Recommendation for HDD Monitoring tool?

Hi Folks,

I see that majorgeeks has Acronis Drive Monitor and S.M.A.R.T. Vision in it's Monitoring file list. I've also come across HDDlife (hddlife.com). While I'm tempted to go with Acronis, I'm a bit concerned about it chewing up system resources, etc. Dunno. Anyone have recommendations? I'm just interested in monitoring drive health of internal and external drives.

Thanks!

Alex

Win 7 Pro x64 SP1

 

Like you, I concern myself with software that continuously consumes system resources.

I have been using Disk Info for a long time and it works well but you have to manually run it. It's a stand alone program meaning it doesn't install or make any changes to your computer. I keep a link to it on my desktop and just run it once a month. I also use it for checking drives too see if they are getting ready to fail.

 

Hi my friend , another useful tool is that

http://www.hdsentinel.com/

showing your hdd's health , works automatically when startup your machine !! :wave

 

Note that there's even a portable version of Crystal Disk Info here: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/crystaldiskinfo_portable

The only problem with Crystal Disk Info is that it won't scan your USB-mounted drives. :-(

 

Defraggler has a built in drive health diagnostic that supports USB mounted drives. Part of which is shown in the thumbnail.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. It doesn't show me drive health for any of my usb-connected drives... :-( I'm using the portable version of defraggler. Do you actually have to use the installed version in order to see drive health of usb drives?

 

I haven't used the portable version so can't answer that, but if it is showing you the health of the internal drives then I would think it would show the health of the externals too. What I just realized, while Defraggler shows the health of my exteranl HDD(s) it does not show the health for any of the USB flash sticks/drives.

 

If you find the make and model of your hard drive then go to the manufacturers site they usually have diagnostic and monitoring tools specifically tailored for their drives.

For example

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3&lang=en

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-gb/support/downloads/seatools/

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/