Modern hard drives are much more reliable than the disks of yesterday. However, they still are extremely complex electronic devices with moving parts that are subject to amortization. The high density of data storage provided by the modern disks allows for greater storage capacities and higher access speeds. However, with densities and capacities pushed to the extreme you have much more to lose should the drive fail. The hard drive is the most important component in your entire PC because it holds all that is of real value: your documents, digital pictures, email messages, your work and private data.
Can You See the Warning Sign?
Luckily, today's hard drives rarely fail without a warning given well in advance. All modern disks are equipped with a feature called S.M.A.R.T. that allows real-time analysis and reporting of any developing problems and potential issues. The big question is: can you read the warnings?
Windows? OEM? hdslife!
Microsoft Windows, including the new Windows Vista, does not bundle any tools that can access this data. It's been long ago since hard disk manufacturers offered software with their drives that could warn you of a developing problem; but not anymore.
hdslife reads S.M.A.R.T. data from all of your hard drives and allows you to see clearly the health and resources of your disks.
No need for lengthy surface scans! The trademarked JustNow™! technology will detect the health of your drives immediately after you run hdslife for the very first time.
HDDlife has a highly customizable list of warnings. When your hard drive's reliability degrades to a certain level, hdslife will promptly display a warning message. A tool tip near the system clock usually works best, but you can choose among several types of warnings.
Are you a system administrator managing multiple PCs? hdslife can deliver those warnings by email or over the network.
Tune Your Hard Drive Performance
hdslife is not limited to monitoring your disk's health. It can cut your power bills by reducing your disk's power consumption - a truly unique feature which is invaluable if you are managing a number of computers! If your computer sits in a bedroom, you'll certainly appreciate the ability to easily silence your hard drives by enabling a silent mode without sacrificing too much performance. hdslife allows you to fine-tune your disk's noise level and adjust noise vs. performance the way you like.
hdslife will:
Control the health of your hard drives with the S.M.A.R.T. technology and warn you about potential problems the moment they start developing
Monitor all your hard drives in the background - all the time!
Being aware of a possible hard drive failure gives you the time to take appropriate measures. Back up your data and replace the hard drive - or, better yet, upgrade to a newer, higher capacity model!
