Regarding MacManiac's post above (too long to quote), I am well aware that Volume Optimization is no longer needed, nor recommended, for SDDs. File Optimization, on the other hand, appears to be OK. As for Surface Scans, based on what Micromat TechSupport says on their forums about that, they are not harmful. Here is a quote of one of those posts:

"The name of the Surface Scan test is not particularly apt for SSD drives, but the test is still valid. It is simply reading blocks, one after another, to make sure that they can be read. We have had customers run the Surface Scan to check SD cards used in cameras, and a few have been found to be defective.

Save the results of the Surface Scan, so it a later lest finds errors (unremapped bad blocks), you will have a good basis for a warranty claim."

So, it does not appear to be harmful. Again, it is not actually doing any repairs with the Surface Scan.

I also only have V4.4 of Disk Warrior, and if I do need to use it for looking at, and repairing, the SSDs inside either of my Macs, I need to boot from my SuperDuper! backup and run it from there. (TechTool Pro, on the other hand, lets one create an eDrive partition on an internal drive, similar to the Recovery HD partition created by the Mac OS). So, I also don't need to upgrade it, unless V4.4 becomes incompatible with a future version of the Mac OS.

Finally, there is the constant "back and forth" about what software to use for backups, and there are pros and cons to either argument. I use SuperDuper!, preferring to have an easy and fast way to recover from a catastrophe (and based on what I mentioned about Disk Warrior, it is required for me to have a clone). SuperDuper! does have one defect: it does not backup the Recovery HD partition, whereas Carbon Copy Cloner does. That is not an issue for me, given that there are at least two easy ways to recreate it. Also, I would use the tools on the SuperDuper! backup anyway to try and do any "serious" repairs to the SSDs inside either of my Macs. For the Recovery HD partition, only Disk Utility is available for such repairs. But on my SuperDuper! backups, I can choose to use Disk Utility, TechTool Pro, and/or Disk Warrior. I like that.

Another advantage of a clone (and especially if it is "lean and clean") is that if one were to get another Mac (especially a new one), and assuming one is using all the up to date items on their Mac (that is my situation), then one can get that other Mac up and running real quick via the SuperDuper! restore function. Yes, the OS is the same, but it would be the applications that one uses where this si an excellent advantage. (Additionally, when purchasing new Macs from third party sources, it often happens that the installed OS is Yosemite, instead of El Capitan. It's often even worse for older, used Macs).

Last edited by honestone; 02/26/16 05:56 PM.