Micromat announces TechTool Pro 4.5

Micromat today announced TechTool Pro 4.5, a Universal Binary of the system and volume diagnostic/repair and recovery utility that features the innovative eDrive (emergency startup partition) feature. Version 4.5.1 will include improved Disk Controller test routines as well dual-boot compatibility for operation on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. The program will ship on a DVD that automatically boot the correct system version. The company says that an updater from earlier versions will not be available due "to the sheer size of the program and system files;" however, a DVD update will be available to current customers for $25 and will be automatically mailed for free to current subscribers of the TechTool Quarterly subscription service. It will ship in July for $100 with upgrades priced at $60. A public beta is now available for current owners of TechTool Pro 4.

In addition, TechTool Pro 4 is included as a part of Micromat's TechTool Protege product. TechTool Protege is a small FireWire flash drive geared toward Macintosh professionals. It includes both TechTool Pro 4 and the disk partitioning utility DiskStudio. Micromat said it is also working on an upgrade for TechTool Protege to support the new Intel-based Macs and said that Protege owners will be offered a low-cost update, which it expects to be available approximately 30 days after the release of TechTool Pro 4.5. The Protege update will include a convenient "flash" application that allows the user to quickly and easily configure Protege to the system(s) on which they intend to utilize the device. As with the TechTool Pro update, Micromat expects this update to ship on DVD media for $25.

TechTool Pro 4.5.1 is a full-featured Mac diagnostic and repair program that offers functions for optimization and defragmentation, an "eDrive" to create an emergency repair partition on your drive, scheduled automatic Diagnostics and Protection, email notification of Diagnostic failures, Volume Structure Rebuild, Computer hardware testing, checks for Finder Info and File Structures, a S.M.A.R.T. test to help predict drive hardware failures, a surface Scan to check for physical bad blocks on a disk, data recovery from damaged volumes, secure data deletion, and both USB and FireWire tests.

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