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Extend the life of your hard drive by checking its status and health with this program

Extend the life of your hard drive by checking its status and health with this program

Vote: (21 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Crystalmark

Version: 9.2.3

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(21 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Crystalmark

9.2.3

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Reports SMART data to user
  • Very fast
  • Warns of impending drive failure
  • Cute design

Cons

  • May confuse beginners who aren't familiar with hard disk architecture
  • Might be too cautious and exaggerate minor errors

CrystalDiskInfo is a system health monitoring utility that's designed to help users find out how much life they have left in their hard disks.

If your system drive has been making any unusual noises lately, then you might be concerned that it's starting to fail. All drives eventually do, but it can be difficult to tell a damaged disk from one that's simply under a great deal of stress. CrystalDiskInfo displays a full screen of basic information about your drive, which can help you to make a better decision about when a device finally needs replacement.

Once you start the program, it reads information from your disk's onboard Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) circuit. This provides information on a number of metrics, including any of the following:

  • Read Error Rate
  • Spin-up Time
  • Start/Stop Count
  • Power-on Hours
  • Temperature

Perhaps most importantly for those who want to see if their drive is failing, CrystalDiskInfo can help you determine if your disk is starting to develop bad sectors. At one point, people were encouraged to simply remap these to another part of the drive and continue to use them. CrystalDiskInfo, however, is designed with modern technology in mind and tells you right away whenever you've reached a hypothetical failure condition.

Fortunately, the app isn't geared totally toward diagnosing drives that are approaching the end of their useful lives either. It can help you track system performance and judge which piece of equipment works best out of a group. Users who are on higher-end systems that have multiple storage devices will find this particularly useful.

Windows Server operators might find the software attractive for this reason as well. CrystalDiskInfo can provide information on multiple drives simultaneously. It's compatible with any device that features a SMART reporting module, so it may be of some use to those who don't even have a physical hard disk installed.

For instance, a technician checking out a laptop powered by a small SSD can rely on the app to provide them with reliable statistics on how many erase blocks have been used and if the underlying flash media has developed any defects.

While it won't work with computers that boot from an SD-to-SATA converter, CrystalDiskInfo should function with an overwhelming majority of drives currently on the market. Anyone who uses any other piece of SATA-based gear should find that this app detects it readily and provides all the information you need on it.

A few neat plugin modules, like a skin that features an anime character, come included with the software. While it's not necessarily the best choice for beginners, experienced power users will appreciate what it can do.

Pros

  • Reports SMART data to user
  • Very fast
  • Warns of impending drive failure
  • Cute design

Cons

  • May confuse beginners who aren't familiar with hard disk architecture
  • Might be too cautious and exaggerate minor errors