# Mongoose Drive Monitor — Getting started

Mongoose Drive Monitor monitors drive health, temperature and free space on Windows. It is free to use for personal and commercial purposes; the source remains proprietary.

## Run the portable package

Extract the entire official x64 ZIP into a folder, then open `MongooseDriveMonitor.exe`. Keep `MongooseDriveMonitor.Helper.exe` beside it. Choose your language on the welcome page and select **Start monitoring**. The .NET 10 runtime is included; no separate runtime or SDK installation is necessary.

Windows 11 is recommended. Windows 10 22H2 compatibility depends on drivers and your organization's Windows support policy. The x64 package was verified on Windows 11 x64. This release has no publisher certificate signature, so Windows may show an unknown-publisher warning. Verify the download source and SHA-256 checksum; keep Windows protections enabled. A checksum verifies bytes, not publisher identity.

## Read your drives

Select a drive to inspect its counters and volumes. **F5** refreshes; **F1** opens help. Green means no problem was reported by available data, amber needs review, and red calls for prompt backup and investigation. Missing telemetry is not zero and does not prove a drive is healthy. Health scoring and endurance forecasts are assessments, not guarantees against failure. Keep tested backups.

History records at most once every five minutes while the application is running and history storage is enabled. It cannot fill periods when the app was closed. Use the time-range selector and CSV export to review trends. Save preferences after changing thresholds or retention.

Enable close-to-tray to keep monitoring when you close the window. Double-click the notification-area icon to reopen it; choose **Exit** in its menu to stop monitoring. Enable **Start with Windows** and save preferences to launch at login. Disable it and save to remove startup. Keep the portable folder at a stable location; save the option again after moving it. Start-minimized controls the initial window presentation. Quiet hours, snoozing and acknowledgement affect notifications, not drive condition.

## Share reports and use diagnostics

HTML, text and JSON reports hide drive serials, device identifiers and volume labels by default. Models, capacities and counters remain available. Enable **Include device identifiers** only when you want a full report. Review every report before sharing: error messages can contain local paths, so this feature does not guarantee anonymity. Guided reports follow the same preference.

Basic monitoring is unelevated. Manual detailed SMART reads and device self-tests may request Windows approval. Self-tests require separately installed smartmontools and a compatible device/controller. USB bridges, RAID controllers and drivers can omit telemetry or block passthrough.

Guided diagnostics can inspect existing Windows logs without activating a disabled device. Temporary activation requires explicit consent for that device and Windows approval. If restoration was interrupted, finish the recovery action before another diagnostic. Preserve irreplaceable files before further access to a failing drive. Mongoose Drive Monitor does not repair, erase or format your data.

## Privacy and troubleshooting

Settings, history and alerts remain under `%LOCALAPPDATA%\MongooseDriveMonitor`. A `--demo` launch uses separate preferences under `Demo` and simulates diagnostic actions. Network requests occur only for a configured HTTPS update source. This release includes no production update endpoint. Downloaded updates are verified with SHA-256 and saved without automatic execution.

The first launch copies the previous installation's local data, including diagnostic recovery records. The previous folder is retained and existing Mongoose Drive Monitor data is never overwritten. Close the previous monitor before launching this version. A `--data-root` option uses the selected folder directly and bypasses this import.

Application errors stay in `logs\application.log`, with rotation after approximately 1 MB. Nothing is uploaded automatically. Help includes the local data folder, app version and architecture. Keep those details, the displayed error and a reviewed report when asking the distributor for help.

To uninstall, disable Start with Windows, save preferences, then exit and remove the portable app folder. Local data is retained until you delete it separately. Finish any pending diagnostic restoration before deleting data.

Mongoose Drive Monitor is developed by Mongoose Interactive.

## Monitoring improvements

**Essential** shows health, temperature, prioritized actions and diagnostic coverage. **Expert** adds hardware details and reliability counters. Save preferences to retain the view choice. **What should I do?** ranks observed problems and opens the affected drive. Coverage lists available and missing signal groups; no observed error in partial telemetry does not prove health.

Toggle **Timeline** in History to inspect alerts, counter changes, connections and self-test results. Disconnected devices remain selectable. Incomplete inventories do not invent disconnections. Events follow history retention, with a maximum of 10,000 events and 1,024 recent devices. Disabling history stops new timeline recording.

Windows notification-center alerts open the affected drive, even when restarting the monitor. They expire after two days and replace an earlier warning for that drive. Use **Test notification** in settings. Demo mode sends no Windows notifications; Windows notification settings remain authoritative. Tray notifications provide a fallback.

The mascot has observing, attention and diagnostic expressions. Its activity animation respects reduced motion and Windows animation preferences. **Export report** offers an offline, self-contained **HTML** report with charts, advice, coverage and recent events. Its print button supports the browser’s PDF output.