Your data may be lost when the hard drive containing the data has a mechanical malfunction. As drives are used, their parts begin to wear out. Drive manufacturers have begun including internal diagnostic routines in their drives to help determine if a drive is exceeding its operating tolerances, but unless you have software to access these routines, you will not have any warning of the impending drive malfunction.

With DiskWarrior installed, you can enable DiskWarrior's hardware monitoring capability, which uses a drive's built-in S.M.A.R.T. technology to monitor drive hardware. If the diagnostics indicate the potential for a malfunction, DiskWarrior provides you with a warning, using the notification method you have specified. This warning gives you the chance to back up any data on the drive before it fails completely, saving you from having to rely upon an expensive data recovery facility to retrieve your data.