Ashampoo HDD Control

Software developer Ashampoo presents HDD Control as “the ultimate health monitoring tool for your hard disks” and “the indispensable health monitoring tool for your hard disk.” I have to say that those claims are spot on and that HDD Control lives up to the hype. With this tool you can access detailed information about your HDD, test and benchmark your HDD, review disk space usage, find and remove duplicates, defrag your HDD, and more.

Ashampoo HDD Control is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. If your computer runs any of these Windows editions, it will run HDD Control as well. To get HDD Control up and running on a PC powered by any of these Windows editions you must go through a standard installation procedure. When the installation process completes and you launch HDD Control for the first time, a prompt will inform you that you can use the software for free for a trial period of 40 days (10 by default, 30 on request).

Lots of languages are available for HDD Control’s interface. You can view a complete list from the Settings menu, the Basic Functions submenu. It must be mentioned here that access to HDD Control can be password protected from the same Settings menu, Basic Functions submenu.

The left hand panel on HDD Control’s interface groups the application’s functionality in 4 categories (Hard Disks, Maintenance, Review, Security) and 9 subcategories (System, Network, Defrag, Drive Cleaner, Internet Cleaner, Disk Space Explorer, Duplicate Finder, File Wiper, Undeleter). Thanks to the panel on the left hand side you can easily navigate HDD Control’s interface and you can easily access all the functionality HDD Control has to offer.

Speaking about functionality, here’s a quick list: view detailed HDD info; run tests and benchmark your HDD; access network PCs and monitor connected HDDs; defrag the HDD; remove junk data that needlessly takes up space on your HDD; remove data stored by internet browsers on your HDD; view disk space usage; find and remove duplicates; securely delete files; bring back accidentally deleted files; view notifications and set up email notifications.

The Ashampoo HDD Control Guard is set to automatically run at startup – it is displayed as a green icon in the system tray. Click the icon and a Status window will show up; it displays your HDD’s name, state and temperature. Right click the icon and you will be presented with a context menu that allows you to run the main HDD Control application, access the Settings menu, search for junk files, search for internet traces, and rescan hard disks. From the aforementioned Settings menu, the Guard submenu, you can choose when HDD Control Guard will display a warning and you can set it so HDD Control Guard will send out warnings via email.

HDD Control is free to use for a trial period of 40 days. You get 10 days by default and another 30 upon request.

HDD Control has a lot to offer! You can use it to view detailed info about your HDD, check out your HDD’s health, test and benchmark your HDD, defrag your HDD, clean your HDD, and more.