Backing up this directory makes it more likely that youll be able to recover damaged or lost files from your disks.

Micromats TechTool Pro 5.0.4 is the latest version of the companys venerable troubleshooting and data recovery toolkit.

TechTool Pro packs a ton of tests and tools into one easy-to-use package.

This version features a pleasant new interface, a number of new tests, and an automatic monitoring system.

On the testing side, TechTool Pro will check your machines memory, scan disks for bad blocks, run S.M.A.R.T.

On the tool side of the program, you can create a special recovery partition that Micromat calls an eDrive.

The eDrive lets you reboot your machineif your boot drive has died, or if you just want to do some work on itto a special startup partition equipped with TechTool Pro 5 and a few system utilities.

You can use this booted system to try to repair the broken boot disk.

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You can also rebuild a disks directory, defragment files, and consolidate free space on disks, securely erase files or free space, calibrate audio and video, repair permissions, and recover accidentally deleted files or those located on a damaged disk.

You can run all of the specified tests and tools at any time, even when not booted from the eDriveyou just cant make repairs to your boot drive unless you boot from the eDrive (or a different drive) first, so its not active and can be unmounted.

TechTool Pros test suite covers pretty much everything youd ever want to test on your Mac.

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An all-encompassing Check Computer test runs the full suite of tests, though you can disable individual portions of the suite quite easilyeach task appears as a separate icon in the interface, with its own x button to cancel that task.

Running the full suite of tests can be very time consuming, especially on systems with lots of files and folders; the surface scan and file structure tests in particular are lengthy.

Its best to run such tests overnight, when you can leave the computer alone for a number of hours.

You can also access each test individually from the Tests screen, to run it on an as-needed basis.

One test I was particularly impressed with was the S.M.A.R.T.

Instead of simply reporting pass or fail, as do many other tools, TechTool Pro displays a chart showing 18 separate tests, with an indicator for each test showing the results along the passfail scale.

One of my drives, for instance, passes its S.M.A.R.T tests but shows a nearly failing score for temperature changesperhaps a sign of impending failure, or perhaps just an oddity with that drive.

Either way, I know that I need to make sure my backups for that drive are up-to-date, as it may be on the verge of failure.

With a simple passfail for the entire drive, I wouldnt have been aware of this potential problem.

In addition to these as-needed tests, TechTool Pro includes the TechTool Protection System Preferences panel, which lets you automate some tests and reports.

You can set up alerts (on screen and via e-mail) to let you know when any of your drives or partitions drops below a defined percentage of free space, and you can set the time interval between such checks and specify which volumes will be checked.

In my testing, using the Protection panel had a minimal impact on resource utilization.

On my Mac Pro, the background process was typically under 0.5 percent of CPU usage, with occasional spikes to 3 percent to 5 percent for a couple of seconds.

During normal use of the machine, though, I never noticed this activity.

Similarly, TechTool Protection can automatically back up your drives disk catalog (at a user-specified interval), the key file that tells the operating system where everything is on the disk.

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