GSmartControl is a useful 'runs-on-anything' open source tool designed for the prevention of hard drive failure. Essentially a S.M.A.R.T. frontend client, GSmartControl will give you a close-up look at your disks, and predict 64% of failures before the drive fulfills its paper-weight destiny.
That may not seem like a high percentage, but while S.M.A.R.T. does have its shortcomings, 64% is clearly better than not knowing what your drive is up to at all. Plus don't you have to wonder what percentage of hard drive failure is caused by 'kicking over computer with foot' accidents?
This doesn't mean you can forget about doing regular backups, but hard drives are so unpredictable that it's helpful to have an idea of what to expect in the near future. With S.M.A.R.T.'s (and Smartmontools') help, GSmartControl can give you other information like like temperature or the number of minutes that the disk has been in use, and provides the ability to run a few different types of scans for even deeper analysis.
GSmartControl has a small footprint and is available for virtually all operating systems, as well as the Parted Magic boot CD. Both ZIP and EXE packages are available for Windows users, built with or without the required GTK+ runtime. Windows users should also check out CrystalDiskInfo.
Download latest version:
GSmartControl v0.8.5
| Homepage: | http://gsmartcontrol.berlios.de/ |
| Supported OS: |    |
| Portable version: |  |
| 64-bit version: | Unix systems only |
| Active project: | |
| No strings attached **: | |
** No spyware, ads, nags, registration reminders, etc.
Other Disk Health freeware to keep an eye on:
- Active@ Disk Monitor [Free Version]
- CrystalDiskInfo
- HDD Health
- HDDScan
