Health Summary (Basic Mode)

Beginning with version 2.0 Hard Drive Inspector (HDI) has two working modes. Basic mode is intended for the users with no special knowledge of computer hardware. In this mode, HDI shows only the most important information about the current condition of hard disks (Health Summary page). When switched to the Advanced mode, HDI shows extended technical data (Technical Info and S.M.A.R.T. Details pages) that helps people with special knowledge get a more detailed view of the drives' condition. Use the Switch to ... Mode toolbar button to switch between these two modes.

Below is a screenshot of HDI's main window in the Basic mode.

For each disk HDI shows the following elements:

  1. Disk state indicator. This is the most important interface element; it is intended for quick visual estimation of the current drive's condition. There are four main states:
    OK: your disk reports good health status.
    Warning: your disk still seems to be reliable, but some of its important characteristics have degraded..
    Danger: your disk reports bad health status; you shouldn't use this disk any longer.
    Unknown: your disk doesn't support S.M.A.R.T. or you are using an unregistered version of HDI.

  2. Main technical characteristics of the device. This area contains reference information about the drive's model, capacity, total free space and hours in power-on state. The last parameter will be used for the estimation of device usage intensity.

    Note: question mark beside the Power-on time hours means that this information may be incorrect, and HDI is trying to determine the time units used by drive manufacturer for this particular drive. Determination procedure may take from 2 minutes to 2 hours depending on HDD model.

  3. Reliability, Performance and Error resistance indicators display quantitative (in percent) and qualitative (good, warning or bad) estimation of the corresponding drive parameters. This estimation is counted during the analysis of all life-critical disk characteristics.
  4. Short verbal description of the current drive's condition.
  5. Recommendation string displays advice about the actions necessary to prevent data loss.
  6. If the drive has an internal thermal sensor, the current temperature will be shown in this area. On the temperature diagram (View temperature diagram link) you can see fluctuations of disk temperature since the time when HDI was started.
  7. Depending on the value of Display HDD's death time estimation settings parameter, the main window may show a prediction of disk death time. This prognosis is not exact and should be used only as a supplement to the diagnosis shown in (1) and (3).