Hard Disk Diagnostic Utility For Mac

DriveDx will protect you from data loss and downtime

With DriveDx you need not worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

Macware on Tuesday announced the release of DiskTools Pro, a new utility for Mac OS X users that helps to diagnose and repair hard disk trouble.It costs $80. DiskTools Pro — developed for. Disk Utility is used to repair disk errors on Mac related to the hard disk drive formatting and structure. It comes with a First Aid feature for a quick repair of disk issues on Mac. Use it regularly to eliminate any issue turning into a bigger problem. Seagate SeaTools. Works from both inside and outside of Windows. Completely free.

You can know before your drive is going to fail, because DriveDx tracks more indicators of impending failure than any other product on the market for both SSDs and HDDs.

Video Tutorial
Drive Dashboard

Early Warning System

You will have more chances to save your critical data before any data loss actually occurs.

Video Tutorial
Drive Health Indicators

Modern SSDs and HDDs support

When evaluating the state of various drives, DriveDx can use different heuristic algorithms depending on the drive model and even its firmware version.

Video Tutorial
Drive Self-tests

Drive Self-tests

Will help to quickly identify if the drive is faulty.

Video Tutorial
Disk
Drive Self-test in progress

Automatic Email Reports

User does not need to have physical access to a specific computer all the time, which is especially useful for all kinds of server rooms, data centers, etc.

Video Tutorial
DriveDx Email Report Preferences
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DriveDx is recommended by
Here's a DriveDx triumph. DriveDx showed my just out of AppleCare iMac with two pre-fail conditions for the hard drive. Made appointment and took it to Genius Bar yesterday. Tech looked at DriveDx and was very impressed. Even though out of warranty - they replaced the drive without question.
God knows how many dollars and troubles DriveDx saved me since I had several vital FinalCut projects on it!
I just registered my copy of DriveDx. I want to say thanks for saving me a whole lot of time, expense, and aggravation. I’m trying to keep my 2011 MPB running for as long as I can….or at least until Apple gets their act together and starts making 17” laptops again. My Samsung 840 EVO SSD is aging, and my laptop gets very heavy work, managing networks, and saving the world.
Lately, the system has been hanging under heavy load. On a whim, I loaded up DriveDx, which told me there were CRC errors on the SATA cable. A $13 cable later, and I am no longer able to crash the system no matter how hard I try. Drive Dx is well worth the $19.99! Thanks a million!
As a photographer, I’m always concerned about drive failure because I know it will happen to all of my drives. What I don’t know is when.DriveDx exposes low-level information of internal sensors, pre-fail indicators and lifetime accumulators of information that have allowed me to anticipate problems before they affect my system. As a result, I sent external drive back to LaCie for exchange under warranty due to anticipated drive failure.
This is one of the best investments you can make in your system. I recommend it highly.
External backup disk will have been gone soon.. It's time for NAS server. Thanks for letting me know @BinaryFruit!
A couple of days ago, DriveDx warned me (pre-failing) for one of my external drives. I don't use it any more for backup. After DriveDx warning, drive behaved abnormally, I heard loud clicking noises and I got warnings from OS X as the drive unmounted abnormally while it was not the case.
Thanks to DriveDx. Best in its class. Excellent tech support.

DriveDx app warned of pending drive failure before it happened. Nice!!! @binaryfruit

DriveDx just warned of pending drive failure - second time @binaryfruit app has avoided server crash.

Shout out to @BinaryFruit for offering a great product and great service over and beyond what they advertise! DriveDX is an awesome app!
Cheaper and better than it's main OS X competitors. DriveDx has a better GUI layout, clearer presentation of data, and explanations of each of the SMART attributes. Beautiful.
Absolute Must for the OS 'Toolkit'! I was having some serious issues with an SSD hybrid drive on my macbook pro, and well since seagate doesn't support mac, their 'seatools' software was useless (and required) for getting a proper exchange. That one event way more than paid for the price of the software. THIS software generated a report that was acceptable for me to get my exchange, and before the drive died completely. Got my replacement drive and I will most certainly never go back to not having it installed.
Just in Time! I downloaded DriveDx and discovered that the second HDD in my MacbookPro (in the superdive location) was having 'failing warnings', although DiskUtility said the drive was OK. So I decided that I had to replace it. I did that and enclosed the failing disk in an external enclosure to use it some more. A week later I began to have serious issues with the failing disk and ditched it. I am very happy with DriveDx, worth the money on all accounts.
I have a not so supported fusion drive in my Macbook Pro. There has never been any way to see the S.M.A.R.T. status. Decided to give this a try and the first thing that pops up is that my Crucial M4 SSD was close to failure because of a bug in the microcode. I have not tried to use this to look at my USB attached drives, since the only one I have is a small external that I boot from in emergencies. But DriveDx not only clearly sees both drives making up my fusion drive, but it also shows me the status of my 3 eSATA drives.
It's finally great to have something even better than Crystal Disk Info to monitor hard drive life signs.
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Advanced Drive Health Diagnostics
Regular diagnostic tools simply check the built-in S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive, which provides the user with little information about the actual state of the physical drive. As opposed to such tools, DriveDx analyzes the current state of the drive using all the drive health indicators that are most likely to point to a potential drive issue (for instance, SSD wear out / write endurance, I/O errors, pending sectors, reallocated bad sectors, etc). See competitive analysis against several popular products here
Drive Failing (Pre-fail) State Detection
Unlike most other tools, DriveDx detects not only “OK/Verified” and “Failed” drive health states, but also the “Failing (Pre-fail)” drive state. Thanks to that, you will detect problems much earlier than when using any other SMART monitoring utilities. This means that you have more chances to save your critical data before any data loss actually occurs. Learn more
Real-time Drive Health Monitoring
DriveDx runs in the background and periodically performs checks to determine the health of your SSD or HDD. When any issue or problem is found, it alerts you immediately. DriveDx acts as an “early warning system” for pending drive problems. As a result, you have more chances to save your critical data before any data loss actually occurs.
Early Warning System
DriveDx features a special multi-tier warning system that will inform the user about deviations from the normal state of drive attributes. It constantly monitors each S.M.A.R.T. attribute (and its change dynamics) and starts continuously warning the user as the drive degrades. On the initial stages of drive degradation, the user will receive notifications of the Warning type, then Failing (means that this drive parameter is in a pre-failure state) and only then Failed. Learn more
Drive Self-tests
DriveDx allows you to start and control diagnostic self-tests of SSD / HDD. The primary goal is to quickly identify if the drive is faulty. Usually self-tests consist of a collection of test routines like electrical and/or mechanical performance tests as well as the read performance test of the drive. Depending on self-test type it does read scan of a small area or the entire media. Learn more
Hard drive test utility mac
Modern SSDs and HDDs Support
When evaluating the state of various drives, DriveDx can use different heuristic algorithms depending on the drive model and even its firmware version. One of the key advantages of the software is that the state of HDD and SSD drives is assessed using different algorithms, since many state indicators of HDD drives are not applicable or make no sense for SSD drives.
Automatic E-mail Reports
The user can get problem notifications and drive status reports to email. Reporting can be configured on the basis of various criteria. Thanks to this feature, the user does not need to have physical access to a specific computer all the time, which is especially useful for all kinds of server rooms, data centers, etc.
A modern, good-looking and user-friendly interface
DriveDx is one of the first drive diagnostic tools created in the true Mac style. All interface elements are clear and intuitive, so it will only take you a few minutes to learn the basics and start using the program. When a problem is identified, you will see a notification on the desktop and the status bar will show the status of your drives. Learn more
Drive Key Metrics Evaluation
DriveDx calculates various ratings of the current status of key drive characteristics (percent values):
  • SSD lifetime left indicator (in case of an SSD drive)
Thanks to these features, users can now have a fuller and better understanding of the current state of their drive.
Drive Free Space Monitoring
Mac OS X and applications might fail due to an inability to allocate storage space. In addition, low disk space might cause disk fragmentation. To avoid data loss and to ensure the continuous functioning of your computer it is important to monitor the amount of available storage space on your drive. DriveDx can automatically monitor free disk space and will alert user immediately if user defined free space threshold exceeded. Learn more
DriveDx will protect you from data loss and downtime!

Nov 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

'How to format hard drive for Mac and PC? I want to resell my computers and would like to get rid of my data beforehand, but can't seem to format my system!'

It doesn't matter what kind of situation you are in, it is important to learn how to format HDD for Mac and Windows. You might want to resell your system, get rid of something, or simply want to make more free space on it.

While it might sound complicated, both Mac and Windows give us dedicated features to manage our disk space. You can use it to manage your storage, merge partitions, and even do a disk format for Mac and PC. In this post, we will cover dedicated solutions on how to format your hard drive in Mac and PC.

Part 1. Why should you consider formatting your hard drive?

You might already know the consequences of formatting a hard drive. It will erase all the data stored in it, making it empty in one go. Therefore, before you format Mac/PC drive, make sure that you have taken a backup of your important data. Once it is done, you can do a hard disk format for Mac and PC to enjoy the following advantages.

  • It will help you get rid of any sensitive data from your hard drive so that the other user can't access it.
  • Once the disk is formatted, it will make it empty and let you store new content on it. Therefore, you can consider formatting a partition if you are running low of space.
  • In case if the hard drive has been corrupted by a virus, then you can format it entirely to get rid of any malicious activity.
  • By formatting a partition, you can manage the storage on your PC/Mac and merge the free space with another sector as well.
  • It will automatically defragment the disk, which will let you reclaim the lost space on the storage unit.
  • You can also resolve any disk issue by formatting your hard drive.
  • After formatting a disk, you can reassign a file system to it, and make it compatible with your PC/Mac.

Part 2. Major Formats of Hard Drive for Mac and PC

Over time, more than a hundred different kinds of file systems and formats have been developed for Mac and PC hard drives. Though, here are some of the most commonly used and compatible formats.

  • exFAT: It stands for Extended File Allocation Table and is developed by Microsoft. The file system is mostly used to allocate space on external storage units like USB drives or SD cards.
  • NTFS: The New Technology File System is used by Windows NT operating systems. It is the common format for the native hard drive of the system and is equipped with tons of new-age memory allocation techniques.
  • FAT32: The File Allocation Table format is used to store data on units that have a capacity of more than 32 GB. It mostly works on external storage units like flash drives and is compatible with both Mac and Windows.
  • APFS: The Apple File System is the native technique for macOS, iOS, tvOS, and even watchOS. It provides high-end encryption and is a replacement for the age-old HFS+ system developed by Apple.

Download Disk Utility For Mac

There are different other kinds of file systems that your hard drive can support. To check it, just select the partition or the external disk, right-click, and visit its 'Properties'. Go to the 'General' tab to know details about the file system of the disk.

Part 3. How to Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC on Windows?

If your Mac or PC has a Windows OS installed, then you won't face any trouble managing it. Every major version of the operating system provides a dedicated solution to format hard drive as well as external storage units. Also, you can manage the internal partitions, merge them, create new ones, and do so much more. Here's how to format hard drive on your Windows PC.

  1. First, you need to access the Disk Management tool on your Windows. To do this, just click on the Start menu and look for 'disk management'. Alternatively, you can also access it from the Control Panel.
  2. This will open a dedicated window for various disks on your system. Simply select a partition that you wish to format and right-click it. Choose the 'Format' option to proceed.
  3. As the formatting wizard will open, select the kind of file system that you wish to convert it to. For instance, it can be NTFS, exFAT, and so on.
  4. You can also allocate it to the relevant size or label it here as well. If you have less time, then you can choose to quickly format it by enabling the relevant option.
  5. In the end, you will get a confirmation prompt like this. Just click on the 'Format' or 'Yes' button and wait for a while as the disk would be formatted.

Important Note: Formatting an external device

Diagnostic

Windows also let us format an external device like SD card, pen drive, etc. quite easily. Simply right-click its icon from My Computer and from the context menu, click on the 'Format' option. Choose a file type and formatting option and click on the 'Start' button to format the disk.

Part 4. How to Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC on Mac?

Just like Windows, macOS also gives us a seamless option to format the hard drives for Mac (and PC). The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as Disk Utility. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. To learn how to format in Mac your hard drive, follow these steps:

  1. To start with, just go to Finder > Applications > Utilities to view all the available tools and features. From here, you can launch the Disk Utility application.
  2. Here, you can view all kinds of storage units available on your system (both internal and external). Simply go to the left panel and select the disk you wish to format.
  3. On the right, you can view details about the selected disk. Go to its toolbar and click on the 'Erase' option.
  4. This will display the following pop-up on the screen. You can give the partition/drive a label, select its partition scheme, and specify its file format as well.
  5. Click on the 'Erase' button in the end and confirm your choice as Mac would format the selected disk.

In no time, the entire disk would be emptied and you can manage it the way you like. You can follow the same drill to format an external device on Mac as well.

Part 5. How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac?

By following the above-listed methods, you would be able to format hard drive for Mac and PC seamlessly. Though, if you have formatted a hard drive accidentally, then you might end up losing your important files. In this case, you can take the assistance of Recoverit Data Recovery software to get back your lost or deleted content from Mac. The data recovery tool is available for free and supports all the major macOS and Windows versions. Following a simple on-screen process, you can easily extract your data from your Mac's hard drive or an external device.

Recoverit - The Best Word File Recovery Software

  • Recover Word documents from all storage devices like Mac.
  • Recover 1000+ types and formats of files in different situations.
  • Scan and preview the files before you recover them from MacBook hard drive.

If you have deleted a partition on Mac or have lost it due to any other reason, then you should use Recoverit Data Recovery. It can help you restore partition data on Mac by following these easy steps.

Step 1: Select a Location

Firstly, launch the Recoverit Data Recovery application on your Mac and from its home, pick a location. A list of all the available locations will be displayed. You can just pick a source and start the scan.

Step 2: Scan the Location

Repair Disk Utility Mac

This will commence the data recovery operation on the selected location. You simply need to wait for a few minutes for the scan to finish successfully.

Step 3: Preview and Recover

Once the process is completed, you can just preview the extracted data on Recoverit's interface. Make the needed selections and click on the 'Recover' button, so that you can save your files to a safe location.

Important Note:

If you are running the latest version of macOS, then you should consider disabling its System Integrity Protection feature first. This will allow third-party apps like Recoverit to access the partitions and file system on your Mac. Restart your Mac and press the Command + R keys to boot it in the Recovery mode. Launch the Terminal app by visiting the utility menu and enter the command: csrutil disable. In the end, restart your Mac in the normal mode and launch Recoverit again.

Part 6. Tips for Formatting Hard Drive

If you want to get positive results while formatting your hard drive on Mac or PC, then consider following these steps:

  • Since formatting will erase all the existing data on your hard drive, make sure you have taken its backup beforehand.
  • When your system is formatting the drive, don't halt the process in between as it can make the storage unavailable.
  • As both Windows and Mac provide native solutions to format the hard drives, you should avoid using any unreliable third-party tool.
  • While formatting, you would be asked to pick a file system for the disk. Therefore, make sure that the file system is supported by your Mac or Windows.
  • Instead of a quick format, you should follow the standard process. This will save the empty space on your system and avoid disk fragmentation.

Hard Drive Test Utility Mac

Conclusion

Samsung Disk Diagnostic Utility

Now you can easily format hard drive for Mac and PC like a pro, without facing any trouble. Apart from formatting the internal drive, we have also listed a smart solution to format external devices as well. Not just that – the guide has also included a working solution to recover data from a formatted drive. If you have accidentally formatted a drive, then use Recoverit Data Recovery. An excellent recovery tool for Mac and Windows, it will make sure that you never suffer from an unwanted loss of data again.