News :: 15MR: Hard Drive Inspector v2.2 (Software Update)
Welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Hard Drive Inspector version 2.2 by AltrixSoft—An application to monitor and interpret the SMART information from your drives.
As this is a new version of Hard Drive Inspector that I reviewed here this review will be an extension onto the previous review.
Noted Changes
As “Giveaway of the Day states for changes:
“Version 2.20 introduces support for USB drives and enclosures based on Cypress AT2 chip (USB to ATA/ATAPI bridge). Below is incomplete list of the supported USB drives and enclosures:”
- Transcend StoreJet 3.5 TS0GSJ35, StoreJet 2.5 TS0GSJ25;
- Western Digital Passport Portable Hard Drives;
- Thermaltake Muse A2291, A2292, A2295;
- AgeStar MR3K1F, IUB3A-SO, IUB3A-BK, IUB2O1, IUB2A;
- DelronTech U00830-525NS, U00830-35MA1, FU9183A-25DS, U00830-25DS;
- ArrowMicro PM-526U2-ACS, PM-525U2-ACB.
Quick Pros (See original review for differences)
- Simple to use interface
- Easy to understand
- SMART details are made to be easy to read
- Lots of detail
- Temperature gauge handy
- Drive specification information provided
- Log trending as well
- Adds support for scanning some USB drives
Quick Cons (See original review for differences)
- Can not run from a USB drive without modifications
- Does not detect my SATA RAID 0 setup
Expansion
There has not been an extensive list of changes to this application since the previous version of which I did not at that time document what version it was that I had. However, the feature that has been added seems to be a new player to the field; USB drive status for certain makes of USB drives. While the USB drive selection is slim based on a single chipset, it does show promise in that there is the footwork built for the ability to check the condition of USB drives, something that is still a dark place where many do not realize their drives are coming to an end or where the limitations may be. Even though I do not have one of the drives listed, I did try all of my USB drives in hope to test its functionality but to no avail.
Another notable change in this application which is not documented however which I have still detected is that the error with reporting my 20GB hard drive as 147GB has been corrected; It now shows the correct size. This does bring me some confidence that there is progress occuring on the back-end of the application and that bugs are being monitored and attempted to be corrected.
As mentioned in the Quick Cons however, the application still does not detect my RAID 0 setup and I was hoping that this would come soon; Many people use RAID 0 for speed and size of drives, and it would be nice to at least have some warning of potential failure on the horizon for your RAID 0 setup. While I know it wouldn’t be flawless, it would at least increase the odds hopefully in a direction to offset the risks involved in RAID 0.
Also, as noted, as since this is a professional verion and is potentially a technician-grade application, why can we not have a version which can be loaded to a USB drive from within the application which allows for use on the go? If you were concerned about piracy from this aspect, do as many other applications have; Only allow its running from USB media, disable the ‘Start with Windows’ functionality and do not allow the USB version to access online updates.
Final Verdict
As mentioned in my previous review I think that this application is good so long as you don’t have RAID set up on your drives. While great for free and the sticker price of $29.95 is more in line with what is here now, it is still a ways from what I would like to see. While my concerns with SMART read accuracy have been reaffirmed by the correction of the drive size readout, I still do feel that an application should have the RAID functionality and the ability to run from a USB drive without modification, or better yet it would manage the application on the USB drive for you. If however you don’t run RAID and you are truly concerned about your data, this would be the application I would direct you towards, pay or otherwise.
Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, March 29, 2007
