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Is DriveDX kaput?

steve62388

steve62388

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 23, 2013
3,104
1,968
Has DriveDX folded?

I can't download from Binary Fruit's website, the download button takes you to a dead page.
 
The link for the latest version was
Code: 
https://s3.amazonaws.com/download.binaryfruit.com/drivedx/mac/1/DriveDx.1.11.0.zip
but it returns "Error AllAccessDisabled All access to this object has been disabled"
Probably they forgot to pay Amazon Cloud :)
 
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"Check for Updates" returns an error, and there's no response to support requests. Sure you can download it, but with no one home to support it, I'm not sure it's safe to continue using.
 
Yes, it runs fine for now. But the update function hasn't worked for at least a week, and no response to a couple of emails sent to their support address about it. That leaves me with the impression that no one is home.
 
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Fallback is to use smartmontools. No GUI and no interpretation of SMART values.

If DriveDX is becoming abandonware, take good care of your downloads of SATSMART driver/kext signed by the DriveDX developer.
 
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I don’t use DriveDx, I never liked it.
But just because an app is not updated every week like TikTok, doesn’t mean it’s not working.
According to Wikipedia, the last SMART revision was in 2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology
So, if a hard drive made in 2023 respects the last standard, an app made in 2012 would have no problem in reporting the SMART values.
Free apps
SMARTReporter https://www.corecode.io/smartreporter/index.html
SSDReporter https://www.corecode.io/ssdreporter/index.html
Free Trial
SMART Utility https://www.volitans-software.com/apps/smart-utility/
Sensei https://cindori.com/sensei
 
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As a long time DriveDX user, I am not very impressed with these:
bogdanw said:
Free apps
SMARTReporter https://www.corecode.io/smartreporter/index.html
SSDReporter https://www.corecode.io/ssdreporter/index.html
Click to expand...
Both say "Technical support for SMARTReporter is no longer available."
bogdanw said:
Free Trial
SMART Utility https://www.volitans-software.com/apps/smart-utility/
Click to expand...
Requires smartmontools and is mostly a GUI wrapper for it.

All the above three depend on SATSMARTdriver kext for USB drives. And none of them are clear about external Thunderbolt drives.
None of them have the knowledge that DriveDX has regarding interpretation of SMART for different vendors.

DriveDX may have a quirky interface but it does the job much better than anything else. Long may it continue to work!!
bogdanw said:
Sensei https://cindori.com/sensei
Click to expand...
Does this do SMART monitoring of anything apart from internal drive?

bogdanw said:
According to Wikipedia, the last SMART revision was in 2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology
So, if a hard drive made in 2023 respects the last standard, an app made in 2012 would have no problem in reporting the SMART values.
Click to expand...
For SATA drives: so long as macOS continues to allow SATSMARTdriver kext to load!

And the 'standard' not quite that simple. As the wikipedia article says, different vendors interpret the standard in varying ways - this is where DriveDX used to excel keeping up with new drives.
 
Thanks for suggesting Drive Scope. But the description for Drive Scope says it only supports Intel-based Macs.
 
I am a big Drive DX fan. I hope the company did not go under. I just moved to a new Mac mini and was able to transfer my program from the old mini to the new one. I have a question, if Drive DX is out of business is the info the program gives reliable? I have a Mac mini at work which I have installed gsmartcontrol. Works OK but I line the info and gun of drive dx much better.
 
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DriveDx is awesome, I hope they're still up and running, but it doesn't look good at this point. The app is still solid for now, but as time goes on, if it's not updated, it will eventually have a bug with a new version of macOS or something like that. A small but possible downside is that there could be a security vulnerability that no one would know about or be able to fix, unless you wall it off from the network with something like LittleSnitch.
 
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This would be sad if anything happened since this app is very good. I don't own it (yet) but I did try it out for a spin. Love it. I have tried many others and this one is the best out of all of them.
 
The advent of APFS, and Apple's unwillingness to share its inner workings with 3rd party developers, seems to be killing off many (most?) of the 3rd-party drive repair/maintenance apps...
 
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Fishrrman said:
The advent of APFS, and Apple's unwillingness to share its inner workings with 3rd party developers, seems to be killing off many (most?) of the 3rd-party drive repair/maintenance apps...
Click to expand...
DriveDX (and similar) are not repair/maintenance apps and have nothing to do with APFS. Purely monitoring disk hardware.
bogdanw said:
Apple: Check if a Mac disk is about to fail https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp2548/mac
Click to expand...
When it is almost too late!! DriveDX (and others) provide monitoring over the lifetime of a disk.
 
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I was going to download DriveDX to a new setup for my Mac and kept getting Internal Server 500 errors. After hitting refresh, sometimes the page would load.

I figured the site was probably having temporary problems, but in the back of my mind I wondered if maybe it was something more than that. I did a search, which linked me to this thread (I'm not sure why I didn't just look here on MR first 😀)

I have always loved DriveDX and hope it is not gone for good. I have a lot of disks (HDD, SATA SSD and NVMe) connected to my Macs, and rely on DriveDX to monitor the health of the drives.

I'm wondering if there might be an issue with license key activations in the future, if their servers disappear??
 
I love DriveDx too. Version 1.7.0 won't work on my 2022 MacBook with Apple silicon. I've downloaded Version 1.11 (Build 730), but can't figure out how to import my license key from Version 1.7.0. Can anybody give me any help with this?
 
CathodeRay said:
I love DriveDx too. Version 1.7.0 won't work on my 2022 MacBook with Apple silicon. I've downloaded Version 1.11 (Build 730), but can't figure out how to import my license key from Version 1.7.0. Can anybody give me any help with this?
Click to expand...
Do you still have your purchase email with the license key?

Alternatively, copy the file ~/Library/Application Support/DriveDx/DriveDx.driveDxLicense from old to new Mac. Restart DriveDX (maybe reboot).
 
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I purchased it last month, and received a license key file that couldn't be opened. Have been trying to get in touch with support. Their servicing company claims they are trying as well but no response yet.
 
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