Disk drill Pro vs. TechTool Pro?

[macstatic]

How does Disk Drill Pro compare to TechTool Pro for disk maintenance/recovery?
Thanks to good backup strategies I haven't had the need for anything like that yet, but I already have Disk Drill Pro purchased and installed on my Mac (part of a software bundle) though I've barely tried it out.
Still, I hear that once an incident happens it's good to have an arsenal of tools around. Disk Warrior is on top of my wishlist, but appears never to be discounted. TechTool Pro however is currently discounted 60% for the next 2 or 3 days at Macnn and TwoDollarTuesday and I'm wondering if it's worth getting or if I already have what I need in Disk Drill Pro?

 

[SpinalTap]

They are two completely different programs. DiskDrill is for file recovery, while TechToolPro is for maintaining/rescuing your Mac's data integrity.

I own DiskDrill, TechToolPro, and DiskWarrior. I consider all three to be important in their own right.

 

[Evren Carven]

Disk Drill also has a feature named 'Guaranteed Recovery' to protect data and never lose it again.

 

[mijail]

In case it helps: I used TechToolPro a couple of times looong ago, still on what we now call "classic Mac OS" (pre-OS X).
It was such an useless, bloated, even scammy thing, that I never even considered them again. There were free tools doing far better most of what the paid TechToolPro theoretically should do.

TechToolPro discounted? Ha! I wonder why.

As for DiskWarrior: again, I used it loooong ago, but it was really solid and saved me a couple of times. No idea how it has evolved since then, though.

Anyway, I just took a look at both TechToolPro and Disk Drill Pro and both seem to mostly do things that free tools do. As a particular example, TechToolPro checks "free RAM". That's BS; if you want to check RAM, you better check as much of it as possible, and for that you'll probably have to restart in Single User Mode, so only minimal RAM is busy. Look at the free version of memtest86.com for an example.

Furthermore, when you will REALLY need tools is when the drive hardware starts to fail, and then I doubt any of these tools will help you - but there are again free tools which will work (like dd_rescue).

In summary: if your goal is to be ready for a disaster and spend little money, you should better take a look at all the free and/or open-source tools available.

 

[macstatic]

I see what you mean as I did go ahead and purchase it at the greatly reduced price. It does have a lot of "check this and that" type of functions I've seen elsewhere, but the nice thing is that it's all in one app. On the other hand I can see SpinalTap's point as well since it does seem to have some actual "repair" type of tools such as defragmentation, Volume rebuild, Volume cloning, data recovery etc.

Yes, I too remember TechTool (the free "non-pro" version I believe) from back in the days of pre-OSX. I faintly have a memory of Norton Utility as well, which was a great tool, but seems to be gone from the Mac platfom.

 

[mijail]

I see what you mean as I did go ahead and purchase it at the greatly reduced price. It does have a lot of "check this and that" type of functions I've seen elsewhere, but the nice thing is that it's all in one app.

You're not getting it. Precisely because it's "all-in-one" it can NOT be a good RAM tester.
If it doesn't make you restart, it is not a good RAM tester, period.

If you prefer paid, phony convenience to honest tools, well, ... that's your choice.