OWC has announced SMART Alec, a Mac utility that constantly monitors and checks your Mac hard drives, SSDs, FireWire disks, and USB drives, warning you in advance if drives are failing or about to fail.
![](/wp-content/uploads/archive/0BB39B53-FAF0-4A21-BDCF-D4D01D9550D3.jpeg)
![](/wp-content/uploads/archive/0BB39B53-FAF0-4A21-BDCF-D4D01D9550D3.jpeg)
The utility is designed to help you avoid sensitive, irreplaceable data from databases, word processing, Excel, PowerPoint and other business files, photos and videos, music compositions, and more. SMART Alec is currently available in beta . The free final version of SMART Alec and a $9.99 upgrade with additional features will be available in July.