Diagnostic software?

DragonWoLf · 16 Mar 2012 at 14:23

So I work part time for this local computer repair shop and the situation is this, I have a USB drive in which I have stored a few Window's diagnostic software to use in customers machines such as memtest, spyware checker etc but I have none for Mac's.

So anyone could recommend me some freeware diagnostic software for Apple machines similar to their Window's counterparts?

paradigm · 16 Mar 2012 at 14:26

You got a "for instance"?

What kind of things are you looking for an alternative for?

Most of the useful diagnostic tools are run from live CDs, and those will all boot on modern Macs anyway.

PaulyD · 16 Mar 2012 at 15:03

paradigm said:
Most of the useful diagnostic tools are run from live CDs, and those will all boot on modern Macs anyway.

This is the best I would imagine, typically from a linux USB/CD

VaderDSL · 16 Mar 2012 at 17:32

If it's a newish Mac, just hold down D at the chime and it'll boot to it's own hardware test suite.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Arthur17 · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:55

Looking at the ISOs I have on my Zalman ZM-VE200 I would say the following are quite useful to have when dealing with Mac's.

Mac OS X install discs for 10.5.6, 10.6.3 and 10.7.3. In addition to allowing you to reinstall the OS, you can also run Disk Utility, Terminal and Reset Passwords from them too.
iLife '09 and '11 install discs
MemTest86+
Ubuntu 11.10 (good for reading HFS+ formatted drives when Mac OS X won't).
TechTool Pro

Also quite useful to have is a copy of OS X installed on a spare external HDD so you can boot off of it and run apps such as Carbon Copy Cloner, DiskDrill (for recovering deleted files) or any Mac app really.