Frequently asked questions

SSDHero runs on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 14 or later. Reading health from USB drives needs macOS 27.

It reads the health data the drive already keeps: how much of its rated life it has used, its spare capacity, its temperature and its errors. SSDHero turns those into one health score and a plain sentence, with a next step when something needs attention.

No. It is an estimate of rated endurance based on wear and usage history, not a predicted failure date, and it sharpens after about two weeks of your own history. Many SSDs work beyond their rated endurance. Keep regular backups regardless of the health reading.

Thunderbolt and USB4 NVMe drives show full health, read live. On macOS 27, many USB SSDs and hard drives do too, read through macOS itself without unmounting anything. For the others, you hand the drive to SSDHero once from the menu bar, and macOS remembers. A check then unmounts the drive for a few seconds, never by force, and writes nothing to it. USB enclosures with an NVMe bridge, and USB drives on earlier macOS, show their link speed, activity and error counters. SD cards show capacity, free space and errors; they don’t share health data with the Mac.

macOS keeps you in charge of your drives. The first time, it asks you to let SSDHero access removable volumes. For some USB drives, it also asks you to hand the drive to SSDHero from the menu bar. It remembers your answer. SSDHero only reads health data.

Yes. Start a benchmark from a drive’s Overview. It takes about a minute: three runs, averaged, of sequential and random 4K reads and writes. SSDHero compares the result with what the drive’s connection can carry, so you can tell whether the drive or the connection is the limit. It writes one temporary 1 GB test file and deletes it, and it never runs on a failing drive.

Only when it matters. By default, you’re told when a drive’s status gets worse, when a drive runs low on space, and when a drive you ejected is safe to unplug. You can turn on more in Settings, such as a drive running hot.

Yes: small, medium and large desktop widgets. Pick the drive and the stats each one shows, and click one to open that drive in SSDHero. With “Allow in full color” on (macOS 15 and later), a failing drive still shows red when macOS tints your widgets.

SSDHero will be a free Mac App Store download with a 14-day free trial of everything. After that, a one-time $9.99 purchase keeps it for good. No subscription. Without buying, SSDHero keeps showing each drive’s status in the menu bar, tells you if a drive gets worse, and still makes a drive’s Health report. The trial is tied to your Apple Account, so reinstalling doesn’t restart it.

Not yet. SSDHero is in testing now and is coming to the Mac App Store; the link will be added here when it’s available.

No. It reads the health data your drives already keep. The one exception is a benchmark you start yourself, which writes a temporary test file and deletes it. A self-test, if you start one, runs inside the drive and writes nothing. Nothing leaves your Mac: no account, no analytics.

No. No account, no analytics. Health history stays on your Mac, and a health report goes only where you send it.