Free tools to Monitor Hard Disk for Potential Failure

Monitor hard disk for potential failure

PassMark: 

SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a computer hard disk feature that provides valuable information on hard disk reliability of a computer. PassMark DiskCheckup allows a user monitoring this SMART feature and its attributes of a particular hard disk drive.

The attributes changes slowly over time and therefore help the tool in estimating the life span of a particular drive. The tool predicts the Threshold Exceed Condition by monitoring the changes over a long period and displays them in the main window.

Unlike other programs, this free desktop application for Windows is very small in size (only 1 MB).

Acronis Drive Monitor: 

Acronis Drive Monitor can help predict when a hard drive is about to fail, giving you the chance to back up your data and make immediate arrangements for their replacements.

The program requires you to complete a registration form first, for downloading the free Acronis Drive Monitor.

The program prepares weekly status reports which show the electromechanical health of all your drives in one report. Apart from this, Acronis forum share certain scripts with its users which allows them to monitor RAID controllers not using S.M.A.R.T. monitoring technology.  Disk related warnings are displayed in the notification area. Acronis Drive Monitor requires 256 MB RAM space.

HDD Scan

It is a free tool for diagnosing the health status of a hard dis drive (RAID arrays, Flash USB and SSD drives are also supported). The program works best in diagnosing hard drive for bad-blocks and bad sectors and predicting its degradation. Besides, it can show S.M.A.R.T. attributes and change some HDD parameters such as AAM, APM, etc.

HDD Scan’s Storage device test such as verification in linear mode helps to determine whether your drive needs data rescue or not. The program even has a Command line support. It is portable and hence, does not require any type of installation.

More Hard Disk Health analyzer tools

Apart from these, there are a few other related Hard Disk Health analyzer tools that you may want to check out:

Seagate SeaTools | Crystal Disk Mark | HD Tune | Windows Surface Scanner | Open Hardware Monitor | HDDlife.

If you have any favorites you’d like to recommend, please do so in the comments section.