PassMark DiskCheckup™ allows the user to monitor the SMART attributes of a particular hard disk drive. SMART ( Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology ) is an interface between a computer's BIOS (basic input/output system) and the computer hard disk. It is a feature of the Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) technology that controls access to the hard drive. If S.M.A.R.T is enabled when a computer is set up, the BIOS can receive analytical information from the hard drive and determine whether to send the user a warning message about possible future failure of the hard drive.

SMART monitors elements of possible long term drive failure, such as 'Spin Up Time', the number of start/stops, the number of hours powered on and the hard disk temperature.

DiskCheckup displays the current values of the SMART attributes, along with the Threshold value for that attribute. If any attribute value is close to or below the threshold, the drive is no longer reliable and should be replaced.

Note that SMART attributes change slowly over time and are helpful attempts to diagnose the life span of a particular drive. DiskCheckup monitors these changes over a long period and predict the date (if available) of the Threshold Exceed Condition (TEC), which is displayed on the main window.

DiskCheckup also displays some additional drive information, such as the drive serial number, model number, firmware version, device capacity, partition capacities, the number of cylinders, tracks, the sectors per track, etc...

E-mail notification when Threshold Exceed Condition detected

DiskCheckup can be configured to perform e-mail notification when a SMART attribute has been detected to be less than the allowable threshold value. Such threshold values are determined by the hard disk manufacturer. For a drive to be considered "good", all the SMART attributes must be above these values. Different SMART attributes have different threshold values. For more configuration options, refer to the screen shot below.

System requirements

A hard drive and BIOS that supports SMART, plus compatible drivers. Most recent hard drives are OK but drives connected via SCSI or hardware RAID will not work. But drives connected via SATA (serial ATA) are supported. Drives configured as software RAID (dynamic disks) via Windows Disk Management will also work.

Screenshots

Price & Company License

DiskCheckup is free for personal use. Company licenses can be purchased for $15 USD per license. Discounts apply for multiple licenses.

Purchase license

For a quote on multiple licenses or more information , please contact

Customizing DiskCheckup

DiskCheckup (v2.0 build 1000 and later) is built with PassMark's SmartDisk DLL SDK. If you would like to use this technology in your application, please check out the SmartDisk DLL SDK or contact us at

Download software

Download DiskCheckup for Windows 98 or Windows ME here. Follow the download button above to download DiskCheckup for Windows 2000, XP and 2003 Server.

Installation

You unzip the downloaded zip file into a directory on your hard disk then double click on the DiskCheckup.exe installer file to run the DiskCheckup installer. Additional information is provided in the included HTML help files. You can view them from DiskCheckup's help button/menu or open the start page "index.html" in the "HELP" folder.

Windows 98/Me users may need to manually copy the smartvsd.vxd file into the <systemroot>\windows\system\iosubsys directory IF this file doesn't already exist. After the file has copied in successfully, a system restart will be necessary in order that Windows picks up this new virtual driver. The file can be found in the installation folder. This is not required for 2000 and XP.

Known issues

• Hardware RAID and SCSI are not supported. But dynamic disks (software RAID) are supported.
• The Silicon Image SIL0680 Ultra-133 ATA RAID Controller has a bug which can cause a system lockup when the SMART data is accessed.. This bug exists in the current driver version, 1.0.1.7 and presumably in previous versions.
• TEC predictions about future failure dates should be taken as a guide only and should not be considered accurate.
• The majority of drives connected via USB and Firewire are not supported. (The protocol bridge between the USD and ATA protocols doesn't seem to support SMART data)

Specific Disclaimer on Failure Predictions

The SmartDisk DLL SDK and DiskCheckup utilizes statistical analysis to predict possible failure dates of hard disk drives. Because there are no 'certainties' in statistical analysis, PassMark® Software Pty Ltd disclaims all liability for any and all costs incurred by either:

1) The hard disk drive failing before the predicted failure date estimated by the application, or
2) The hard disk drive continuing to function beyond the predicted failure date estimated by the application.

In either situation, PassMark® disclaims liability for any losses due to loss or damage to data. PassMark® further disclaims any liability for costs incurred in anticipation of a disk drive failure that does not eventuate (e.g. replacement hard disk drives, transfer time, downtime, etc).

This disclaimer is in addition to the Disclaimer of Warranty and Limitation of Liability mentioned elsewhere in the EULA and on this website.

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