news 28 Posted September 8, 2009 Volitans Software Announces SMART Utility 2.1 - Published on 09/07/09 IMMEDIATE RELEASE Volitans software today announced SMART Utility 2.1, a significant update to the hard drive diagnostic application. SMART Utility is an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives SMART is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements of a hard drive's operation. The new features include scanning drives at a specified time interval, ability to ignore a failed test unless its new, and estimated time remaining for tests. Lancaster, Pennsylvania - Volitans software today announced SMART Utility 2.1, a significant update to the hard drive diagnostic application. The new features include scanning drives at a specified time interval, ability to ignore a failed test unless its new, and estimated time remaining for tests. SMART Utility is an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements (called attributes) of a hard drive's operation. The attributes can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is failing. SMART Utility can read and display these attributes. This allows time to hopefully backup, and then replace the drive. SMART Utility is different from other drive utilities, such as Disk Utility, which only read the overall SMART Status. SMART Utility not only displays the individual attributes to see their status and information, but it also uses an internal algorithm based on those attributes to detect drives failing before SMART indicates it has failed. This pre-fail detection can save precious data before SMART has determined that the drive has failed. And, while the raw information can be viewed on the command line with smartmontools (which is what SMART Utility is based on), SMART Utility presents it in an easy to read format, as well as running its internal pre-fail algorithm. Full release notes for Version 2.1: - Added preference to update drives every hour, day, or week - Added preference to only flag failing test if it is new - Added better error handling for problems reading SMART data - Added estimated time remaining for a test - Fixed a bug with display of reallocated bad sectors on main window - Now updates progress bar of SMART data update sheet Features: * Displays all supported drives and their partitions * Displays easy to read overall SMART status with color coded text * Displays important information in the main window, such as drive model, capacity, power on hours, temperature, bad sector counts, and error counts and types * Displays more detailed information in separate windows, including capabilities, all available attributes, and the past five errors * Run scan every hour, day, or week * Run built in drive self tests * Customize failing triggers * Supports scanning individual RAID drives in addition to non-RAIDed drives * Supports logging all information to a log file for verifying SMART data * Supports Mac OS X 10.4.11, 10.5, and 10.6 as well as both PowerPC and Intel Macs Pricing and Availability: SMART Utility is available in a variety of licenses including a personal license for $25 (USD) and a family license for $40 (USD). It can be purchased online or in an innovative way: within SMART Utility itself through its embedded web store. Volitans Software: http://www.volitans-software.com/ SMART Utility 2.1: http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php Download SMART Utility: http://www.volitans-software.com/downloads/smartutility21.zip Purchase SMART Utility: http://store.esellerate.net/volitans-soft/store Screenshot: http://www.volitans-software.com/screenshotmain2.jpg App Icon: http://www.volitans-software.com/images/version.jpg Volitans Software was founded on February 22, 2007, by Matthew Butch, to sell SMART Utility. The name Volitans comes from the scientific name of the Red Lionfish. Matthew is an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician, an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator, and an Apple Certified System Administrator. He conceived of the idea of SMART Utility because he wanted a better way to test hard drives in his job as an on-site Macintosh Technician. ### Matthew J Butch President/Owner libertyof76 ( -at -) supernet.com ******* ******* ******* Share this post Link to post
