Best drive monitoring software for MacOS: DriveDx, Drive Scope, SMART Utility or ?? (External USB Drives)

[lifereinspired]

Hi,

I’m having some errors thrown when I try to copy files to one of my external USB drives (ext drives are HDD not SSD). Running DiskUtility FirstAid didn’t fix it, nor did a restart. In fact, when I did restart, about 1/2 TB of data disappeared off the drive. So, I downloaded the trial version of DriveDX, installed the signed open source kext file for enabling external USB drives support, and let it do its thing. Came back saying that drive is OK but its backup drive is failing. Not sure what to think since the drive that DriveDX says is OK is throwing many errors in real world use.

Now, before I purchase the license, is DriveDX generally considered the best option in 2025? It’s $20 license, which seems fair & affordable while its competitors SMART Utility ($25) and Drive Scope ($50) cost more. Also, SMART Utility states that it has limited external HDD support (I know this is a limitation of MacOS & the kext file installs the kernel level driver, but SMART Utility doesn’t make it clear if it even supports this).

Since the internal MacOS SSD & external USB HDDs are the primary things I’m looking to keep tabs on, is DriveDX still my best bet at this point? Interestingly, I also tried DiskDrill which was able to use the same driver that DriveDX installed & DiskDrill is showing no errors on any drives while DriveDX is showing failing of two drives. Also, DiskDrill seems to just have less data shown.

Would love to hear opinions before I purchase on whether DriveDX is the way to go. Thanks in advance.

 

[bogdanw]

Sensei can also monitor drive health https://cindori.com/sensei
The developer is present on the forum @Cindori

 

[Fishrrman]

How old is the external HDD (the one that's receiving the bad report)?

Could it indeed, be showing signs of failure?
(a loss of 1/2tb of data would certainly suggest the possibility of "failure" to me...)

 

[MacCheetah3]

[...] while DriveDX is showing failing of two drives.

Which attributes?

In DriveDX, you can click on an attribute name for more info.
Alternatively:

Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Came back saying that drive is OK but its backup drive is failing. Not sure what to think since the drive that DriveDX says is OK is throwing many errors in real world use.

Unfortunately, S.M.A.R.T. isn’t always smart. Okay… Seriously… S.M.A.R.T. isn’t perfect and won’t always catch problems. Sometimes, you need to rely on (other) observations.

Nonetheless, there is an old school method that can sometimes help. “Zeroing” a hard disk drive (i.e., spinning platter based) forces it to handle every sector, which could reveal bad sectors it has missed (or not properly marked). Or, in someone else’s words:

[...] do not repair bad sectors in the sense that they become good sectors that can be written to. More correctly they partially repair the drive by placing markers that prevent the bad sectors from being used (written to). Once the quarantine is done utilities like check disk see the disk as good and not having bad sectors. The bad sectors are still there but are hidden by the excluding markers. Replace the disk. You have spent more time already than the risk is worth. In the very least your disk now has reduced capacity. It is not prudent to trust your data and OS to a disk that has exhibited behavior you have described.

I’m not certain if the secure erase options are still present in recent versions of macOS:

How to Use Mac's Disk Utility to Securely Wipe a Drive

There may come a time when you want to completely remove all traces of information on your Mac's drives. It may be because you're selling or donating your

eshop.macsales.com

A Step by Step Guide to How to Wipe a Mac Clean

If you’re looking to get rid of all the data on a Mac hard drive or SSD, you need to wipe it fully. Learn some safe and effective methods for wiping data.

www.backblaze.com

NOTE: A single pass of zeros is sufficient.
NOTE: Even with just a single pass, estimated time required is ~2 to 2.5 hours per terabyte of storage when using USB 3.0 or better.

If you have a Windows PC, this is where Microsoft’s obsession to (agree to) maintain legacy is a plus — basically, I find it more reliable in these uses:

format

Reference article for the format command that formats a drive to accept Windows files.

learn.microsoft.com

Of course, you would probably need to reformat, though only a standard/‘quick’, when moving the drive back to use on the Mac.

EDIT:

I guess, I assumed it went without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Before doing the drive zeroing, have at least one trusted backup of the drive being diagnosed.

 

[lifereinspired]

@Fishrrman, oddly, the drive that received the bad report is not the one that’s experiencing the issues - it’s shown no errors in use thus far. The drive that had 1/2tb of data loss showed up as OK in DriveDX. (No errors were shown on any drive in DiskDrill so I’m not thinking of going with that).

Both of the drives (the one that is having issues but got a clean report from DriveDX, and it’s backup drive that has a failing report but has shown no signs yet of issues) are just less than 2 years old. I’ve been surprised to have issues with them in what seems like a relatively short amount of time.

And I fully agree with you, a 1/2tb loss indicates reasons of significant concern about the drive. It’s currently formatted as exFAT for compatibility but I also think that might be a potential cause of some of the errors, from my research. I’m currently moving data off the drive so I can reformat in HFS+ to see if that stops the errors. But I also have to deal with the drive that is in failing state - which will require replacement.