Hard Disk ToolKit for Mac.

How to protect your hard drive from crashing by doing preventative maintenance in advance. Introduction to FWB Hard Disk Tool Kit, Norton Utilities, Tech Tool, and other software for helping tune up your hard drive for Mac or PC.

For years Norton Utilities was the best (and seemingly the only) serious utility for hard disk maintenance. Yet when we got our RAID system, for Mac OS 8.1, with Ultra2 SCSI, the tech told us to be sure not to use Norton Utilities, not even the latest version.

In the meantime we had heard a lot about Hard Disk ToolKit. So we tried it.

On another computer (with no RAID system) I noticed that the FWB software provided much clearer information on the details of the SCSI drives. FWB gives name, model, and all kinds of information that I did not notice with Norton Utilities. Nonetheless, Norton Utilities has been around a long time, and has many believers and followers. As soon as Norton Utilities can handle the newer MAC OS and file formats, then perhaps Norton Utilities can catch up. In the meantime, Hard Disk ticket has left out in front and Tech Tool is on the move as well. So far, however, neither of these could reinitialize an IBM drive that decided to crash. Considering all the problems I have had with IBM drives I would recommend Seagate and/or Quantum drives.

Of course there are hard drive situations that software cannot repair easily (perhaps a trained professional technician can tweak more out of the software, but I write these reviews for people who do not have a technician on duty 24 hours a day). So far none of the hard drive utilities could repair the disk on my PowerBook 3400c. It is old and failing; putting Mac 0S 8.5 over Mac OS 7.6 was a severe shock to the hard drive because it could no longer hide its defects. Currently the disk software does not even recognize the hard drive is present. Fortunately, the computer itself recognizes it, the hard drive holds data, and I will hope it holds out until I can get a replacement hard drive. Two or three companies now offer replacement hard drives for the Mac PowerBook.

Recently I have been hearing more about TechTool and other disk utilities. As we have time these will be reviewed, or at least introduced. In the meantime, if you like the latest utility, we recommend Hard Disk ToolKit from FWB. FWB has a long tradition in hard drive systems.

Most recently updated April 09, 2001.