One Step Ahead of HDD Failures

very good
key review info
application features
  • Custom sensor polling intervals
  • (6 more, see all...)

Even though I can handle heat and thirst pretty well, I have a problem with summer. It's not about me, it's about my hardware. Last August I lost a hard drive only 9 months old, probably due to this reason, since my room temperature was between 27 and 30 degrees Celsius for over one month and the computer ran non-stop.

When hard drives have to go through periods like that mentioned above, their performance and health parameters change to reflect their current condition. A monitoring program can be extremely useful to inform the user when to expect a crash and take adequate measures in time (backup the data and sell the drive, for example...).

These being said, let's move on to the topic. Today's hard drive monitoring application is called HDDlife Pro, it's close to version 3.0 and I ran it in a 14 day trial mode. HDDlife was a free program in the past, and now you can run it as the Pro version and after the trial period expires it switches automatically to freeware mode. The differences between these two versions are minor and are not my concern now.

First, you have to download the 4MB installation kit, then install it and fire it up. The program's interface is easy to use and contains all the information you need in its main window. If you have more than one drive installed on your computer, you will find their info available in separate tabs.

What info can we get about our hard drives using HDDlife Pro?

First of all, in the upper area of the main window you can see the model and size of your hard drive. Below it, you can check the current drive temperature and total work time. The drive temperature is not displayed in real time, but using the sensor polling interval that you can set in the Options area (the default one is 5 minutes).

The health status and performance of the hard drive are displayed using two percentage bars, and the 100% values are considered to be the ones of a brand new drive. Unfortunately, there is no hint about how these values are calculated, since you can't check individual SMART parameters, so all you can do is trust HDDlife Pro.

In the main window you can also find a conclusion about the state of your disc and in the last cell there is a chart showing information about the use of the disk - the green color represents free space, while the red color stands for the occupied space.

The Options of the program are rich and can help you control its behavior in detail.

You can make HDDlife start with Windows, change the drive polling interval (there are three items to be checked - health, temperature and occupied space).

Warnings can be sent via the network or by email. This program can also play a sound or turn off your computer when one of your drives has "health problems".

One last feature that I will tell you about is the ability to use skins for the drive icons displayed using the AnywhereView technology (you can check the free space on a drive from any application).

To find out more, you can check the excellent Help file that comes with the program. If you care about your data, no matter how often you backup it, HDDlife is a program that can save you a lot of time and valuable information. Don't say "it can't happen to me", just get this and let it take care of your drives...after all, it's better to be safe than sorry.

The Good

HDDlife is small, as easy to use as Solitaire and extremely useful. It has a nice interface, an excellent Help file and can be used as freeware after the trial period ends.

The Bad

The Pro version is not free and the SMART parameters can't be viewed individually. In the trial mode options are not saved, so they will be reset to the default values each time you restart the program.

The Truth

If you want to be safe, you don't have to say prayers for your computer's hardware and place crystals on it. Using the right tools for monitorization and early warning is one of the keys to your data's safety.

HDDlife is such a key, and can be yours for free. If you want to choose the Pro version instead of the freeware one, you also have a free trial available, so I rest my case and wish you and your hard drives a long and healthy life!

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 3
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
NEXT REVIEW: Germany 2006