I have been using Micromat products for what seems like eons. In the mid-90s, MacEKG was the first utility to simply 'WOW!" me -- and my customers. Slick ('though unnecessary) animations, graphics and a wealth of information. This product ranked up there with Pina's 'Dead Mac Scrolls' or FWB's Had Disk Tookit user manual -- a hard drive reference like no other.

Well before I bought DiskWarrior (on floppy), MacEKG was saving my customer's bacon. Naurally, I relied on others in the last 20 years: Disk First Aid, MacMedic, Help!, SUM (abandoned by Symantec), Norton (the 'good' versions, prior to 4 -- oh, that's about the time Symantec changed apparent affection and took 10 and a handful of increasingly dangerous versions as they abandoned development), MacTools (by Central Point -- later bought and abandoned by Symantec), Snooper (another Central Point standout later bought and abandoned by Symantec -- trend?), FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit, DiskExpress, Disk Utility, DriveGenius, Data Rescue and yes -- Drive 10.

So I'd like to think that I know user interfaces that work. Please, MicroMat -- I was one of the very first non-beta testers to buy this product from you. I was in touch with your dev team during development. I know it's hard to please the masses -- but you MUST do some revamps with the interface at the conclusion of drive tests, processes or analysis. Determining that everything is fine takes minutes to look over. It should be as glaringly easy as EKG was -- big, bold, colorful or brushed metal -- but in your face "Passed" or "Failed". The in-depth reports should be FAR easier to read. Lots of data is good. Real good. Lots of detail is good, real good. This product's results: ick! Seriously. It looks like someone on the dev team never read an Addison publication on the Mac UI.

Second -- If I install this package, I'd love a custom install. I don't want Techtool 4 to install an eDrive on my machine -- good, you give me that control. Ditto on the other automated stuff. Looks great, until I look at my running processes. Hey -- what's that? a Techtool process? I don't want TTP running ANY kind of protection process. Right now: it's running something. I don't have Techtool launched. I don't want the TTP cron process idling in the background. Sure, it's only using 10 Mb of RAM, but I don't want it there at all UNLESS I TELL IT TO BE THERE by activating a necessary component: eDrive, Diagnostics set to run automatically, or SMART tests running automatically, or the Alerts... you get the picture. If I didn't activate anything at all -- Techtool shouldn't be running anything at all. (Gives me warm and fuzzies when my machine is running only the necessary. Helps in troubleshooting, too.)

Unlike some of the posts here, I think you have a viable product. Used in conjucture with DiskWarrior and some of the others, this is a powerful part of any tech's arsenal. But user friendly isn't its strongest point. Get us a plain-jane report summary at the conclusion of the test(s) -- passed or failed; wonderful or warning. Then, lower on the report, give the juice and the detail. The Mac -- it's all about the UI Techs care about that, too. Not just source code, CLI and techno-babble.

Thanks!