MacOS – Best Free Hard Drive Diagnostics Apps

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My MacBook Pro (described below) fell 5 feet while it was powered on. Would the sudden motion sensor be able to turn off the hard drives in time? Also, can anyone recommend the best (free) hard drive diagnostic tools Mac OS X?

Thanks, Chirag

  Model Name: MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
  Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
  Number Of Processors: 1
  Total Number Of Cores: 2
  L2 Cache: 3 MB
  Memory: 4 GB
  Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03
  SMC Version (system): 1.47f2
  Serial Number (system): W89241NW66E
  Hardware UUID: D62F2A33-E5BA-5208-B300-28730564D27F
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State: Enabled

System Software Overview:

  System Version: Mac OS X 10.5.8 (9L30)
  Kernel Version: Darwin 9.8.0
  Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
  Boot Mode: Normal
  Time since boot: 5:20

Best Answer

I assume you are aware of the Shareware tools (Like the five mentioned in this article).

In any case, since you want the free option, you will have to rely in your common sense and the tools you have (this is also true for the Shareware options, which really don’t seem to add much at this stage). Most of the benefit of TechTool Pro and DiskWarrior is to have am emergency plan in place in case of hard drive failure. But that is to be done before the problem :)

Back to your case, I suggest you give Onyx a try to check the status of your HDD’s Smart status. Assuming you don’t hear strange noises in the drive, performing a full Clone to an external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner would provide you with an important piece of information: the computer can read your entire drive, block by block.

Both Onyx and OS X can verify your volume so I suggest you also perform a verify (using Disk Utility for example) and verify your permissions.

Finally, use AppleJack to execute some of the above tests to make sure that the OS is in Single User.

If after performing all of the above, you see nothing “out of the ordinary”, you don’t hear “strange click noises” or you don’t detect any strange slowness in your drive, you can assume that the drive has not suffered any damage.

But, all things said, I’d keep my backups up2date just in case. (You do have backups, don’t you?)

I’ve had drives fall from a desktop to the floor and survive for years without any problems, and some drives tipped 0.5 inches and instantly died. Hard drives are like unicorns. :)

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