Tech tool surface scan

Is the surface scan on the tech tool important to use often? It takes so darn long. Someone told me not to bother with it. thx, sue

I suspect my drive is bad so I've been running Tech Tool Pro tests. Everything seems to pass (Disk Controller, Read Write & SMART) but now I'm running Surface Scan. I understand that this is supposed to take long but what's "long"? Mine has been running for 5 days now...I'm assuming there's something wrong. Whenever I check it, it has progressed (currently scanning block 92288 of 976773168) but at this rate, it'll take a month to complete!
Should I throw in the towel or is this what you guys mean when you say that Surface Scan takes long?
Thanks
Al

Similar Messages

Tech Tool Deluxe Volume Structure test query

Hi,
Sorry if this is elsewhere, but my searches have not supplied a definitive answer.
As part of my regular maintenance routine on my iMac (mid 2010 i7 quad core) that I purchased just before Christmas, I have run the AppleCare Tech Tool Deluxe scans at regular monthly intervals with no problems, until about a month ago.
When the program does it's stuff, all tests pass, except the volume structure one (in the window showing the image of the volume structure, it says fail! above the "icon"). The final report that Tech Tool Deluxe comes out with says everything has passed. What's going on?
Because of this, I''ve also done a surface scan in the program and it was OK, as was verifying the disk in Disk Utility from the Snow Leopard DVD. I've repaired permissions and even reformatted the Macintosh HD and done a complete reinstall of the OS (not from backup), all of which come up with the same result in Tech Tool Deluxe - volume structure fails, but final report passes.
The version of Tech Tool Deluxe I have installed from the AppleCare disc is 3.1.3, which according to Micromat is the current one, but this is from 2009.
So my question is this:
Has the updated Snow Leopard (10.6.6) changed it's volume structure slightly meaning that Tech Tool Deluxe thinks there's a problem as it's scanning, but then ignores it for the final report, or is my HDD failing?
I've not noticed any issues whatsoever with the iMac and I have both Time Machine and bootable SuperDuper backups, so I'm not worried about my data.
Would you guys recommend ignoring it for now, or should I get Diskwarrior to check it out further?
Thanks for any help, or light that can be shed on this issue.

Hi Den,
Thanks for this, I emailed them and they are giving the usual story of "this product was developed for Apple, so you'll need to speak to them".
I've bit the bullet and purchased DiskWarrior 4.3 and by installing it onto my SuperDuper backup drive, I was able to check out the iMac's internal HD.
DiskWarrior was able to find errors in file structure and permissions etc (it didn't give details) and was able to repair them. After rebooting into the internal HDD, I ran TechTool Deluxe 3.1.3 again, and this time it said that it failed the volume structure during the test and then in the final report. It tried to get me to download the repair version of the software, but the web page that opened had nothing to do with TechTool's download. As a little self test, I ignored it and ran the test again. This time, it failed during the test (as normal) and then said that it passed in the final report.
I have therefore come to the conclusion that if Disk Utility AND DiskWarrior say that it's fine, then the issue must be with TechTool Deluxe. At least it doesn't seem to be an issue with the actual drive.
I admit that I was getting suspicious of TechTool when a fresh install on a reformatted HDD said that the volume structure failed and then passed. There must be something different about the current version of Snow Leopard comared to that at the time of release of version 3.1.3 of Tech Tool Deluxe.
Thanks for all your help guys.
Obviously, if someone can prove me wrong, that would help me ascertain as to what is going on.
Message was edited by: pdscott

Tech Tool Deluxe 'Surface Scan Failed-'

Surface scan repeatedly failing, no recent change to iBook settings, I suspect that this problem may have been caused by m-audio software, however I believe it has been properly uninstalled. Advice?
Error message reads;
'Surface Scan Failed - 212 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.'
I am unsure as what this report is prompting me to do. What does the term 'media' mean in this context? Which data should I be trying to replace?
Please forward any tips on how to resolve this issue.
<Post Relocated by Moderator>

When I use the disk utility application the volume passes verification, is this contrary to Tech Tools or are they analyzing different elements of the drive?
Yes, different, DU is just basically checking part of the drive, where Directory info is stored & such.
Laptop drives are generally a lot shorter lived than regular drives, which now seem to last 3 to 5 tears.
Although these errors are present it doesn't seem to be effecting my day to day running of things at the moment...
There's a Train Wreck coming up ahead though, you can avoid it, or wait 'till it hits!
Not certain which iBook G4 you have, but here's some ideas on HD replacements...
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=198&type=DataStorage&TI=5904&shoupgrds=ShowUpgrades

Help! Tech Tool Scan shows failures

Tech Tool Deluxe show that Format Check failed, Directory Scan failed, Surface Scan was skipped and Volume Structure failed. Can someone help me understand what is going on and what I should do to fix these problems. I called Apple Support yesterday. The advisor told me to insert the install disk, go into Disk Utility and click repair and yet today when I put in the Tech Tool just to check if things were working properly, it showed the same issues are still happening.

I don't have a copy of TTD, so I'm not familiar with it, but were you just scanning from problems, or did you try to have TTD repair the issues? Did you have Disk Utility repair the disk as instructed? If repairs are failing with both TTD and DU, then your drive may be in the process of failing, or it may be so badly corrupted that it can't be repaired. In the former case, you will simply have to replace the drive. In the latter, repartitioning it with Disk Utility and then reinstalling the system and all your data may bring it back to life.
Note that your first order of business regardless should be ensuring that you have a good set of backups (a minimum of two backups). See my [Mac Backup Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/guides/backups>.

Tech Tool Deluxe cannot scan Video Ram

My Tech Tool Deluxe stalls when I scan my computer. Macbook Pro. (Lion)

When I use the disk utility application the volume passes verification, is this contrary to Tech Tools or are they analyzing different elements of the drive?
Yes, different, DU is just basically checking part of the drive, where Directory info is stored & such.
Laptop drives are generally a lot shorter lived than regular drives, which now seem to last 3 to 5 tears.
Although these errors are present it doesn't seem to be effecting my day to day running of things at the moment...
There's a Train Wreck coming up ahead though, you can avoid it, or wait 'till it hits!
Not certain which iBook G4 you have, but here's some ideas on HD replacements...
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=198&type=DataStorage&TI=5904&shoupgrds=ShowUpgrades

Internal hard drive/repair: SMART status; Disk Utility, Tech Tool & More

machine: 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 (Aluminium) with 80GB internal HD
internal hard drive (original): Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series HTS541080G9AT00
hard drive firmware: MB4AA5AJ
ATA version: 6
ATA standard: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
I have monitored the SMART status etc. of my internal drive with smartmontools for some time. Occasionally, I would see an error or a failed self-test but later testing always succeeded and things did not seem to be problematic.
At the beginning of this week, I started to see a lot of failed self-tests (though some still passed), a rising number of bad ("pending") sectors and reallocation attempts (though no reallocated sectors) and various other errors. The computer seemed to have trouble reading from the disk at times and Carbon Copy Cloner reported two I/O errors when cloning (a later clone succeeded). fsck showed errors although running fsck -fy repeatedly seemed to resolve them.
The Apple hardware tests initially reported an error (2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master) but I hadn't realised I should disconnect peripherals before running it so I did that and repeated the test which found no issues. I ran the extended test a total of three times with no errors.
As I continued to have problems, I booted from my clone and had Disk Utility wipe the drive by writing zeros to it. (I thought trying to get it to write everywhere would either finish the drive off or force it to reallocate the bad blocks. As I understand it, in normal use, the drive won't reallocate the blocks unless it can recover the data in the hopes of reading it at a later time.)
I then continued monitoring the disk using smartmontools. At this point, short self-tests succeed but extended self-tests "disappear". They don't fail, they simply vanish. They begin and smartctl shows the test in progress but then no error or result is logged - it is as if the test was never run. The first time I did this, I got an error saying the SMART attributes could not be read but subsequent tests do not trigger even an error. Short self-tests continue to pass.
There are now (according to SMART) zero bad ("pending") sectors but zero reallocated sectors, which seems odd. The raw read error rate fluctuates (zero one minute, many thousands a while later) although I am not sure it did not do this before.
Disk Utility claims the disk does not support SMART status even though smartctl clearly shows it does. Disk Utility claims the volume is "OK".
I ran Tech Tool Deluxe 3.04 from CD and 3.1.1 from my clone. In both cases, I ran all available tests on the drive. No problems were found.
I am seeing some problems even while booted from my clone - yesterday, the system froze completely and I had to force a shut-down by switching off the power (fsck then found a minor error but repaired it). Just before this happened, I was unable to mount a disk image and was trying to rectify the situation when the system froze. It is possible that the errors fsck corrected were implicated in the freeze, rather than caused by it, since Disk Utility found and repaired similar errors for the other two clones I have (on different partitions of my external drive - yes, I know this is sub-optimal).
Here is some current output from smartmontools:
---output: smartctl -q noserial -a disk0---
smartctl version 5.38 [powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
Device Model: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
Firmware Version: MB4AA5AJ
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
Local Time is: Sat Jul 3 20:28:52 2010 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 645) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 55) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 RawRead_ErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 SpinUpTime 0x0007 142 142 033 Pre-fail Always - 2
4 StartStopCount 0x0012 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 5793
5 ReallocatedSectorCt 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 SeekErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 SeekTimePerformance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 PowerOnHours 0x0012 039 039 000 Old_age Always - 26720
10 SpinRetryCount 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 PowerCycleCount 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4168
191 G-SenseErrorRate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-OffRetractCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 201877487644
193 LoadCycleCount 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2209599
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/46)
196 ReallocatedEventCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 194
197 CurrentPendingSector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMACRC_ErrorCount 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2138 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
PoweredUpTime is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2138 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26716 hours (1113 days + 4 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
10 51 00 09 4f c2 a0 Error: IDNF
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
b0 d6 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.500 SMART WRITE LOG
b0 d5 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.300 SMART READ LOG
b0 d1 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ DATA
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART RETURN STATUS
Error 2137 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:37.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
Error 2136 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 21 1f 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 33 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951f = 77108511
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
Error 2135 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 22 1e 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 34 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951e = 77108510
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
Error 2134 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 92 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:12.100 READ DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBAof_firsterror
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26716 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26715 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26714 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26697 -
# 9 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26692 75071682
#10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26687 -
#11 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26676 77108511
#12 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26663 296917
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26657 -
#14 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26646 296918
#15 Short offline Completed: read failure 70% 26645 296905
#16 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#17 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#18 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26643 296916
#19 Short offline Completed: read failure 20% 26643 296909
#20 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 26620 -
#21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26618 -
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENTTESTSTATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
---end output---
Self-tests 1-8 were all run after I erased the disk. The others were run before I did so. Not listed are the extended self-tests I've started since erasing which, as I say, have simply disappeared.
The checksum error regarding the log is normal for this disk. At least, I've got that error ever since I started using smartmontools for monitoring so I assume it is normal. (I installed this version of the software in about April 2008 and have used it since.) Also, starting offline testing has never succeeded on this disk (I think I checked into this at the time but can't quite remember - this is not new, anyway).
Questions
how should I interpret all this? (Why does Disk Utility say SMART is not supported while smartctl clearly shows it is at the same time? Why do the extended tests simply vanish? Is the drive definitely dying?) I do not want to replace the disk unless I absolutely have to because I understand that replacing disks in 12" PBs is no small matter and cost is an issue. I do not want to replace the machine unless I have to because cost is an issue and, also, I really like this computer and have no idea what I would want in its place, even if expense were no obstacle.
if it isn't clear whether the drive is dying or not, is there some further strategy I can use to establish this?
if the drive is dying, is a machine of this age worth repairing and, if it is, under what circumstances is it worth doing so? For example, it might be worth doing if you can do the job yourself, but that might be quite impractical for non-expert (not to mention, inexpert) users.
if there is a hardware problem (which I obviously think is very, very probable at this point), is it definitely a dying hard drive? (I've seen people write ominous things about disk controllers etc. which I gather are more serious - or less repairable - than a "mere" dying disk.)
what questions should I be asking you and what are the answers to those questions?!
Many thanks for your patience in reading this far.
- cfr

The 12" PB internals are a bit more complex, for PB's. If you don't want to replace the hard drive yourself or pay someone to install it, you could always get an external firewire hard drive, and use it to boot from and for general usage. Would have to be firewire, since the PB won't book from a USB device. One example of what you could get is a 160GB external hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U5160GB8/ . All the choices with that case are listed here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
Have you called any Apple Authorized Service Providers to see what they would charge to install a drive for you? Whether you bought it or they supplied it? You can find a local one in the US at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

Volume structure, surface scan

I have a new imac, it's been with me for about 2 months total. I noticed some silly little things happening occasionally....so I used tech tools and did a scan. The volume structure failed....and the surface scan has 2 errors.
What's the significance of this? What should I do?

Probably nothing. If you used TT Deluxe I would not rely on it's results. The standard repair tool is Disk Utility which is in your Utilities folder. If you need to repair your drive do this:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Tech Tool

Each time we run Tech Tool Deluxe 3.0.4., it reaches Test Surface and it hangs up.
Any ideas?
imac Mac OS X (10.4)

unable to open as a .bin file.You need the free Stuffit Expander.
EDIT: If you are running TTD from the hard drive you are trying to diagnose it won't do a surface scan. The drive has to be unmounted first. Unless, you are using the "e-drive" which I don't think is a feature on Deluxe? Or else you need to be n a different drive.
-mj
[email protected]

Tech Tool Deluxe?

I have completely restarted my MBP, Hoping that this might straighten out any of the problems. But it didn't, When ever I run a full scan with "Tech Tool Deluxe" it has a result of six errors with the "surface scan". In the report it says-
Surface Scan
Failed - 6 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
What do I do?? How do I go about reformatting?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
To backup your data, follow the instructions on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Once you have a backup, locate your MacBook Pro restore and installation discs, and double click the installer. Upon reaching the installer screen and selecting the language, go to the Utilities menu and select disk utility.
This will allow you to erase the hard drive.
You can also proceed with a simple Erase and Install in the installer program. That will erase as well.
If afterwards Techtool Deluxe does not detect improvement on your hard drive, and you are using a Techtool Deluxe version known to work with your MacBook Pro, then I'd call Apple and request they replace the hard drive on your machine, as it would sound the drive itself is damaged.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Tech Tool Deluxe identifies "Bad Blocks"

I have two G4's that have been misbehaving. I ultimately erased both hard drives, zeroed out the data, re-installed 10.4, and then ran Tech Tool Deluxe. On my newer G4, the analysis revealed 6 bad blocks. On the older G4, I am only half done and I have 300 bad blocks. One discussion mentioned that "zeroing" the data on the drive would solve the problem - I did that and still have the bad blocks. Should I have ZERO bad blocks - are a few OK?
Thank you

So, when I erased my disk, "zeroed" out the data (using Disk Utility), should I have zeroed-out the bad blocks as well (identified them, re-addressed them, etc)?
Zeroing the data re-writes every block. As you know, it takes hours to complete. This forces IDE/ATA drives to substitute spares for up to 10 blocks known to have problems, IF
• enough spare blocks are available AND
• spares are not also bad AND
• not more than 10 substitutions are required.
afterward, I did an AHT - no negative result
AHT checks the Directory data structures for damage. It does not read every block, and cannot detect all Bad Blocks on the drive. Doing that takes almost as long as Zero all Data, and AHT is done in only a few minutes.
Disk Utility also did not identify any problems (a few Disk Permissions).
Disk Utility's Repair and Repair Permissions features check the Directory Data Structures and File Permissions for damage and inconsitency. They cannot detect all bad Blocks on the drive. Doing that takes almost as much time as Zero all Data, and AHT is done in only a few minutes.
It was Tech Tool Deluxe that discovered the bad blocks
The "Surface Scan" function reads every block. It is the only test you listed that reads every block, but takes a really long time to do so. It can detect Bad Blocks, but does not fix them. Also, when an IDE/ATA drive has Bad Blocks, its "Smartdrive" status is usually something horrible-sounding like "Failed".
For the drive with 6 bad blocks - what should I do (and in what order) to see if they can be eliminated?
That requires another initialize with "Zero all Data". If there are enough spares in the right neighborhoods, it may be able to substitute spares to make it 100 percent good blocks. There is a possibility that some of the remaining Bad Blocks cannot be repaired, and that may mean the drive is not in good enough shape to continue using it.

Tech Tools Deluxe 4.6.1

I purchased Pro version of the subject utility shortly after receiving an iMAC last April. I am an Apple Care member. I didn't know that Apple Care members could receive Tech Tools Deluxe without cost. I understand that Micromat has a version of Tech Tools Deluxe that is Leopard compatible, but the new version doesn't appear on the Apple Care website. Does anyone have any information of when Apple Care will be providing the updated version of Tech Tools Deluxe?

A week ago Micromat informed me when I called that Deluxe was NOT Leopard compatible, and Apple had not yet contracted with them to do an update (Deluxe is available only with Applecare). If I recall correctly, this happened with the upgrade to Tiger a couple years ago, and took months for Apple/Micromat to bring out a new product. In the interim, Micromat says to not run Deluxe under Leopard. I had Pro on another machine, so purchased another license key for my wife's iMac. Pro has more capabilities that Deluxe, but you may or may not be interested in them. The main thing I like Techtool for is to run a surface scan. Twice in the last several years this has shown problems on new hard drives, which enabled me to replace them under warranty.

Surface scan errors

My iMac G5 began freezing up, sometimes making ticking noises, loud fan noises. After talking to Tech Support and repairing permissions and repairing disk, I am running the Tech Tool Deluxe CD. On the surface scan test, there are 72 errors and it's only about 1/10 finished. What does this mean?

Which version of TechTools Deluxe are you using, Wilma?
It is very common for the version included with AppleCare packages to be TOO OLD for the version of the OS installed on your computer. Sadly, sometimes the people on the phones don't seem to check before asking you to try it.
see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61794 for information about updating to the current version. You should be able to obtain it from https://support.apple.com/techtooldeluxe/main?id=dl
Using an "older" version of TTD can cause serious problems.
It MAY be that the indicated problems are real, and that your HD has serious problems. It may also, however, simply be a false error reading, in which case attempting to use TTD to resolve the situation may cause far more serious problems than it can cure.
Personally I WISH that Apple only provided this software as a download, rather than on the Applecare CD's, so that people could be assured of using the latest version, appropriate for their computer.
Rod

What does a "full surface scan" of a hard drive?

I've been advised to do a "hard format and full surface scan" of new internal hard drives I'm adding to my new mac pro to hopefully avoid encountering any problems down the line. (mostly HDV video editing purposes) If there are any problems I would just exchange the drives now rather than wait for the problem to pop up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if disk utility does a true surface scan. So, is there any included apple application that does a true "full surface scan"? If not, what other inexpensive software would do it? I've heard of disk warrior and similar software but they are $100 which I'd like to avoid spending on a preemptive surface scan. Thanks.

You can look for free utility. But you won't find a better disk catalogue maintenance program.
You could buy TechTool Pro that does a good media surface scan but then fails or doesn't actually do anything to map a sector out.
Windows wlll let you use the vendor's own tool and does an excellent job.
SMART Utility sounds like it does a good job.
Intech Speedtools has a suite of tools but I found it to not do a good job when I did notice the side effects and behavior of weak and bad blocks. ZoneBench/QuickBench set is only $29 and you can do a lot with those, helps to create multiple partitions to force write test to every block.
Bottom line i see: no free lunches.
I use to believe that a zero all would attempt but the errors have to be really bad to pick them up. And a 7-way write erase takes 7X longer and really strains things. So I stict to WD Diagnostic Utility running in Windows, and I swear by the results and job it does. Excellect.
In theory, enterprise drives with 1.4 million MTBF hours have longer burn-in and therefore should be safer.
You could torture a drive for a few days and load it with files and then erase with zero and/or 7-way.

Surface Scan Fail (TechTool Deluxe)

I thought my problem was fixed, but apparently not... my PowerBook works when I first boot it up, but as I use it for a while (or close it and re-open it), things start freezing. Sometimes it can't find my AirPort connection, either.
Anyway, I ran the TechTool Deluxe that came with AppleCare, and it said the Surface Scan Failed:
"Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again."
Joeuu helped me over in another thread, and I've already archived and installed from the discs, but now that I've backed up all my important files, should I consider erasing and installing? Is that what that message means? Or should I try something else?
Thanks in advance!

Good that you have AppleCare still.
Do you by any chance have .Mac and auto synch? Or any networking going on?
1. Call and get a case number.
2. Be patient as they will probably ask you to do things you have already done. Take copious notes as to what we have done and what they ask you to do.
3. Don't be afraid to ask for a higher level of tech if you get frustrated.
4. Decide how long you can be without your Book. The fact that it is portable, they will send you a box to use to ship to them.
Will not hurt to do an erase and install, I'm still wondering why logging in as a new user helped greatly, albeit only for a while--leaned to the software side.
Hang Tough!
Joe

Tech Tool Pro and iMac 2009

There is a disturbing message re: Tech Tool Pro 5 at its place in the Apple Store website
(http://store.apple.com/us/product/TT757LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA1Mw&mco=MTA4NTE4NzE).
Basically he says it corrupted his hard drive totally.
I used to rely on an earlier version this software for my old G4 desktop and would like to know if the current version is safe to use on the iMac. Anybody using it regularly?

I am a little touchy since one of my older Macs was ruined recently by a well-known anti-virus utility. The hard disk was rendered irreparable.
Software cannot generally ruin drive hardware; it can cause data corruption, but a reformat should resolve that type of problem. In the case you mentioned, I would suspect that the hard drive was already becoming somewhat unreliable. The extra stress from doing frequent malware scans (which basically makes the drive accesses every used sector on the drive repeatedly) caused it to fail completely.
Now that my data is backed up to within one hour using Time Machine, I am less likely to need a tool like TechTool Pro. If I had data corruption, I am more likely to use the +erase the drive and restore from backup+ approach, not the +repair the errors with TechTool Pro+ approach. The maintenance checks are useful, but the important checks can be done with Disk Utility. The optimization features are useful too, but not something that has to be done.

Tech tool surface scan

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