Use SMARTReporter to Predict Disk Failure Before it Happens
June 5th, 2008
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While I’ve seen SMARTReporter around for years, for some reason I never decided to use it — until now. SMARTReporter will periodically check the S.M.A.R.T. status of ATA, SATA, and eSATA drives connected to your computer (although, not firewire drives).
What is S.M.A.R.T.? According to Wikipedia, S.M.A.R.T. “is a monitoring system for computer hard disks to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures.” More info here.
SMARTReporter lives in your menu bar (it’s the green hard drive looking icon on the left):
Popularity: 5% [?]
Many of my clients tell me that when a program freezes they hold down the power button and shut down their computer. Even worse, one client told me she pulls the power cable out of the back of her computer (btw, NEVER DO THIS!).