HP 3D DriveGuard Needed or Recommended for SSD Drive?

[MattSF]

I recently replaced the standard drive on my HP 2730p with an Intel SSD X-18. I did a clean install and the driver for the HP 3D DriveGuard shows missingof course so my question is - do I need or should I install this driver if I have an SSD in my laptop now?

Many thanks.

[erico · Accepted solution]

It is not needed.

There are no platters and read/wrire heads to worry about in a Solid State hard disk. The are no moving parts so no heads to get jogged or bumped which could cause data loss. With an SSD drive it is also recommended to avoid defragmenting. Your new drive is cutting edge technology. 

[HaggisCat]

I also replaced my main drive with a SSD, on my dv8 t 1000 cto. What about the other drive, that one is still a standard spinning hard drive. I have reinstalled the 3D hard drive protect software and it doesn't detect the standard drive in the other bay.

 Or is it the fact that the OS is not on that drive, that it is not needed ?

 I will continue to search Google for answers as well as this forum.

 Thanks for your help !    

[CherylG]

I am pretty sure HP 3D DriveGuard only works on main hdd. It is designed to protect your OS from damage/corruption in the event of jolts or falls.

[HaggisCat]

Thanks for that. I tried for a while to implement the software on the other drive, but I couldn't get it to work.

[ScottBrooks]

I have two conventional hard drives in a HP dv7 and 3D DriveGuard monitors both.

[HaggisCat]

@ ScottBooks

 On my HDX when I was still running Vista and then in W7, the HP Drive Guard window in the control panel gave no indication that it was protecting or monitoring both hard drives.

 On my dv8 which has two hard drives one solid state with the primary OS on it and the other, a standard hard drive.

When I install the Drive Guard software I get "hard drive not supported" in the control panel. It does not seem to detect the other drive because the primary OS is not on it, I am just using it for storage.

[ScottBrooks]

Screen Shot of HP DataGuard

I am just using the second for storage also, no OS. But as you can see from the screen shot both drives are detected and monitored. It was the same when I was running Vista...

HTH

Scott

[ScottBrooks]

After thinking about this, I bet HP DataGuard is just looking at the drives S.M.A.R.T value for G-sense error rate. (G-force from a built in accelerometer) If the drive supports the variable then HP DataGuard reports supported. If not, then HP DataGuard reports nothing or not supported.

You can Google for a program called DiskSmartView.exe (freeware) and it will display your drives values. Example below.

HTH -

Scott

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Information      
Model Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00     
Firmware Revision DC4OC54P     
Serial Number [edited by Moderator]
Cylinders 16,383     
Heads 16     
Bytes Per Track 0     
Bytes Per Sector 0     
Sectors Per Track 63     
ECC Size 4     
PIO Timing 512     
DMA Timing 512     
Current Cylinders 16,383     
Current Heads 16     
Current Sectors Per Track 63     
Current Sector Capacity 16,514,064     
Total Addressable Sectors 268,435,455     
Single Word DMA 0     
Multi Word DMA 1,031     
Attributes      
Read Error Rate 0 100 100 62 Ok 
Throughput Performance 0 100 100 40 Ok 
Spin-Up Time 68,719,476,737 194 194 33 Ok 
Start/Stop Count 1,787 99 99 0 Ok 
Reallocated Sectors Count 0 100 100 5 Ok 
Seek Error Rate 0 100 100 67 Ok 
Seek Time Performance 0 100 100 40 Ok 
Power-On Hours (POH) 14,879 67 67 0 Ok 
Spin Retry Count 0 100 100 60 Ok 
Power Cycle Count 860 100 100 0 Ok 
G-sense error rate 0 100 100 0 Ok 
Power-off Retract Count 589,864 100 100 0 Ok 
Load Cycle Count 422,844 58 58 0 Ok 
Internal Temperature 36°C 152 152 0 Ok 
Reallocation Event Count 0 100 100 0 Ok 
Current Pending Sector Count 0 100 100 0 Ok 
Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0 Ok 
UltraDMA CRC Error Count 0 200 200 0 Ok 
Load/Unload Retry Count 0 100 100 0 Ok 
General Information      
Model FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G2     
Firmware Revision 8909     
Serial Number[edited by Moderator]
Cylinders 16,383     
Heads 16     
Bytes Per Track 0     
Bytes Per Sector 0     
Sectors Per Track 63     
ECC Size 4     
PIO Timing 512     
DMA Timing 512     
Current Cylinders 16,383     
Current Heads 16     
Current Sectors Per Track 63     
Current Sector Capacity 16,514,064     
Total Addressable Sectors 268,435,455     
Single Word DMA 0     
Multi Word DMA 1,031     
Attributes      
Read Error Rate 41,104 100 100 46 Ok 
Throughput Performance 55,705,600 100 100 30 Ok 
Spin-Up Time 1 100 100 25 Ok 
Start/Stop Count 1,513 99 99 0 Ok 
Reallocated Sectors Count 8,589,934,592,000 100 100 24 Ok 
Seek Error Rate 1,004 100 100 47 Ok 
Seek Time Performance 0 100 100 19 Ok 
Power-On Hours (POH) 6,113 88 88 0 Ok 
Spin Retry Count 0 100 100 20 Ok 
Recalibration Retries 0 253 253 0 Ok 
Power Cycle Count 495 100 100 0 Ok 
[182] 0 100 100 0 Ok 
End-to-End error 0 253 253 97 Ok 
Head Stability 0 253 253 0 Ok 
Induced Op-Vibration Detection 0 253 253 0 Ok 
Reported Uncorrectable Errors 0 253 100 0 Ok 
Command Timeout 2 253 99 0 Ok 
High Fly Writes 0 253 100 0 Ok 
Airflow Temperature (WDC) 35°C 65 52 0 Ok 
G-sense error rate 16,580,608 253 253 0 Ok 
Power-off Retract Count 1,703,962 100 100 0 Ok 
Load Cycle Count 19,020 100 100 0 Ok 
Hardware ECC Recovered 29 100 100 0 Ok 
Reallocation Event Count 406,847,488 100 100 0 Ok 
Current Pending Sector Count 0 100 100 0 Ok 
Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0 Ok 
UltraDMA CRC Error Count 0 200 253 0 Ok 
Write Error Rate 29,208 100 100 60 Ok 
Run Out Cancel 3,728,130,308,847 100 100 0 Ok 
Head Flying Hours 0 200 200 0 Ok 
[28] 23 0 161 0 Unknown 
Torque Amplification Count 100 2 0 0 Unknown 

[HaggisCat]

Thanks for that !  

 What is the full model number of your laptop ?  I want to see if there is an updated version of the HP Drive Guard software that is available for yours that is not yet posted for my dv8. HP is notorious for that.

 I will Google DiskSmart and post later of what I come up with.