SMARTReporter will warn you of impending hard drive failures

Originally downloaded 4/27/06.This freeware app polls your hard disks using the Self-Monitory Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART), which is supposed to act as an early warning system of drive failures. This was recommended by Macworld, and it’s got a nice, configurable menubar icon if you want a constant reminder. The software is supposed to send you an email (which you configure) if a “red” signal is received. I’m going to try this out for a few weeks before adopting it permanently.

Update 3/14/07. Well, I meant to move this to the “recommended” list long ago… it’s become a permanent fixture in my menubar and has caused no trouble at all in the many months since I first downloaded it. The software continues to be improved, and there was another upgrade last month. If you want the assurance of a constant presence in your menubar that everything with your hard disks is A-OK, you can’t do better than this. The list of possible ways to customize its behavior keeps growing, but the bottom line is you can specify which disks you want it to monitor and how often, and there are also several ways you can be alerted to trouble, should it occur: Popup message, Email, or launch an application.

Version as tested: 2.2.5.