Drive Atlas
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Health

SMART said healthy. The drive was dying.

Drive Atlas speed-tests each drive and compares it to that drive's own history. When the numbers fall, it tells you, even if SMART still says everything is fine.

The problem

SMART is the health report built into every drive. It's useful, but many USB enclosures hide most of it, and drives can fail without SMART noticing.

Drive Atlas was built by a photographer whose own Samsung SSD tested at 2 MB/s writes while SMART called it healthy. Copying one 2.4 GB clip to it took 21 minutes.

How it works

  1. Run a speed testPress Run benchmark on a plugged-in drive. The full test writes a 256 MB temp file and deletes it when it is done. The read-only test only reads files already on the drive.
  2. Build a historyEvery result is saved. The drive's Performance tab shows each test next to the one before it, so you see the trend, not just one number.
  3. Act on the warningWhen a drive slows down sharply against its own past, it is flagged on the dashboard. A drive that writes slower than 10 MB/s is treated as failing whatever its label says. The evacuation plan lists what to copy off first.
A drive's benchmark history in Drive Atlas, comparing each read and write result with the previous one

Good to know

SMART where it is availableDrive Atlas reads SMART data where the drive and enclosure pass it through. On Windows you can choose to run a deeper query with admin rights. If an enclosure hides the counters, the app says it is the enclosure, not your drive.
A quiet reminderWhen a plugged-in drive hasn't been speed-tested in four months, or ever, the dashboard shows a quiet reminder. There are no popups.
Retire a drive, keep its historyMark a drive as retired and the catalog keeps everything it knew about it, so you still know what was on it.

What it can't do

A speed test is a warning sign, not a lab diagnosis. A slow result can also come from a slow cable or hub, so test again before you panic. Drive Atlas can't repair drives.

Questions

My SSD is very slow but SMART says it's healthy. Is it failing?
It might be. SMART doesn't catch every failure, and many USB enclosures hide most of its data. A sharp drop against the drive's own past speed is a strong warning. Test again with a different cable, and copy off anything that has no backup.
How does Drive Atlas check drive health?
It combines SMART data, where the enclosure passes it through, with speed tests it saves over time. It flags a drive when its speed falls sharply against its own history, or when writes drop below 10 MB/s.
Does the speed test write to my drive?
The full test writes one 256 MB temp file at the drive root and deletes it when the test ends. The read-only test writes nothing.

Free for your first 2 drives

Every feature included, no timer. $20 once maps all of them. Windows and Linux, no account, zero network connections.

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