GSmartControl

Hard drives are usually the first to go when it comes to component wear and tear. Even if you have an SSD, you will still want to have a look over its vital signs from time to time. For this purpose, you can use GSmartControl, which is a graphical user interface for Smartools' smartctl. The software can provide you with a huge amount of SMART data, to help you make sure your hard drives are still working properly or figure out if it's time to get new ones, before they have a chance to fail.

GSmartControl is distributed as a freeware application, for all modern Windows systems. Downloading the setup package and installing its core components is a straightforward and easy task, which should take only a few seconds to complete. Furthermore, the software's package includes everything that is needed, so you don't have to install any prerequisite tools yourself.

When launched, GSmartControl will scan your system and gather all the information it can about your hard drives and other storage devices. The process takes only a few seconds, after which you can find all the devices listed as large icons on the main user interface. Selecting a device will display a few quick details on the same window, like its capacity, if it passed a basic health check or its model family.

The bulk of the data can be found on a separate window, on multiple tabs and sub-tabs, after double clicking a drive. The software places a vast range of information in front of you, which includes general details, attributes, statistics, temperature and error logs and much more. You can also find options for setting up a self-test, to identify drive problems early on and get a general idea on how longer your drive will last. If you need any information for a later date, you can save detailed reports as plain text files.

Any information you need about your hard drive's health status can be retrieved at a moment's notice with GSmartControl.