Micromat Releases Native OS X Drive Utility

Micromat has released a new OS X drive utility, Drive 10. Drive 10 performs a wide variety of drive diagnostic and repair functions, including checking and repairing directory structure, a format check, and a media surface scan. Drive 10 can be run natively from within Mac OS X, rather than having to boot into OS 9 or Single User Mode to perform repairs. According to Micromat:

For Appleis next-generation operating system, youill need a next-generation disk utility. Thatis why Micromat has introduced Drive 10, the first and final disk utility for Mac OS X. Problems with your drive? Drive 10 can repair almost any drive problem with one simple click of your mouse.

Drive 10 is a new product from Micromat Incorporated, the leader in Macintosh disk repair and maintenance technology. In the 12 years that the company has been producing Macintosh products, Micromat has been at the forefront of Macintosh technology. Micromat introduced the first commercially available diagnostic for Macintosh in 1989. They also produced the first computer diagnostic ever launched into outer space. Now with the release of Mac OS X, Micromat introduces the first commercial drive utility available for this new system.

Sporting a sleek Aqua interface, this advanced disk repair and recovery product has been designed exclusively for Mac OS X. In addition to repairing drives and recovering data, Drive?10 offers the additional benefit of providing automatic, regular backups of important volume structure data. This feature can make data and drive recovery far easier and more reliable.

There are a variety of invisible files, settings, and parameters that the OS X file system uses to locate files, free disk space, and for other maintenance and management routines. These are known collectively as the Volume Structure. The Catalog and Disk Directory are parts of the volume structure. Damage to these and other critical structures can result in lost or damaged data that could require a complete reformat of the media. Reformatting a drive destroys ALL data on the media.

Drive 10 can scan your drives and repair problems related to the numerous structures that are necessary for the volume to operate correctly. If problems are found, Drive 10 can often repair these problems and bring your drive back to life in only a few minutes. When Drive 10 finds a problem, it will build a new set of volume structures instead of patching the old structures like other utilities do. This is the surest and safest method of recovering your valuable data.

While Drive 10 is a new product, it is derived from TechTool Pro, Micromatis world-class diagnostic and repair utility. Using TechToolis time-tested routines as well as some new routines developed exclusively for OS X, Drive 10 offers many tools for checking and repairing any drive on your system (see test list for details).

Included Tools:

  • Unit Ready
  • Supply Voltage
  • Self-Diagnostic
  • Rezero Unit
  • Format Check
  • Spare Sectors
  • Surface Scan
  • Random Read
  • Random Write
  • Seek
  • Linear Read
  • Linear Write
  • Read Buffer
  • Write Buffer
  • Volume Structure

Drive 10 is available for US$69.95. You can find more information at the Micromat Web site.