(4)
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SMART Utility is an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives. SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements (called attributes) of a hard drive's operation. The attributes can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is dying. This allows time to hopefully backup, and then replace the
What's New
Version 3.0.2:
- Added text next to drive to show state (passed, failing, failed, unsupported)
- Added ability to resize main window
- Added more attribute names for SSDs
- Removed deprecated API calls and replaced with modern ones
- Updated French localization
- Updated menu extra code for 10.7 support
- Updated smartctl engine to 5.41, which adds better support for SSDs as well as bug fixes
Version 3.0.2:
- Added text next to drive to show state (passed, failing, failed, unsupported)
- Added ability to resize main window
- Added more attribute names for SSDs
- Removed deprecated API calls and replaced with modern ones
- Updated French localization
- Updated menu extra code for 10.7 support
- Updated smartctl engine to 5.41, which adds more...
Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 or later
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 or later
SMART Utility User Discussion (Write a Review)
Overall:
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Displaying 1-10 of 24
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SMART Utility is an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives. SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements (called attributes) of a hard drive's operation. The attributes can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is dying. This allows time to hopefully backup, and then replace the drive.
Run this utility once a week or more to ensure your HD, and your data, are okay!
NOTE: The demo is runs for 30 days or 15 launches, whichever is longer.
Run this utility once a week or more to ensure your HD, and your data, are okay!
NOTE: The demo is runs for 30 days or 15 launches, whichever is longer.
Copyright © 2012 MacUpdate LLC
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+229
Xenophile reviewed on 08 May 2012
These shortcomings would be easy to overlook on freeware or even a $10 utility, but for $25 I want a more robust feature set. I want to be convinced that the developer is invested in the app and will continue to improve it.
If SMART Utility matures into a true professional app, then I'll gladly pay $25-$35 for it. Until then, the demo will serve my needs since I'm using it to evaluate used Macs for resale.
+41
Just have to tell that lastyl Smart Utility saved me a lot of problem with my datas, when my 3 To Hitachi looks to have problem with the Smart Status...I could just make a clone of it and 1 day later the HD was gone...ouch.
I changed for a WD Green as the Hitachi was no more buyable at a correct price ;-(
So, a big thanks to Smart Util and his developer.
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Paul Cook reviewed on 13 Nov 2011
However, after playing with the demo on a number of client machines and having it find issues that other utilities missed, I bought it. In fact I contacted the vendor about a special consulting license so that I could use it in my business.
I do like a number of other utilities out there. SMARTReporter, for example, is an outstanding free utility. However, I found SMART Utility to uniquely solve enough frustrating problems that I found it worth my hard earned $$$.
+294
Developer feels that he's put a lot of work into SU and therefore the $25 price point is justified.
It would seem likely that he's not getting the buying response that he would like.
Developer dude, you would undoubtedly engender a lot more sales by lowering SU's price of admission by at least $10.
You might want to petition MU to have Smart Utility at a featured discounted price for a day or a weekend.
Anyway, Psychos's comment below makes some very cogent points.
Read it if you haven't already.
+1
I am quite satisfied with the amount of sales I have received. Of course, I always want to increase that, but I feel adding more features is a better way to do that than decrease the price. In fact, when I increased the price from $20 to $25, my sales went up. That's because people understand that I feel this is more than just a simple app- and by pricing it accordingly, they know I will be supporting like it is. A lot of the time, you get what you pay for (just like Macs are more expensive, yet they sell like hotcakes).
I offer a demo for those who want to try it out for themselves and see if its worth the price of admission. I understand if its not, but a lot of people do think its worth it. I responded to Psychos' comment below, so I encourage you to read it as well.
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+27
I just won't buy it for $25.
+1
As always, if anybody contacts me, I'd be happy to offer a discount to make the purchase more palatable. I want to save data, and not just make money.
+1
+111
There are other free smartmontools/smartctl wrappers. Not to mention, this utility tells you to run it once a week. If the developer REALLY put a ton of work into this, you'd think he or she would use the included smartd daemon to allow automated polling and notification of errors.
Basically, you are paying $25 to display the text output of a free tool in a different format. I looked at the screenshots, and it doesn't even do anything like interpret the raw SMART attributes it displays, many of which are important but potentially confusing to the average user.
+1
It sounds like you haven't even used the application, as some of your facts are incorrect. The other application have an interface that is not as user-friendly. They also do not do pre-fail checks (over and above what smartctl does now). That's a huge feature. Also, there is a built-in time for both the app and menu extra to check hourly and weekly. At some point I do hope to use smarted, but that is a lot more work. But for now, the timer with Growl support works great.
I also have many new features planned, and every sale I receive convinces me that I should implement them. I'm excited for the future of SMART Utility, and I believe the price is a fair one.
+11
Mail3 reviewed on 08 Mar 2011
http://en/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology
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+23
Svl reviewed on 02 Mar 2010
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I had a friend who lost all of her second child's baby pictures. She paid $850+ to recover them. If she would have listened to me and had SMART Utility, it would have only cost her $25. That's just a drop in the bucket.
So please look at the long term. I am not trying to fleece people- only to help them while giving myself an incentive to do that.
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+214
TechTool Pro 5 has an improved SMART test that benchmarks various categories of drive performance. But I had a drive fail recently despite passing this test with flying colors. So, though I wouldn't say SMART testing is useless, it's not foolproof, nor is it the only way to tell a drive has problems. In my case, a three year old Seagate drive in my Mac Pro gave out suddenly. No software repair utility would help; it was obviously a hardware failure. As it turned out, there was a sign of this impending failure that I did not recognize. Since it's uncommon, I'll mention it here. For some time my computer had been taking a long time to start up, spending quite a while with a white screen before the Apple logo showed up. I know now this was because the computer was having trouble mounting that failing drive - because when I replaced it, the startup slowdown went away. By the way, I had most of the data on the drive backed up so I didn't loose more than the time I spent troubleshooting the drive - and restoring the data to the replacement drive I installed.
I would say, therefore, that the real smart utility is a regular backup. In any case, SMART tests don't work on external drives so their usefulness is limited in any case.
All this doesn't mean, in my opinion, that SMARTUtility is a waste of money; it only means you need to know what you're doing to use it effectively.
And no, SMART is not foolproof. It may pass, yet still fail. However, if it does fail, that's a great indication that a future problem may- and in most cases, will- occur.
I also wish SMART worked on external drives, but that is an Apple and case manufacture problem.
+127
Captain5 rated on 30 Sep 2011