GSmartControl — The Complete Guide: Graphical S.M.A.R.T. Checks on Windows, Linux and macOS
GSmartControl, by Alexander Shaduri, is a graphical front end to smartctl. It shows the S.M.A.R.T. data of each drive and highlights problem values, so even users who do not know the attributes see at once which drive is at risk. Open source (GPL-3.0), free for any use. Download only from the official site or GitHub — the developer warns about a phishing site on a similar .com domain.
GSmartControl
Alexander Shaduri
A graphical front end to smartctl for checking disk health, running S.M.A.R.T. self-tests and spotting early signs of failure.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Abnormal values flagged — problem attributes are highlighted in colour.
- Self-tests — start a short or extended test of the drive.
- Error log — the error history recorded by the drive itself.
- Analysis from another PC — open a smartctl output file saved on another machine.
- Included in GParted Live — check a disk in a computer that will not boot.
When it helps
A workstation that starts to freeze, or a file server making odd noises — run an extended test and decide on the result. When the tool flags a problem, the first step is a backup, not another test. Some USB adapters and RAID controllers do not pass the data through, and then the drive is not fully shown.
Related tools
The engine underneath, for servers and scripts — smartmontools. For a familiar Windows interface with alerts — CrystalDiskInfo. For rescue when a computer will not start — GParted.
smartmontools
smartmontools developers
The smartctl and smartd command-line tools for reading S.M.A.R.T. data, running self-tests and continuously monitoring server disks.
Get it from the vendor
CrystalDiskInfo
Crystal Dew World (hiyohiyo)
Checks the health of HDD, SSD and NVMe drives from S.M.A.R.T. data, with temperature, alerts and background monitoring.
Get it from the vendor
GParted
GParted project (GNOME)
A graphical partition editor to create, resize, move and copy partitions, also as a live system booted from USB on any PC.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
The convenient way to check drives on any operating system, with the power of smartctl and no commands to remember.