WHAT’S HOT
Pocket Mechanic gives you all the utilities
and a few more above what you would expect to see on a desktop system.
It also includes some “benchmarking” utilities, a TCP/IP configurator,
and tools for clearing out unused Registry entries, duplicate notifications,
and other clutter on your Pocket PC, all at a very reasonable price.
PROGRAM FEATURES
Pocket Mechanic starts up
with a File Manager type display of the available utilities:
Pocket
Mechanic’s Main View shows icons and names for each of the component
utilities.
You can display
the utilities as Large or Small icons, in a wrapped List, or in a
single row.
You can also show only the utilities in a particular use group.
Tapping on the
utility icon will display an explanation of what it does in the Help
Window. Double-tapping will run the utility.
We will take each utility in turn to see what each does:
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src="http://cdn.pocketnow.com/html/portal/reviews/0000000574/review/CardBenchmark.gif" alt=""
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Card Benchmark
lets you test read and write speed of a storage card.
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Benchmark will
show the results in either MB/s or “X”.
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You can also
view a more detailed report…
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…and even
Export the data in various formats.
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Card
Information displays the hardware and formatting specifics of a storage
card.
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Geometry
displays the low-level and hardware information.
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BIOS displays
the media and partition information.
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FAT displays
File Allocation information.
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File System
displays directory and file information.
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Card Read/Write
Surface Test will check for (and optionally) mark bad sectors.
You can run the test as Read-only, Non-destructive read/write, and
destructive read/write.
If you chose to test writing as well as reading, you can select the bit
patterns used in the test.
non-destructive option is nice to have when checking a storage device
that already has data on it. In non-destructive mode, any data in
a sector is copied before the test and restored afterward. However, because of the extra processing, a non-destructive test will
take longer.
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Defragment
allows you to place file sements in contiguous blocks on the storage
media.
You can choose to only deframent highly fragemented files and
defragment folders as well as files.
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The central
indicators show progress as the analysis or defragmentation occurs.
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At the end of
the analysis, you will see a report showing how badly files are
fragmented.
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Logical Format
performs a high-level format on a storage medium.
You can also choose to reformate the entire surface and scan for errors
after the format.
alt="">You can choose
a custom format or have parameters optimized for various uses entered
automatically.
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src="http://cdn.pocketnow.com/html/portal/reviews/0000000574/review/LowLevelFormat.gif"
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Low Level
Format allows you to format the card on a physical level.
This may help in recovering from very serious errors.
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Notification
Queue lists items in the notification queue and allows you to Clear,
Duplicate, or Delete the items you place a check next to.
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Registry
Cleanup lists each of the keys in the registry that are incorrectly
configured in some way. You can then delete some or all of them.
Selecting a specific key will describe the problem in the message panel
below the keys.
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Scan Disk scans
a storage medium for errors and allows you to (automatically or
manually) fix them.
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alt="" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px;"> names for each storage slot and allows you to change them.
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System Cleanup
finds files on your system that you can safely delete to regain the
storage space they occupy.
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TCP/IP
Configuration shows you information about your network adapter(s).
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It will also
display information about the various server settings for each network
adapter.
It also allows you to Refresh and/or Release an adapter to aquire new
settings.
HELP SUPPORT
Pocket Mechanic has no help
accessable through the Help application but is does have a form of
built-in help.
Instead of the
typical Help option and format, Pocket Mechanic uses a Help Window, at
the bottom of the interface. When you select a utility, the Help
Window displays text explaining what it does.
difficulty with the program, you can contact the developer through
the
on-line forums.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Pocket Mechanic
needs 350KB of Program memory to run and 528KB of
Storage Memory to install. The program will install into main
memory regardless of the selection you make in ActiveSync Add/Remove
Programs. Pocket Mechanic runs on Pocket PC
2002 and Windows Mobile 2003 (including Second Edition) devices. It does not, however, display properly with a rotated screen in
WM2003SE.
BUGS AND WISHES
The software performed exactly as it should have so I have no bugs to
report. As always, I do have a few wishes:
First, I wish there were a little more
documentation. I could find nothing that tells me what “Fast
Mode” does in the Defragment utility and would have liked to see an
explanation.
Second, since you are always going to follow a
low-level format with a logical format, it would have been helpful to
allow the user to go immediately to the logical format after a
low-level format is completed.
PURCHASING
You can purchase Pocket Mechanic
the pocketnow Store for $14.95. There is also a
day trial version. As of this writing, the pocketnow Store
hasn’t been updated to the latest version. You could either wait
for the store to update or download the available version and upgrade
to the new version when it’s available for free.
PROS
- Provides all the necessary utilites for
working with storage media
accurately assess storage speeds
CONS
- Documentation is
minimal
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
I was very impressed with the power
and functionality of Pocket Mechanic. I have learned to expect
great things from Anton Tomov and he did not dissapoint me here. The program has all the features of
FlashFormat or
StorageTools combined with
Tools for the same price as the Storage Tools by itself. If
you are looking for the storage media tools missing from Pocket PC OS,
and especially if you need them to recover a corrupted medium, get
Pocket Mechanic today.
All screenshots in this
review are taken using
SOTI’s Pocket Controller Pro
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