A great little app that makes S.M.A.R.T. health and temps for drives very obvious, with system tray icons and changes to the system drive icons. Also offers emergency backups that you can set up to trigger on health events and a bunch of other features I haven't played with yet.
Note that there's almost always some discount, say via Bitsdujour, but not usually more than 50%. 5-PC "family pack" also discounted.
HD Sentinel really is a very good piece of software. The free version has so much capability, I am not sure how much improvement you get by going for the Pro version?
I figure I probably owe the developer the fee because I have used the software for 10+ years and found it terrific.
That's exactly why I paid for the Pro version about 10 years back… to reward the developer and ensure he continued to develop and improve it.
Can the pro version run off a usb stick as a portable say if i want to check a hdd on another machine without pulling out the drive?
CrystalDiskInfo can.
Yes ive been using that for now i like to use both but im nkt sure about this one
No need.
Smart data is smart data.
They should get identical things.
Speedfan also has a smart tab.
@BinChicken69: You probably got different flavour text.
If you know how to read smart data, all is identical.
@BinChicken69: The health indicators are a bit of a misnomer - because anything that isn't 100% means the drive is on its way out.
Could have 2 minutes left, or 2 years left.
But either way, anything under 100% means it's time to start a warranty claim and replace that disk.
It's really 100% or 0% with nothing in-between.
@Nom: Not strictly true, lots of drives have a flag for excess hours, or perhaps a single instance of spin-up time being longer, after years of storage.
You need to read the smart data and look at the usual failure points.
@Nom: That's only the case sometimes. For example, SSDs have a wear indicator based on the warrantied amount of data written. With usage, the health percentage will decrease from 100%, even though there's no actual issues with the drive. With hard drives, there are things such as weak sectors, which indicate that data wasn't written correctly, but aren't always a sign of a an actual bad sector.
https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_case_weak_sectors.php
If a hard drive has started to develop bad sectors, that is a sign that it's staring to die. But sometimes a drive can have one or two bad sectors and then go for years without developing any more. A large number of bad sectors indicate that a drive is likely to fail soon.
@BinChicken69: Thats just junk though, it means nothing.
You need to read the actual SMART data to check for whats been flagged. Those overall numbers are nothing.
Pro lists a portable option as one of its features. Feature comparison here: https://www.hdsentinel.com/store.php
Passmark Diskcheckup continues to be my go to; when smartmontools wont suffice.
Health ? And portable?
Great application, I've run it for 8 years on my server and its saved me a few times.
i'm still using the free v4.50 pro version from this deal: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/211693
should i upgrade?
I'm a little biased as HDD Sentinel is really good for diagnosing, but personally I'd say yes based on the revision history alone
[ Current Version and Previous Versions ]
There have been approx 11 updates since your v4.5 and they go HARD with their updates, definitely don't release tiny updates, upgrades and fixes like some Developers out there
Version 4.5 vs 6.00 + Lifetime Updates + Supporting the dev
It's a no brainer if you like the software and want to support the team and developer(s) and aren't strapped for cash
thanks for the links. they have definitely updated heaps.
i'm running old hardware from the same era and don't get any more old hard drives for free so i wasn't sure my usage would warrant an upgrade.
The developer regularly releases beta updates with minor fixes and support for more drives. It's just a long time between stable releases.
Perfect timing thank for posting.
I have had V5.2 for free since 2018, I just installed an Intel NVME SSD which it does not recognise (it does recognise Samsung 960 EVO NVMEs though).
I sent an email to the developer in Hungary who was happy to help me out.
Showing appreciation by buying the new professional family version.
Great software too use i use it weekly health checks along with the free crystal disk info they make a great team for accurate data on HDDs and SSDs