure
Tests and repairs critical volume structure elements like Volume Header, Extents File, Catalog File, Attributes, etc.

From this list, it seems that (unfortunately) Drive10 won't be able to defrag an OS X disk. I'm expecting that TT 3.5 or TT 4 will be the OS X native versions to provide this functionality. I need some kind of OS X disk maintenance utility, so Drive10 should be fine until Micromat finishes updating TechTool Pro for public consumption.

HTH

[[email protected]]

micromat-owning, norton and alsoft non-owning people might be happy. i am.

i ran 3.0.4 volume structures test with no problem - and no problems found. have not run optimizer.

but what's this about ttp not doing structure tests for x yet? perhaps i need to RTFM again, or can someone brief me?