CNET Editors' review
Drive Genius is a hard-working hard-drive utility from longtime Mac developers Prosoft Engineering, with the honorable distinction of being employed at the Apple Store Genius Bar as part of their ProCare Yearly Tune Up service.
The interface of Drive Genius shares some similarities with that of its data-recovery sister program Data Rescue: you navigate through a 3D "tool arena," a sort of virtual lazy Susan of hard-drive tasks that's fast and fluid enough to not be annoying (and it's actually kind of fun). You choose from six primary tasks, Information (with detailed readouts on S.M.A.R.T. status, file system type, and more), Defrag (to optimize drive speed), DriveSlim (to free up space by eliminating duplicate or unused files), Repair (to verify, repair, or rebuild a volume), Scan (to check for bad blocks), and DrivePulse (a monitoring tool that checks your drive in the background, when your computer is idle--although unfortunately there's no way to turn off its menubar icon if you decide to use it). You can also flip to the other side of the "tool arena" for even more esoteric tasks: Integrity Check, Initialize, Repartition, Duplicate, Shred (with up to 35-pass Gutmann erasing), Benchtest, and (perhaps scariest of all, "for expert use only") Sector Edit.
Many of these tasks can be time-consuming, but Drive Genius does a good job of keeping you entertained with graphs, lists, and live updates--or you can always just have Drive Genius notify you by email whenever it completes a task. You'll also want the DVD version of this program (which you can either have mailed to you, or download and burn yourself), so that you can work on your drive when it's not running the OS (or when it won't boot at all).
Drive utilities aren't for everyone (and Drive Genius isn't cheap), but if you're interested in keeping your Mac in tip-top shape, it's hard to go wrong with a tool that the pros use. Drive Genius gives you a lot of features in an all-in-one package that's easy to use and understand.
Publisher's Description
From Prosoft Engineering:
Maintain, Manage and Optimize your Hard Drive Is your Mac running slower? Is your hard drive filling up and you don't know why? Are you seeing the beach ball more or having other issues with your hard drive? Try Drive Genius 3, the best hard drive utility on the Mac platform - DrivePulse, Enhanced Defrag, DriveSlim, Enhanced Repartition are only a few of the award-winning features of Drive Genius 3. Drive Genius 3 is used by Apple at the Genius Bar as part of the ProCare Yearly Tune Up.
What's new in this version: Mavericks support
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All versions:
3.1 starsout of 74 votes
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Current version:
2.3 starsout of 3 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-3 of 3
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"Absolute Rip Off"
Version: Drive Genius 3.2.3
Pros
It promises the world
Cons
Delivers nothing
Summary
Do you know how to de-frag Mavericks... re-download Mavericks (that's 5GB) load this onto an external drive with at least 16GB free.... download 'Drive Genius DVD.dmg'.... burn that to a disc.... then boot Mavericks from an external disc and run the DVD.... sound complicated?.... You bet!!!! Absolute waste of money...
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"You cant delete it by normal way"
Version: Drive Genius 3.2.3
Pros
I just try to defragment my drive, but this app cant do this on Maverick version.
Cons
Most ugly thing - you cant delete it without tricks and magic.
Summary
When I set up any software, I think I can delete it any time I want. Not with this software. I spend 2 hours to find the way how to delete it. 2 hours!!!
If you not advanced user with strong console skills don't even try to install this shi... soft.
Just look for official answer how you will do this:
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To manually uninstall Drive Genius 3 delete the following files and folders at the end of the paths listed below. Double click on your " Mac HD " drive to start the path.
/Library/Application Support/DriveGenius (folder)
/Applications/Drive Genius 3.app (icon)
/Users/Library/Application Support/DriveGenius (folder)
/Users/Library/Preferences/com.prosofteng.DriveGenius2.plist (file)
/Users/Library/Preferences/com.prosofteng.DGAgent.plist (file)
If you are running OS X Lion or Mountain Lion, the last three files/folders are located in the Users Library Folder which is hidden in Lion, You can temporarily access this folder by opening a Finder Window and pressing Command+Shift+G. This will bring up "Go to the folder", enter in "~/Library" and click go.
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But! Its not work! Because they run on root level and block any try to delete this files.
I use this method:
Delete from startup program list all drivegenius services and daemons.
Reboot.
And then you can delete this app.
Shame on you developers of Drive Genius.... -
"Saved a HDD that no other could repair or recognize."
Version: Drive Genius 3.2.3
Pros
Effective at initializing a HDD no other app I tried could repair or recognize. I even took this machine to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. Nothing they had could repair the disk. They recommended buying a new HD.
Cons
Price, no others - yet!
Summary
This is a great app if you have serious problems with a drive.
Results 1-3 of 3
