SMART Utility - 1.2.2

covering 100,000 hard drives-praying for a sign, throwing salt over your shoulder, or visiting a psychic are nearly as reliable as using a SMART utility to predict HD failure;
Also, HEAT and USE do not seem to correlate between a drive failing and one that does not
There are certain parameters on a aggregate scale such as Googles server farms-where these utilities have SOME value-but for an individual consumer-the above suggestions are cheaper-and maybe as reliable
There may be some exceptions-probably based more on luck or coincidence
All in all even a free smart utility is no more than a 'feel good' device-like a rabbits foot
Considering to horror of data loss and the expense of recovery-the manufacturers should simply adjust the QC formula-'the acceptable rate of returns' down to 5% or less-this would not add appreciably to the cost-
as most reviews-of the best HDs i read show a 10% average failure rate-ive been researching into which BU HD might be the best for me- im seeing an UNACCEPTABLE failure rate-conisdering what you buy it for-one should not have to worry
To be safe, your computer and external HD should exist as redunant BUs-VERY unlikely both could fail at once-but I know im tempted to push all overflow stuff onto my BU-but the worry-should I buy a BU for the BU?
http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

if someone has other data showing differently-please submit

As a Mac support person, I have found SMART Utility invaluable to give me advance warning of drive failure. I used to have to run TechTool Pro's Surface Scan to confirm bad blocks on a drive; or, on some drive models, Disk Warrior's entries in the System Log reveal replaced blocks. Either way, it took a lot of disk activity on a possibly-failing drive that could prevent timely data salvage. SU will tell you immediately if any blocks (sectors) have been replaced, which is almost always a sign of a failing drive. I deal with several failed drives per week, and at least half of them are due to bad blocks. SU's other attribute reports will also warn of impending failure due to other causes.

Note that Disk Utility's Smart Status will typically only tell you a drive is failing after it's already gone belly-up. Thank you, Doctor, I could have figured out for myself that the patient had expired.

Some feedback posts have complained that SU is just a GUI for smartmontools. While it is that, it is more also. First, for those of us who don't know how to make smartmontools work, there's nothing wrong with a GUI; those of you who want to remain pure and unsullied by GUIs can do so. Second, SU doesn't just report attribute failures, but has an algorithm that gives you advance warning ("Failing") and the red "Failed" alert, so you don't have to be intimately familiar with SMART attributes and which ones are important and what values are normal and abnormal.

SMART reporting does not work over most Firewire and USB connections. That's not the fault of the software, it's a function of the external enclosure.

The only features I would like to see added are email notification and a menubar icon. I have suggested this to the author, who is very responsive to questions.