Backblaze has posted their Hard Drive Reliability Review for 2015 . As always some very interesting information there. HGST seems to have the best reliability, but they note they buy Seagate drives because they alert their failures better via SMART. Something to keep in mind!
SMART Utility 3.2.2 has been released, which fixes a bunch of small bugs. Most notably the SAT SMART Driver for external drives has been updated to .10, as well as fixed for working on 10.11.
Download for 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), and 10.11 (El Capitan).
Note that support has been dropped for 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8.
Here’s the full release notes:
As some of you may have read, there is a security vulnerability in apps that use the Sparkle app updating framework. However, this only affects apps that use HTTP connections for updating. While SMART Utility does use the Sparkle framework, it uses HTTPS on the backend (as does this site), preventing it from being vulnerable.
However, the next update will include the new version as an added protection. Look for it soon!
For today only, get SMART Utility for 20% off! Just use coupon code CPNCYBMON2015 in the store!
Volitans Software is proud to announce a new partnership with Watchman Monitoring! Watchman Monitoring is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering which monitors the health of Mac, Linux, and Windows computers. Part of that monitoring is drive health. Prior to this partnership, Watchman could only monitor the standard SMART status. As users of SMART Utility know, that is usually not enough as other hidden problems could be there.
Now with SMART Utility built in, Watchman Monitoring subscribers can be alerted to the same prefail warnings that current SMART Utility customers have. Watchman Monitoring is great for companies and organizations with many Macs to keep them abreast of changes and issues, such as drive problems.
Of course, to really see all of a drives issues, Watchman customers will want to purchase the full SMART Utility. The plugin for Watchman is only a limited one- enough to know there are issues, but not enough to fully diagnose it.
Both Volitans Software and Watchman Monitoring are excited for this partnership. This will greatly benefit both our customers to maintain working drives and safe data.
As you might notice, volitans-software.com is now protected by SSL. This is the way the industry is going, and Volitans Software supports this move. iOS 9 will default to using HTTPS for some connections, and Google now favors SSL sites over non-SSL sites. Of course, the payment system was always SSL, but now the entire website is. If anybody runs into any issues, please contact support.
Backblaze is back, in a blaze with new hard drive reliability stats. This are always fascinating, especially for our customers. Check it out at their website.
Note that Seagate had some pretty bad drives, and the failure rate for 4TB drives is not good for either them or Western Digital. I’d avoid those if possible.
The new website is here! I really like the look of the new site, and how it functions. I’m hoping everybody else does too. Most things are the same, but updated. For example the SMART Utility FAQ has been updated, as well as the SMART Utility page itself- including new screen shots.
If you have any thoughts, let me know in the comments, or via email in the Contact page!
They seem to release these twice a year or so, which is actually awesome. Their current post has some fascinating numbers. I’m surprised and shocked the WD Reds did so terribly. Looks like my next NAS drives will HGST NAS 4TBs (Amazon affiliate links). Anyway, check out the numbers for yourself.
Volitans Software is doing well, at least from my expectations and desires. VS has been around for over nine years, and a lot has changed in the Apple world- mostly for the better (the loss of Steve Jobs being one of the few exceptions). SMART Utility has been out for nearly eight years itself, and the code base is in decent shape. That’s especially good considering it was written for 10.4 and runs on 10.10. However, adopting new OS technologies has been held back due to keeping backward compatibility.
Version 3.2 will change that. Version 3.2 will drop support for 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7. Combined, they only make up 20% of the users of SMART Utility, and that number is dropping fast. Dropping support for 10.8 also might be added, as that is only 11% of the users of SMART Utility. There will be a lot of code refactoring, and a lot of new features due to supporting new OS technologies. This will set the stage for version 4.0, which will add a brand new UI among other features that are in development.
In addition to SMART Utility, there are three iOS apps in planning stages or in development. These are exciting times for Mac and iOS development, and Volitans Software is committed to supporting existing and new users.
SMART Utility is fully compatible with Intel Macs running Mac OS 13 Ventura. This includes the external driver! However, for M1 & M2 Macs running Mac OS 13 Ventura, it should be compatible but not the external driver.
Continue readingSMART Utility 3.2.7 has been released, which adds full support for Big Sur and Monterey. NOTE: This is the last free version. Version 4.0 will be out soon, and will be a paid upgrade, unless you purchased after May 1st, 2016 and then it is free. NOTE: This is the last version for 10.9 (Mavericks) […]
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