HDDLife Pro - any opinions?

i have a chance to pick up HDDLife Pro for cheap and was wondering if anyone thinks its worth it.....i already have the free version of HDTune but
if HDDLife is much better i will purchase it...

 

I'm also curious, if it can warn me ahead, that my harddisks are on the verge of madness or death.

 

This and some other similar programs monitor your HDD's SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology) function. SMART is supported by most current HDDs, allowing early prediction and warning of impending hard disk disasters. For SMART to work, you must use a SMART-aware hardware monitoring utility (eg., HDDlife) running in the background all the time, consuming valuable bandwidth!

My belief is that nowadays hard disks are reliable enough, so unless you are running mission-critical applications, it is very unlikely that SMART will be of any real value. Imho making image-backups (to an external HDD) on a regular basis is the very best HDD-protection as it will provide disaster-recovery if and when needed.

 

External HDD's fail too. I have two internal HDD's and one external HDD.
In theory 3 HDD's can fail at the very same time, but in practice this is as good as impossible, usually only one will fail.
Nevertheless, I would find it interesting to get a warning in advance, that one of my HDD's is going to fail and then I can prepare myself, after all any HDD will die.

 

Eric, as a disciplined SP user I really doubt that you will find much value in this utility. Sure any HDD can fail, but what are the odds of an internal and external drive failing at the same time? ...and for that matter, even the SMART utility can fail.

 

OK. It was just a thought. The only thing in my old computer, that was still working fine after 7 years, was my IBM harddisk of 17.5 gb. And I have still my second backup on Verbatim DVD's. So the risk is very small. .

 

i wouldnt want to use up bandwidth for that on my already slow laptop....
does it have any value as an on-demand app. for detemining HDD health?
just wondering if anyone has used the program on here or if its just a relatively useless and obscure app....

 

I believe my first reply says it all. If you already have an image-backup program, then use it regularly. If you don't, I suggest applying whatever HDDLife Pro would have cost you towards buying one!

 

I've actually used it, but there are some situations where it won't recognize sata drives.

But it's not really a must have program. after using it for about a year, the status of my hard drives never changes. But from using the program, I've learned the value of having fan's on my hard drives. A fan can lower the temp by at least 10 celcius. The program will also warn you if the drive gets too full.

Recently I lost interest in the program and I don't have it autostart anymore.

 

Yes,as you pointed out and many here already know,an reliable imaging software is the ABC in security and protection,without this i feel naked !