GSmartControl - Hard disk drive health inspection tool

[Sylvander]

It's FREE!

Here are its features, explained at the home site. (http://gsmartcontrol.berlios.de/home/index.php/en/About)

I'm running it within Puppy Linux 4.2.1-rc3 run from a 1 GB USB2 Flash Drive.
This so that [with the exception of the Linux swap partition] none of the partitions on the internal HDD would be auto-mounted [or manually mounted either] during testing.

Here are the links to the original thread, and installation pet file used. (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showpost.php?p=437040&postcount=164)

Here's some info regarding missing dependencies that were fixed. (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showpost.php?p=437053&postcount=165) [I hope]

This program presents LOTS of info that makes me go cross-eyed.

Does anyone understand the program, or the info, or whatever?

I'd like to gain enough understanding to be able to interpret the results of tests.

[Paul Komski]

There is both a free and a pro version of HDTune (http://www.hdtune.com/) which has been around for quite a long time and would probably be easier for most Windows users since it doesn't require any additional run-times. It is easy to use to check for bad sectors and other performance issues as well as analysis of SMART data.

In the first place SMART data and reporting need to have drives that support it and though it has always sounded as if it would be a useful "tool" it is probably over-egged and not that much use as a predictor of drive failure.