With the release of Drive Genius 3 on the Mac, a new feature was added that makes monitoring your drives a lot easier: DrivePulse®! Using DrivePulse®, whenever the system is inactive for a period of time, it will check your drives for potential problems, making use of the S.M.A.R.T. technology in today’s drives (S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology), as well as fragmentation status, temperature, and other items.

While this monitoring will not necessarily alert you exactly when your drive is about to fail (something that isn’t really possible anyway, just like predicting volcano eruptions or earthquakes: you know it will happen, but can’t be sure when), it gives you some good indicators about the health of the drive and when it might me a good idea for a backup.

If you have a Mac and are looking for a universal drive utility, check out the brand new Drive Genius 3.