


They may also provide different predictions of overall drive health. So while some might report that certain SMART numbers represent a serious issue, others might not.

Note: Drive-health apps will report the same SMART stats, but they’ll differ in how they interpret that information. In most cases, it’s probably better to have them turned off. You’ll typically want to ignore them - except possibly to check whether they’re enabled. Two you’ll run across are automatic acoustic management (AAM more info) and advanced power management (APM more info). (In truth, they provide more data than most PC users will ever need or understand.) Some also include additional tools such as separate read/write scans and even drive-wiping.Īs you use these utilities, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of esoteric technology related to drives. or, simply, SMART) tools built into nearly every modern drive.ĭrive-health apps act as the interface to the SMART system, displaying the collected data in a relatively accessible and digestible format. Most use information gathered by the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T. There’s a plethora of utilities for checking the reliability and condition of both traditional platter-based drives and solid-state drives. So it’s good practice to periodically check your drive’s health and find potential errors before they result in lost data. Today’s PC storage media - traditional disk-based drives and newer solid-state models - are remarkably reliable.Īnd that’s sort of a problem: we can become lulled into forgetting that they do fail - that there’s always a chance of a catastrophic malfunction, especially as the drive ages.
