Support Blog
Updating your eDrive
When updates are released, either for macOS or Techtool Pro, it is a good idea to also make sure that your eDrive is up to date. Note that updating the macOS or Techtool Pro on your main startup disk won't update your eDrive, because the eDrive exists on a separate partition.
Here are our recommendations for the best way to keep your eDrive up to date.
Using specialized tools
Techtool Pro is sometimes compared to a Swiss army knife. It is a single tool with a variety of functions. In some cases, however, you might decide that you need a more specialized tool for a particular task. In our experience, RAM testing and reading SMART data are two tasks where you might want additional functionality. Enter ATOMIC and Drive Scope, utilities designed with a very specific function.
What about my Time Machine disk?
Time Machine drives present an interesting challenge when it comes to drive maintenance. This is primarily because they store many versions of each of your files as they have changed over time. In the volume structures of the disk, this is achieved using what is known as a hard link. Rather than store copies of each file with each backup, links are created to tell the disk to store multiple references to the data that makes up the original file, and only store new data when a file changes. While this saves lots of disk space, it makes the volume structures of Time Machine disks especially complicated.
The unusual characteristics of Time Machine disks make performing maintenance on these disks especially challenging. Running the File Structures test, for instance, can take an especially long time, because it must follow each link, meaning that it ends up checking the same raw data multiple times. And when a Volume Rebuild is run, the sheer size of the volume structures on a Time Machine can present special challenges.
eDrive vs. Protogo
Every Mac user is different, so each Mac user may have different needs for diagnostic drives. Techtool Pro gives you choices when it comes to building a startup drive for troubleshooting. The eDrive tool adds a partition to an existing hard drive like your internal startup drive or an external drive, such as a Time Machine disk. The Protogo tool, however, builds a dedicated troubleshooting device, and is best used with a fast thumb drive since Protogo devices are reformatted prior to being built.