Home Forums Mac Software Mac Applications Drive Dx not working externals

As I said earlier, Drive Dx/SATSMARTDriver.kext 0.10.3 and SATSMARTLib.plugin 1.0 work as expected with my OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini.

Prior to Sonoma, they found my Samsung thumb drive, but couldn't make heads or tails of it, but since I upgraded, they haven't found it at all, which may relate to kev's problem, but if there's a way to troubleshoot the issue, I haven't been able to find it.

SATSMART is a workaround for the fact that the USB protocol does not provide for transporting the S.M.A.R.T. or NVME values collected by the drive. Thumb drives do not generate or collect S.M.A.R.T. or NVME values therefore there is nothing to transport and nothing for DriveDX, TechTool Pro, or any other utility to report.

Yet, through Ventura, Drive Dx was recognizing my thumb drive, albeit only intermittently (after restarts, I think), and was reporting garbled, nonsensical info. Thinking back, I think it was recognizing only that something was attached. I don't think it gave me any specific accurate info.

Why it's stopped in Sonoma is a curiosity I'd like explained (but certainly won't pursue).

By the way, my previous post needs to be amended to note that kevs is still in Ventura, not Sonoma.

thanks Joe, the Binary Fruit page is confusing as to what click. Could you please circle in red what link to click. And Micromat page, I'll try but you can you circle what to click on that page? Dont' see a link on that page at all.

This helps as Binary does not ever reply to any help emails for their customers. (even though they encourage one to do so)

Lets try doing this the easy way:

1. click on the DriveDX icon on the menu bar
2. click on check for updates near the bottom of the resulting drop down (this will determine if you have the latest version installed.)
3. if not it should download DriveDX and the latest StatSMART drivers.
4. If a new DriveDX is downloaded, run it
5. Shut down your Mac
6. disconnect all of your external drives
7. Boot your mac
8. go to System Settings > Privacy & Security
9. scroll to the bottom of the pane and IF there is a notice there was an attempt to install an extension grant permission
10. reconnect your external drives (this will force the SATSMART drivers to mount)
11. launch DriveDX and see if the external drives are reporting

Joe says up to date.

I've done all the unplugging/ plugging rebooting.

Dont' see a notice at bottom of privacy.

Still no etxternals.

Do you want to send those links as a last try?

Are you surprised Binary will not help/ not answer repeated emails?

Then you have all the latest components.


So it would appear the drivers have loaded


another indication that nothing has changed


(and you may quote me on that)


There is something else going on and you already have the latest and greatest


I wish I could say yes because DriveDX is one of my standby's, but there have been signs and portents indicating the developer may be losing, or has lost, interest in the project, or it could be he or she is working her or his butt off on another project or their day job. Micromat is the only other Mac developer I am aware of that uses the open source SATSMART driver and the SATSMART GitHub site is dormant.

Joe thanks, not sure I understood that last sentence, so I'll ask: is there an alternative to DriveDx, anyone does this as good? if so I'll dive in. Great idea..

PROGRESS REPORT:

I just tried the latest version of Micromat's DriveScope and…

FINDINGS

1. It is seeing all of my drives even those connected via USB
2. It is reporting full S.M.A.R.T. or NVME values for all drives
3. It provides for manually starting extended testing
4. It does not provide any analysis of the data — that is entirely up to the user to comprehend
5. Micromat's more expensive Lifespan does provide limited lifespan analysis, but not as compresively as DriveDX.ee

IN MY OPINION

1. DriveDX provides the most comprehensive data and analysis of S.M.A.R.T. and NVME
2. DriveScope is more expensive and less informative than DriveDX but at the price is certainly better than nothing
3. At roughly ⅓ the price of Drivescope, DriveDX is probably seriously underpriced — when it works.

DISCOVERY:

I wandered around the BinaryFruit web site and stumbled into the customer support area and between there and especially the FAQ I began to tease out more and more bits of information pertinent to this problem. But the organization was no big help. With the help of the AI search engine in the ARC browser however I was able to turn up pages of potentially related data. As I am unable to replicate the issue I am equally unable to adequate evaluate what I am finding. However, I believe the answer is there, but it is going to take time, patience to unearth it. I only wish I were a lot higher up the learning curve on the AI assisted search tool — the problem is not finding info it is in finding THE info.

thanks Joe, $50 drivescope, every year or? one time?
Does tell you drive may fail soon with an email, and also it getting too full?

Yeah figure out DRivedx issues let us know..

In the course of your troubleshooting, have you ever tried switching the USB port to which your external is attached, and have you tried swapping out the USB cable you're using for one which you KNOW works as expected?

Your choice. The cost of two years of subscribing would cover a one time purchase. Personally, I have a hard time justifying that price, which is what led me to DriveDX in the first place.

Drivescope is a one trick pony. It doesn't even monitor drive condition, you have to launch and run it manually each time.

Will do, but don't hold your breath.

I just found this download link on the BinaryFruit FAQ page. Installation may require a multi-step process and I do not have a system I can test it on, but I will see if I can sus out a step-by-step process for doing that and get back to you late today or tomorrow. In the meantime, since it is not working on your system you can try the install without risking breaking something.

1. click on the provided link to download the driver
2. double-click on the downloaded zip file to decompress the SATSMART package
3. double-click the SATSMART package to install the drivers
4. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Extensions and look for a message about an attempt to install SATSMART and if you find one grant permission for the install
5. Power your system down
6. Boot your system
7. Cross your fingers and open DriveDX
8. Let us know the result

Joe thanks, ok did all that, even did the unplug, replug again, no luck darn. Agree, Micromat it dont send alerts lame. Let me know if any other software.

Guess, demand or knowlegde this type of software exist or is important is now, so Binary can't make a living off it, hence no support.

One other thing Joe. I would think best shot is to uninstall, start over, but when I did that, and I used App cleaner did not work. But I remember when I looked in preferences the email I put was still there.. Does that say anything to you?

AGAIN: Have you tried switching the USB port to which your external is attached, and have you tried swapping out the USB cable you're using for one which you KNOW works as expected?

no port going straigt in, cables are fine.. but what abou app clener, when got rid of used app cleaner, but later still saw my email in prerences so what does that say? Key is right to get a perfect unistall and reinstall?

I'm not sure what you mean by "no port going straight in." Your externals must be connected to some sort of port...USB...Thunderbolt, et al. And not to beat a dead horse, have you tried those cables with, say, a printer to be 100% certain that they work. You've been around long enough to remember Virtual 1, who was notable for saying that "Everything works until it stops working."

Software is generally not prone to the type of failure you're experiencing, while hardware most definitely is.

App Cleaner, all of those app removal apps, in fact, don't touch much, if anything, below the surface. If tried a couple and always had multiple files left after running them.

When I want to remove an app in its entirety, I use Find Any File <https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30079/find-any-file>, although Easy Find <https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11076/easyfind> is equally highly regarded.

Well, I'll be doggoned!

After months (I've got no idea how many.) of Drive Dx's not having recognized the existence my thumb drive, it just found it again when my MBP restarted after having been updated to macOS 14.2.1.

I wonder if this resulted from a bug squashing that may also benefit kevs?

I"m at 13.6. I'm not supposed to update becuase this software that allows me to write notes on emails, so they are making a new mail client but wont be ready yet so waiting on that?

That sounds more important than DriveDx.

And here's another "Well, I'll be..."

The other day, I booted into Recovery, erased my boot drive, installed a clean copy of Sonoma 14.2.1, and migrated data from one of my CCC clones, and for the first time ever, Drive Dx showed my thumb/flash drive as being healthy, not failed. (On the other hand, the report also identified the drive as a 12,000 rpm HDD, and includes the term "flash drive.")

I wonder if it will persist?

Not that this has anything to do with kevs's issue, but it's an insight into Drive Dx's vagaries.

Here's the complete report if anyone's interested, and, more important, can make any sense of it:

]### SYSTEM INFORMATION ###
Report Timestamp : January 14, 2024 10:35:28 AM EST
Report Timestamp (ISO 8601 format) : 2024-01-14T10:35:28

Application Name : DriveDx
Application Version : 1.12.1.760
Application SubBuild : 0
Application Edition : Standalone
Application Website : https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx
DriveDx Knowledge Base Revision : 103/103

Computer Name : Artie Schlesinger’s MacBook Pro
Host Name : Artie-Schlesingers-MacBook-Pro-2
Computer Model : MacBookPro16,1

OS Boot Time : 2024-01-13T13:10:17
Time Since Boot : 21h 25m 11s
OS Name : macOS
OS Version : 14.2.1
OS Build : 23C71
OS Kernel Version : Darwin 23.2.0

SAT SMART Driver Version : 0.10.3s
ATA Command Support Tolerance : verypermissive
N of drives in report : 1



### DRIVE 1 OF 1 ###
Last Checked : January 14, 2024 10:35:28 AM EST
Last Checked (ISO 8601 format) : 2024-01-14T10:35:28

Advanced SMART Status : OK
Overall Health Rating : GOOD 100%
Overall Performance Rating : GOOD 99.0%
Issues found : 1

Serial Number : hTm*;bGP8
WWN Id : b e3208a deaf9fced
Volumes : HD2s
Device Path : /dev/disk4
Total Capacity : 314.9 GB (314,937,647,104 Bytes)
Model : @'}o
Nc"NXA7wA.U
Firmware Version : z~nB
Drive Type : HDD 11972 rpm

Power Cycles Count : 18,446,744,073,709,551,615
Current Power Cycle Time : 21.4 hours


=== VOLUMES FREE SPACE ===
VOLUME | SIZE | FREE | FREE % | STATUS
HD2s 226.4 GB 12.8 GB 5.7 % OK


=== DEVICE CAPABILITIES ===
S.M.A.R.T. support enabled : yes
DriveDx Active Diagnostic Config : Base config [hdd.default]
Sector Logical Size : 512
Sector Physical Size : 512
Physical Interconnect : USB
Logical Protocol : USB
Removable : yes
Ejectable : yes
ATA Version : ACS >5 (13) (unknown minor revision code: 0xfc68)
I/O Path : IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/PEG2@1,2/IOPP/UPSB@0/IOPP/DSB2@2/IOPP/XHC3@0/XHC3@01000000/SSP2@01200000/Flash Drive@01200000/IOUSBHostInterface@0/IOUSBMassStorageInterfaceNub/IOUSBMassStorageDriverNub/IOUSBMassStorageDriver/IOSCSILogicalUnitNub@0/fi_dungeon_driver_IOSATDriver/IOSATServices

Enclosure Vendor Id / Product Id : 0x90c / 0x1000
SAT Pass Through Mode : jmicron
SAT SMART Driver Version : 0.10.3s
SAT SMART Driver Bundle Id : com.binaryfruit.driver.SATSMARTDriver
SAT SMART Driver I/O Class : fi_dungeon_driver_IOSATDriver
SAT SMART Driver Architectures : x86_64 arm

Attributes Data Structure Revision : 4875
SMART Command Transport (SCT) flags : 0x0
SCT Status supported : no
SCT Feature Control supported : no
SCT Data Table supported : no
Error logging capabilities : 0x0
Self-tests supported : no
Offline Data Collection capabilities : 0x0
Offline Data Collection status : 0x0
Auto Offline Data Collection flags : 0x0
[Known device ]: no
[Drive State Flags ]: 0x40000000
[Last State Change Timestamp ]: 2024-01-14T10:35:28
[Last State Change Flags ]: 0x40000000
[Last State Change Diff Flags ]: 0x1
Last Email Report Timestamp : 2024-01-14T10:35:28
Last Email Report Reason Flags : 0x40000000
Last Email Report State Change Flags : 0x1


=== CURRENT POWER CYCLE STATISTICS ===
Time since computer startup : 21 hours
Data Read : 657,866,752 bytes (657.9 MB)
Data Written : 1,662,062,592 bytes (1.7 GB)
Data Read/Write Ratio : 0.40
Data Read/hour : 30.7 MB/hour
Data Write/hour : 77.6 MB/hour

Operations (Read) : 52,773
Read IOPS : 107
Operations (Write) : 16,789
Write IOPS : 34
Operations Read/Write Ratio : 3
Throughput per operation (Read) : 12.5 KB/Op
Throughput per operation (Write) : 99.0 KB/Op

Latency Time (Read) : 0 ns
Latency Time (Write) : 0 ns
Retries (Read) : 0
Retries (Write) : 0
Errors (Read) : 0
Errors (Write) : 0


=== PROBLEMS SUMMARY ===
Failed Indicators (life-span / pre-fail) : 0 (0 / 0)
Failing Indicators (life-span / pre-fail) : 0 (0 / 0)
Warnings (life-span / pre-fail) : 1 (1 / 0)
I/O Error Count : 0 (0 / 0)


=== IMPORTANT HEALTH INDICATORS ===
ID NAME RAW VALUE STATUS




=== DRIVE HEALTH INDICATORS ===
ID | NAME | TYPE | UPDATE | RAW VALUE | VALUE | THRESHOLD | WORST | LAST MODIFIED | STATUS
16 Vendor Specific Life-span offline 0x200010000000 0 0 16 1/14/24 10:35 AM 100% OK
48 Vendor Specific Life-span offline 0x500050004000 0 0 32 1/14/24 10:35 AM 100% OK
96 Vendor Specific Life-span offline 0x700070006000 0 0 64 1/14/24 10:35 AM 100% OK
128 Vendor Specific Life-span offline 0xA000A0009000 0 0 144 1/14/24 10:35 AM 100% OK
143 Vendor Specific Pre-fail online 0x8821FA8 198 0 35 1/14/24 10:35 AM 99.0% OK
176 Erase Fail Count Chip Life-span offline 0xD000C000B000 0 0 240 1/14/24 10:35 AM 100% OK
224 Load Friction Life-span offline 0xF0010000F001 1 0 16 1/14/24 10:35 AM 1.0% Warning

You got me?

I have multiple drives on my system using USB ports.

• an HDD that reports this
• an SSD that reports this
• Two Sandisk thumb drives and an SD card that DriveDX does not see but are Recognized by macOS.

The top image here is Drive Dx's report on my internal SSD, the bottom image is its report on my external SSD, and the middle - blame IMGUR - image is of my flash drive's presence in Disk Utility, which drive, as I said, DriveDx occasionally and altogether erratically recognizes, but up until its recent "more or less fine" evaluation, predictably failed miserably.

I've got absolutely no interest in troubleshooting the issue. I presented my recent results only as an example of DriveDx's erratic behavior.