USB hard drive SMART or health software

Is anyone aware of software that can monitor the SMART features and health of external USB hard drives? Also, how can you run scandisk or something similar on a USB hard drive?

Thanks!

Grem

 

I tend not to use 'SMART' myself, partly because it incurs a small performance hit, but mostly because it doesn't help in my experience. I 've had a couple of drives die on me unexpectedly (with SMART running) and received no prior warnings that anything was amiss - so I deliberately switch it off now

And you should be able to use most disk tools on an external drive, as you would for an internal one - it's just connected differently

 

Can anyone recommend specific freeware software than can scan USB hard drive for errors in XP Pro (SP2)? I have yet to find one that can. I may not be looking in the right places.

 

# Open My Computer
# Highlight a local hard disk drive by clicking on it once.
# right-click the highlighted local drive
# Click Properties
# Click the tools tab and click Check Now to check the drive for errors.