Micromat's Checkmate utility

Why do you believe you need Checkmate? Such tools may be useful once you have a problem, but otherwise they are not needed, may slow down the computer, may be incompatible with future versions of OS X or even current versions.

Micromat has simply unbundled a component of TT Pro, added a feature or two, and is now selling it as though you need it and TT Pro, when in reality you probably don't need either.

The only disk tool I have ever used or needed other than Disk Utility is Alsoft's Disk Warrior. If you maintain reliable and multiple backups you rarely need such tools. You simply erase the drive and restore a backup.

Personally I think waiting until you have a problem before you run a diagnostic is a little like waiting until you have a noticeable problem with your vehicle before you service it. With a vehicle, you are much safer doing the routine 5000 mile inspections. Most of the time, the car techs won't find something, but sometimes they might find something that could cause you serious trouble if left uncorrected. The same can happen with a computer. I've used TTP for years, and I can't count the number of times it has found a problem that I've been able to repair. The thing with driver errors (certain kinds anyway) is that if you don't fix them, they can get worse. Especially certain kinds of directory errors, etc. Soon, if left unfixed, your whole drive is unreadable. If you have explicit confidence in your backups, maybe that is not a concern. Personally I use backups, but do not trust them one bit. Backups can fail too.

I just purchased Checkmate, and haven't really used it yet. But its ability to do sector checks while your computer is idle is pretty cool. I almost always skip the sector checks in TTP because it is such a slow process, especially with multiple high-GB volumes. I think a background checking app is a great idea.

I think Micromat is a reputable enough company, you don't really need to worry about compability. Never had a problem with them.

Also, don't worry about it slowing down your computer. The whole idea behind Checkmate is that it runs while your computer is idle. So it shouldn't interfere with your using it at all.

WARNING: Checkmate was working fine ( for 3 months) until micromat updated their software about a week ago (Feb 5th, 2013) to version 1.0.3, and all of a sudden the program can no longer find available time to do it's thing in the background, and so it does nothing at all. I made them aware of the problem and they sent me a BETA 1.0.4 link; however, it does not load.

DO NOT purchase the software until they are providing a version that works. The version number would have to be 1.0.4 or higher.

Reading the replays here it would seem no one understands what Checkmate does.

It is not a repair tool.

You install and it checks and warns of problems so you can repair them before things get to bad.

You would also own Techtool so you can repair you system once Checkmate reports it has a problem.

Having said that you would be better getting Drive Genius as its Drive checking functionality happens in the back ground and it is also the tool to repair the problem. Memtest is a great tool to test you memory for free.

Checkmate is over priced and really should just be part of Techtool.

Checkmate is crap. The only reason I purchased it was because of a limited discount. Right now, I believe its 30 bucks and its not even worth that. It does what it is supposed to do (scan for problems while you aren't using your computer), but its a HUGE RESOURCE HOG. I have 8gb in my Macbook Pro and it sucked it dry. That alone was reason enough to delete it. I guess I will have to rely on common sense and hard drive back ups to carry me through disk issues. This is a huge epic fail. I hope they iron out some of the issues in future revisions. For now, I am deleting this POS.

@Suspekt Sorry to hear that you were having trouble with Checkmate. This sounds like a problem with the initial release of Checkmate that has been addressed in version 1.0.4 and later. If you continue to have trouble, don't hesitate to reach out to us at help@micromat.com.