Hard drive utilities needed?

[kcrossley]

In the old days, I used apps like DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro for regular hard drive maintenance. With the latest versions of Mac OS, are these apps still needed? If so, what is the preferred app that people are using these days?

Also, what's the best data recovery app right now?

Thanks,
Kelly

 

[Fishrrman]

I've noticed that at least older copies of Drive Genius will no longer work properly with the drive in my 2018 Mini (which has a t2 chip controlling the drive). The apps will launch, but some features aren't available or the internal drive won't show up. External drives still show up, but not the t2-governed internal drive.

So... I'm thinking that most of these "drive utility" applications are "rendered moot" by the combination of the t2 chip and APFS.

Having said that, I'll bet most data recovery apps are going to choke on t2 Macs, as well. Either they won't be able to "see" the internal drive, or won't be able to pull anything off of one. For all practical purposes, erased or munged data on these drives is... gone.

 

[kcrossley]

Thanks, @Fishrrman. Yeah, I have an iMac Pro with the T2 as well. Unfortunately, I think you're right. So far it's been a rock-solid computer, but I haven't heard many good things about the T2 chip.