This is one of the most common questions that we get about Techtool Pro. When Techtool Pro first launches or updates, it asks if you would like to install the Techtool Protection system preference pane. This (optional) system preference extends the functionality of Techtool Pro and provides some continuous monitoring features.

Techtool Pro provides some data recovery options for rotational drives formatted Mac OS Extended. Installing Techtool Protection and enabling Trash History and Directory Backups on any such drives allows Techtool Pro to be most effective at recovering data, should that be necessary.

Techtool Protection also provides monitoring for a few potential problem areas on your Mac. Volume Usage allows monitoring drives to ensure they don’t become too full and reduce performance. SMART Check will notify you if a drive is nearing failure. Power On Self-Test and I/O Check monitor your Mac’s logs to detect RAM errors encountered at startup and errors reading or writing to your disk, respectively. There are also warnings for Battery health and RAID status for Macs so equipped.

Finally, Techtool Protection includes Email Alerts, which it uses to send you an email if any of the above warnings find a problem. To enable Email alerts, check the corresponding box and fill out the settings with your email provider’s *outgoing* settings.

Click here for help with setting up email alerts.

Hopefully this overview will help you decide whether installing Techtool Protection is right for you.