Active@ Hard Disk Monitor vs Victoria HDD/SSD
Active@ Hard Disk Monitor
disk-monitor.com
Victoria HDD/SSD
hdd.bySide by side
| Figure | Active@ Hard Disk Monitor | Victoria HDD/SSD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Disk Diagnostic Software | 9.1 (#1) | 7.1 (#20) |
| Headquarters | The company lists its address as 7177 Danton Promenade, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. | Belarus |
| Purpose | Monitors hard disk health using S.M.A.R.T. and scans disk surfaces for bad sectors. | Victoria diagnoses, tests and performs minor repairs on hard drives, SSDs, memory cards and other storage devices in Windows. |
| SMART monitoring | It reads S.M.A.R.T. attributes such as temperature, head-flying height and spin-up time. | Victoria analyzes SMART data and shows the status of each attribute for HDDs and SSDs. |
| Support | Support options include a customer communication center, knowledge base, email, and phone assistance. | The maker says development and support have been handled by one person since the program moved to voluntary donations in 2018; the site offers articles, documentation and FAQs. |
| System requirements | The guide specifies at least a Pentium III 500 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM and 15 MB disk space. | The listed systems are Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8 and 10 in x86 or x64, with at least 1 GB RAM; running the program requires administrator rights. |
Plans
Active@ Hard Disk Monitor
- FreewareFree
- Professional - General license$49.95, paid once
- Professional - Enterprise license$899, paid once
- ProfessionalPrice not published
In their own words
Active@ Hard Disk Monitor
Active@ Hard Disk Monitor checks disk health on Windows with S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and surface scans for bad sectors. It can monitor disk performance and state in the background, including when launched at Windows startup. Temperature tools record history, draw graphs, and show the current disk temperature in the system tray. When critical conditions appear, the software can send email or popup notifications. It also creates event logs and S.M.A.R.T. reports containing disk activity information over time. The Pro version adds remote monitoring: it can display disk information and receive notifications from remote computers on a local or global network. Pro also provides temperature graphs across a day, week, month, or specified period. The Freeware plan costs nothing and is for personal use only. Professional is intended for business purposes and can monitor up to 3 PCs remotely; its general license covers personal and commercial use, while its enterprise license is for company offices and branches worldwide. The site lists version 26.0.1, dated February 1, 2026, as a maintenance release.
Victoria HDD/SSD
Victoria HDD/SSD is a free Windows utility for diagnosing, testing, and making minor repairs to hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, and other storage devices. Its surface scanner checks bad areas, unstable defects, and interface errors, with automatic timeout and block-size adjustment. SMART tools analyze attribute status, read and write internal logs, and show built-in test results. A drive passport lists manufacturer, model, serial number, firmware, logical parameters, and interface details. The program retrieves identity and SMART data over USB, with the maker claiming support for 90% of USB-to-SATA bridge models. A quick test plots 188 points in about three minutes for any capacity but does not locate defects. Listed interfaces include M.2/U.2 NVMe and SAS/SCSI. PIO mode accesses IDE/SATA drives outside Windows and is intended for professionals with special knowledge. Victoria can erase media at the device's supported maximum speed. Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8, and 10 are listed, with at least 1 GB RAM and administrator rights required.