Third-party Disk Utility CDs, Panther compatibility, and the Panther FireWire problem
As a result, disk utility developers periodically release new CDs, with updated/newer versions of the Mac OS that can (hopefully) be used as bootable CDs on all current Mac models.
The recent conflicts between Panther and FireWire drives has raised an interesting, and unfortunate, issue: what if the newer version of the OS provided on those CDs is itself problematic? MacFixIt reader Greg Earle reports on the recently released TechTool Pro 4.0.1:
"The CD it comes on is a Mac OS X bootable CD - this is good news. The *BAD* news is that the CD comes with Mac OS X 10.3 on it, *not* 10.3.1!!!"
(Greg is referring to the fact that the initial version of Panther -- OS X 10.3 -- had a known conflict with many FireWire drives, reported extensively here on MacFixIt, where restarting with those drives connected could result in the drive's directory being irreversibly damaged. The problem was officially acknowledged by Apple as affecting FireWire 800 drives with specific firmware versions, but many MacFixIt readers reported similar issues with other drives, as well. Apple announced that a "fix" for the problem was included in Mac OS X 10.3.1, and updating to Mac OS X 10.3.1 indeed fixed the problem for many users.)
Booting your Mac from a TechTool Pro 4 CD that contains OS X 10.3, instead of the "fixed" 10.3.1, may be dangerous for users with FireWire drives connected that are susceptible to 10.3's FireWire bug. We have contacted Micromat about this issue and will post any information they provide us about the potential for data loss when using this CD and/or any solutions or workarounds they will be providing. Until then, we recommend disconnecting FireWire devices while booting from such CDs.
However, this issue may also affect other disk utility vendors who have recently updated their CDs to include OS X 10.3, and began producing those CDs before OS X 10.3.1 was available.
Resources
firewire and use the CD on main hard disk (usually not firewire[?]);
to deal with firewire, install program from CD onto main drive with
OS 10.3.1 and use that install of program for firewire drives.
Haven't tried it though.
recommended by the manufacturer. Presumably I am no longer in
danger of data loss. But I still plan to disconnect the Firewire drive
before running any 3rd-party disk utility, just to be on the safe side.
updated your system to 10.3.1. You never know when you might have
occasion to hook a drive up to another Mac that hasn't been updated from
10.3 to 10.3.1. As for using the current version of TechTool Pro, the
easiest way is to avoid booting from the CD whenever possible - it boots
and runs slowly, just as Disk Warrior does and, in fact, as all CDs do.
Instead, create an OS X 10.3.1 drive partition just for utilities and
maintenance. You should be able to safely use TechTool from that partition
even with Firewire drives attached - indeed, the partition can be on a
Firewire drive if you don't have an internal partition available. You don't
need to disconnect peripherals to install TechTool on a 10.3.1 system -
just boot in 10.3.1 on the hard drive, not from the CD, to run the installer.
---
Don't anthropomorphize computers.
They hate that.
TechTool Pro 4 provides its own function for creating an emergency boot
partition (they call it the eDrive) on one of your hard disks to boot from
and run the utility. The OS on the eDrive is copied from a boot volume
you specify during its creation, so it will have whichever version of OS X
you are using.
I also copied DiskWarrior to my eDrive so I'll have both utilities available.
drives were LaCie and I have had no problems with TechTool Pro 4 using
it as a Boot CD. I did update my 800 LaCie with their new driver.
As stated above in an earlier reply, the easy "fix" for those with FireWire
drives that are connected, just disconnect and Boot from TechTools Pro
disk and run TT Pro on internal drives. Then, assuming internal drives
are on 10.3.1, boot from internal drive and reconnect the FireWire drives
and run the TT Pro CD for the FireWire drives. I did this for a friend who
has an older Mac and it worked perfectly.
The new TT4 has the option for creating an "e-Drive" on another volume,
which can be booted from in case you need to repair your boot volume.
When creating it you use your boot volume's OS, so OS X 10.3.1 is on my
e-Drive. To boot into it I hold down the Option key, and choose it from
the bootable choices; on my startup screen it is the last volume listed. It
was named the same as my boot volume (OS X), but since it was listed
last and my boot volume is always listed first it was easy to figure out
which was which.
I guess I was lucky when I got my TT4 CD, I immediately booted off of it
and ran some tests. I do have an external Firewire (LaCie) which I had
updated the firmware on, so maybe that might have made a difference.
---
G4 AGP/1.4 Ghz/120 GB internal storage/1.5 GB RAM
G3 Wallstreet/500 Mhz/80GB/324MB RAM
- by WSTZ December 4, 2003 7:28 PM PST
- TTP 4.01 has an eDrive tool, described by Micromat in this manner:
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(7 Comments)Use TechTool Pro?s eDrive tool to create an emergency startup partition
on your hard drive containing TechTool Pro. This new partition is created
WITHOUT the need to reformat the drive on which it is created. The
eDrive contains your basic Mac OS X system as well as a copy of
TechTool Pro. If you ever have trouble with your normal startup volume,
you can simply restart your computer from the eDrive. This will give you
immediate access to the tools you need for recovery and repair. It
eliminates the need for a bootable CD-ROM or ancillary hard drive for
system volume repair or maintenance. This may be particularly attractive
for use on a portable computer. With an eDrive installed you will not
need to carry a repair CD with you on the road.
The eDrive can also be useful if you have updated TechTool Pro via
download and do not have a copy of the newer program CD-ROM. In
that case, simply use the TechTool Pro updater to update your eDrive as
well as the copy of TechTool Pro installed on your normal startup
volume. You can then startup from the eDrive and run the updated
version of TechTool Pro in order to work on your normal startup drive.
End quote. Seems to me that that represents a substantial step forward.