03.08.2020

Drive Genius 5 Mac Protection And Optimization Software

Drive Genius 5 Mac Protection And Optimization Software 3,7/5 876 votes
Effectiveness
4 out of 5
Virus scanner, cleanup, data recovery and defrag

Drive utilities aren't for everyone (and Drive Genius isn't cheap), but if you're interested in keeping your Mac in tip-top shape, it's hard to go wrong with a tool that the pros use.

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  3. Drive Genius Lite, kostenloser Download. Drive Genius Lite 5.2.1: Drive Genius Lite is an essential Mac protection software that offers a variety of features and utilities designed to clean up, speed up, and protect your computer.
price
4 out of 5
$79 for a comprehensive set of tools
ease of use
4.5 out of 5
Automatic protection plus click-and-go scanning
support
4.5 out of 5
Phone and email support with helpful documentation

Quick Summary

Drive Genius 5 promises to keep your computer running smoothly while ensuring you don’t lose any valuable data. The app combines virus scanning, data recovery and cleanup, defragmentation and cloning, and more. The DrivePulse utility constantly scans for issues before they become a problem. That’s a lot of value for $79. More expensive plans are available for professionals and enterprise customers.

Is Drive Genius worth it? If you use your Mac to make money or store valuable information, then it’s worth every cent. The collection of tools it provides is more comprehensive than any of its competitors. However, if you are a casual computer user there are some free utilities that provide basic data recovery, if you need it at all. Read our detailed Drive Genius review below for more.


What I Like
  • A good collection of tools combined in a single program.
  • Proactively scans for problems and warns you in advance.
  • Protects you from viruses and other malware.
  • Frees disk space and speeds your hard drive.
What I Don't Like
  • Scans take a lot of time.
  • Scan results could include more information.

Drive Genius 5

macOS, $79

Quick Navigation

// Why Trust Me?
// Drive Genius FAQs
// ​Drive Genius Review: What's in it for You?
// ​Reasons Behind My Reviews and Ratings
// ​Alternatives to Drive Genius
// Conclusion

Why Trust Me?


My name is Adrian Try. I’ve been using computers since 1988, and Macs full time since 2009. I’ve dealt with lots of slow and problem-ridden computers over the years while doing over-the-phone tech support and maintaining training rooms full of PCs. I spent years running optimization and repair software like Norton Utilities, PC Tools, and SpinRite. I spend countless hours scanning computers for problems and malware. I learned the value of a comprehensive cleanup and repair app.

For the last week, I’ve been running the trial version of Drive Genius 5 on my macOS Sierra-based iMac. Users have the right to know what is and isn’t working about a product, so I’ve run every scan and thoroughly tested every feature.

In this Drive Genius review, I’ll share what I like and dislike about the app. The content in the quick summary box above serves as a short version of my findings and conclusions. Read on for the details!

Drive Genius FAQs

What is Drive Genius?

It is a collection of utilities that work together to keep your Mac healthy, fast, uncluttered and virus free. Drive Genius scans for problems automatically using the DrivePulse utility. It also enables you to periodically scan for problems manually and repair a variety of hard drive issues.

To repair your startup disk you will need to boot from another drive. Drive Genius facilitates this by creating a secondary boot drive called BootWell that contains the suite of utilities. To cover all of those features you would normally need to purchase several products.

Here are the program’s main benefits:

  • It monitors your drives for issues before they become problems.
  • It protects your computer from malware.
  • It protects your files from corruption.
  • It speeds file access by defragmenting your drives.
  • It frees drive space by cleaning unneeded files.

How Much Is It?

Drive Genius does the lot for $79. According to Cult of Mac, Drive Genius is used by the Apple Genius Bar.

Is It Safe to Use?

Yes, it is safe to use. I ran and installed Drive Genius 5 on my iMac. A scan using Bitdefender found no viruses or malicious code. In fact, the app’s malware scan will keep your computer safer.

If you interrupt some of the app’s utilities while they are in use, for example, Defragment, you could cause damage to your files, and possibly lose data. Clear warnings are displayed whenever care must be taken. Just make sure you don’t turn off your computer during those procedures.

How to Turn Off DrivePulse on Menu Bar?

DrivePulse is running continually to ensure the safety of your computer. It’s fine to leave it running, and won’t interfere with your work. How do you turn off DrivePulse when that’s necessary? Just open Drive Genius’ preferences and click Disable DrivePulse.

But there are times you may want to turn off as many background processes as possible to achieve optimal performance on your computer. For example, many podcasters do this while they are recording a Skype call.

Drive Genius Review: What’s in it for You?

Since the app is all about protecting, speeding, and cleaning your Mac, I’m going to list all its features by putting them into the following five sections. In each subsection, I’ll first explore what the app offers and then share my personal take.

1. Monitor Your Drives for Issues Before They Become Problems

Drive Genius doesn’t just wait for you to initiate a scan, it proactively monitors your computer for problems and warns you as soon as it finds one. The background scanning feature is called DrivePulse.

It can monitor physical and logical hard disk damage, file fragmentation, and viruses.

DrivePulse is a menu bar tool. When you click on it you can see the status of the scans, and the health of your hard drives. Here’s a screenshot of the day I installed it. A S.M.A.R.T. check verified that my hard drive is healthy, and understandably the status of the other checks is Pending since I just installed the app.

I took the screenshot below six days later. The status of most of the scans is still Pending. The Physical check on my drive is still only 2.4% complete, so it takes quite a while to thoroughly check everything systematically. Every file I access, however, is checked immediately.

My personal take: There’s peace of mind having an app monitoring your computer for problems in real-time. Every file I use is checked for viruses. Every file I save is checked for integrity. I didn’t notice any performance hit while I worked on my Mac. It takes some time for DrivePulse to examine your entire hard drive, so it’s worth doing some scans of your own upfront.

2. Protect Your Computer from Malware

Drive Genius will scan your system for viruses—in real-time with DrivePulse, and systematically on-demand with Malware Scan. Infected files are moved to the trash.

The Malware Scan is very thorough and takes many hours to complete—on my iMac it took around eight hours. But it does this in the background so you can continue to use your computer. For me, it found five infected email attachments.

My personal take: As Macs become more popular, the platform is becoming a larger target for creators of malware. It’s good to know that Drive Genius is keeping its eyes open for viruses and other infections before I discover them the hard way.

3. Protect Your Drives from Corruption

Drive Genius 5 Mac Protection And Optimization Software Pdf

Data is lost when hard disks go bad. That’s never good. It can happen when a drive is physically faulty or degrading because of age. And it can happen when there are logical problems with the way data is stored, for example, file and folder corruption.

Drive Genius scans for both types of problem, and can often repair logical errors. The scans are thorough and take some time. On my iMac’s 1TB drive, each scan took between six and ten hours.

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The Physical Check looks for physical damage on your hard drive.

Thankfully my Mac’s eight-year-old drive was given a clean bill of health, though it would be nice if the app said that, rather than just “Physical Check completed.”

The Consistency Check looks for file and folder corruption to verify that your data is stored safely.

Again, I have a happy Mac. If this scan found problems, Drive Genius would be able to rebuild the folder structure so that the file names are re-linked to their data, or repair logical file and folder errors.

To repair my startup drive, DiskGenius would install itself on a second Bootwell drive and reboot.

Protection

Using the trial version I was able to create a Bootwell disk and boot from it, but not run any scans.

My personal take: Fortunately hard drive problems like this are fairly rare, but when they happen, repair is urgent and important. I love that Prosoft can give you early warning of potential problems, and is also competent at repairing a range of hard drive issues.

4. Speed File Access by Defragmenting Your Drives

A fragmented file is stored piecemeal across several locations on your hard drive and takes longer to read. I’ve been defragmenting hard drives since my first 40MB hard drive in the 80s. On Windows, it made a huge difference to my drive’s speed, and it can make a noticeable difference on Macs as well, especially if you have a lot of large files, like video, audio, and multimedia files over 1GB in size.

I tested the Defragmentation feature on my 2TB USB backup drive. (I wasn’t able to defrag my startup drive with the trial version.) The process took 10 hours.

During the scan, I wasn’t given any visual feedback on progress (other than the timer at the bottom of the window), or any indication of how fragmented the drive was (I don’t think it was particularly fragmented). That’s unusual. With other defrag utilities I could watch the data being moved around during the process.

When the defrag had completed, I received the following diagram of my drive.

My personal take: While defragmenting a hard drive isn’t the magic cure for slow computers that it was on PCs years ago, it can still give a helpful speed boost. Drive Genius’s defrag tool isn’t the best I’ve tried, but it does the job, and saves me purchasing another software program.

5. Free Hard Disk Space by Cleaning Unneeded Files

Drive Genius has a number of other utilities that are able to help you work with your drives and files. Two of these are designed to help free up hard drive space by cleaning up duplicate files and locating large files.

The Find Duplicates utility locates duplicate files on your hard drive. It then keeps one copy of your file (the one most recently accessed), and replaces the other copies with an alias to the first file. That way you are only storing the data once, but can still access the file from all of those locations. Once the duplicates are found, the app gives you the option of deleting any instances you don’t need.

Large files obviously take up quite a lot of storage. That’s fine if you need them, but a waste of space if they’re old and unnecessary. Drive Genius 5 provides a Find Large Files scan that finds them, then lets you decide what to do with them. You can control how large the files listed are, as well as how old. Older files are more likely to be no longer be needed, but make sure you check carefully before deleting.

Drive Genius also contains utilities to clone, securely erase, initialize and partition your drives.

My personal take: File cleanup and file-related utilities aren’t Drive Genius’s strength, but it’s great they are included. They’re useful, do the job, and save me having to purchase additional software.

Reasons Behind My Reviews and Ratings


Effectiveness: 4/5

This app combines a virus scanner, cleanup tool, data recovery utility, defragmentation tool and hard drive cloning into a single application. That’s a lot of functionality for a single app. Drive Genius’s scans are thorough, but at the expense of speed. Be prepared to spend a lot of time with this app. I wish I was given more detailed scan results and better visual feedback.

Price: 4/5

At $79 the app is not cheap, but it includes a lot of features for the money. To find an alternative, you probably need to purchase two of three other utilities to cover the same ground, possibly costing hundreds of dollars in total.

Ease of Use: 4.5/5

DrivePulse works automatically, and the rest of Drive Genius is a simple push button affair. Clear and concise descriptions are displayed for every feature. That makes it a very easy program to use.

Support: 4.5/5

Technical support is available via phone or email, I didn’t encounter any problems while using the app, so can’t comment on the responsiveness or quality of that support. A PDF user guide and comprehensive FAQ are available. While video tutorials were created for Drive Genius 3 and 4, they, unfortunately, have not been reproduced for the current version of the app.

Alternatives to Drive Genius


Few programs cover Drive Genius’s impressive range of features. You may need to choose several alternatives to cover the same ground.

If you’re looking for a suite similar to Drive Genius, consider:

  • TechTool Pro 9: TechTool Pro ($99.99) is one tool with many functions, including drive testing and repair, hardware and memory testing, cloning, and volume and file optimization.
  • Stellar Drive ToolBox: Stellar Drive ToolBox ($69) is a comprehensive pack of useful tools to manage and optimize your Mac including hard drive monitoring and defrag, cloning, searching for large files and more.
  • DiskWarrior 5: DiskWarrior is a suite of hard drive utilities that repair drive problems, recover missing files and monitors your drive’s health.

If you’re looking for security software to protect your Mac from malware, consider:

  • Malwarebytes: Malwarebytes protects your computer from malware and keeps it running silky smooth.
  • Norton Security: Norton Security protects your Macs, PCs, Android and iOS devices from malware with a single subscription.

Drive Genius 5 Mac Protection And Optimization Software Free

If you’re looking for a Mac cleaning tool, consider:

  • CleanMyMac X: CleanMyMac can free up a decent amount of hard drive space for you quickly, starting at $89. Read our CleanMyMac review.
  • MacPaw Gemini 2: Gemini 2 is a less expensive app that specializes in finding duplicate files. One-time payment starts at $19.99. Read our Gemini review.
  • iMobie MacClean: MacClean will free up space on your Mac’s hard drive, protect you from malware, and boost your privacy as well. Costing just $29.99 for a personal license it’s good value, though it’s not able to repair hard drive problems. Read our MacClean review.

Conclusion


Drive Genius constantly monitors your hard drive and fixes issues before they become major problems. It scans for viruses, and automatically moves infected files to the trash. It monitors for file fragmentation that slows your computer, and pops up a warning. It does all of this without you lifting a finger.

Besides that, it includes a comprehensive set of tools that scan for and fix problems, free hard drive space, and clone, partition and securely erase your drives. These features are essential if you require a reliable, safe and secure work environment. If that sounds like you, then I highly recommend Drive Genius. The program offers excellent value for money when you consider all of the functions it can perform.

If you are a casual home user, and don’t have anything stored on your computer that you would miss if it vanished, then Drive Genius may be more than you need. Just make sure you keep a backup of anything important, and consider the free utilities if something goes wrong.

5/5 (1 Review)

We clean our rooms and clothes so why not our Macs? But who can waste the entire day digging through folders and files? There are so many places like music, videos, apps and email downloads, and countless more locations on your Mac where junk and clutter accumulates. In 2020 cleaning your Mac is easier than ever. Which is why millions of people download free and low-cost Mac cleaning software.

To start off, we've made a quick comparison chart about best Mac cleaners for Mac.

RatingNameFeaturesInfo
1CleanMyMac X Best cleaning and antimalware functionality in one toolLink
2Disk DoctorQuick scan and deep cleaning of all kinds of junkLink
3MacBoosterFinds duplicate files and has system optimization functionalityLink

Drive Genius 5 Mac Protection And Optimization Software Reviews

A handy cleaner may prove that your Mac is still alive and can actually perform at its best. In this article we’ve brought together some of the best Mac cleaning solutions around to clean, optimize, and maintain Macs that are available in 2020.

Top 10 best cleaners for Mac: Free and premium versions

1. CleanMyMac X

CleanMyMac X takes the first place with good reason — this cleaner combines features of both cleaning software and antimalware tool. Its Smart Scan promises a “nice and thorough scan of your Mac.” It does what it says, detecting junk like user cache files and system logs, checking your Mac for malicious software, and speeding up your MacBook. Looks like, there is a threat in my system, that I need to get rid of:

Frankly speaking, CleanMyMac X is Tesla Roadster among other Mac cleaners. And it does a great job revealing your junk and other clutter, uninstalling unneeded apps and their leftovers, and keeping your Mac’s system clean and optimized. Another pro is that CleanMyMac X is Apple-notarized, which means it’s safe for your Mac. You can download its free version right here.

Price: $39.95
Free version: Available here

2. Disk Doctor

Disk Doctor is developed in the UK and was awarded the 'Mac Gem’ award by MacWorld in 2013. CNET and other tech journalists also praise functionality. As of 2020, it still looks like a useful tool for Mac cleaning that removes junk slowing down and reducing the computing power of your Mac.

Price: $2.99
Free version
: N/A

3. MacBooster

MacBooster is a popular app that is developed at IObit. It cramps so many features under one interface it hardly fits into a “cleaner” niche. What makes it different is the duplicate file remover — an extra option to free up space on Mac. According to the developer, you can altogether delete 20 types of junk files with MacBooster.

MacBooster, in its version 8 rendition, offers real-time Mac protection, which makes it also an antivirus, although, quite a basic one. For example, you can remove malicious browser cookies to evade intrusive advertisements on your Mac. It doesn’t belong to free Mac cleaner apps per se, although a free trial is available. Unlike CleanMyMac, it doesn’t allow you to remove any junk for free in its trial version. To get the taste of MacBooster, you only have to rely on a free scan.

You should know that even when you uninstall MacBooster, some parts of the app may remain on your drive.

Price
: $59.95 for Premium version
Free version
: Available

4. Onyx

OnyX is a french Mac cleaning solution developed by Titanium software. It weighs only 5 MB but that doesn’t mean its capabilities are limited. OnyX is a tool that programmers will have a lot of fun with. With it, you can peek under the hood of your macOS and automate a whole list of jobs, like disk cleanup and cache removal. You can even tweak the color of folders on your Mac, and even make them invisible. Deservedly, it's among best free Mac cleaners.

OnyX is one of the best Mac cleaners because it cleans many specific under-the-surface files, like inner databases and logs. If you know what is XPC cache is, you’ll probably like this app. But for us, ordinary Mac users who came here for the design and glossy buttons, OnyX will require some learning time.
Those who use OnyX say it is stable and reliable. There is no dedicated customer service (because OnyX is free software), but you shouldn’t be worried. The only likely damage is you accidentally deleting files by yourself.
Price
: Free cleaner

5. DaisyDisk

DaisyDisk gives you a visual representation of your Mac folders, making it easy to see what is taking up space and delete the folders you don't need. All you need to do is select a drive, DaisyDisk will scan it, then you can delete everything that is wasting valuable space. It comes with a free and premium version.

Price:$9.99
Free version
: Trial version available

6. AppCleaner & Uninstaller

If you only need to uninstall apps on Mac, AppCleaner is a good pick. AppCleaner only removes applications, plugins, and widgets, which are again, small apps. AppCleaner works in a familiar drag & drop mode. Its interface is also clean and easy to understand for a newbie.

After feeding the apps to AppCleaner, you should visit the Leftovers section of the app to erase their remains. Why we place AppCleaner & Uninstaller among free Mac cleaner tools? Because it is 100% free. Whether you will fully clean your Mac using it, is a different question.
AppCleaner & Uninstaller is created by FreeMacSoft, also the makers of LiteIcon, an icon customizer for Mac.
Price
: Voluntary donation

7. Smart Mac Care

If you launch Smart Mac Care, it will look hauntingly familiar to other free Mac cleaner apps. Not only features will be called the same, everything up to the fonts, will be identical to some other app you’ve just used. That’s not a minus, though. You can still free up a lot of space with Smart Mac Care.

Smart Mac Care operates by a logic of “scans.” There is a Junk Scan, Malware Scan, Privacy Scan, etc. Just like Mac Booster, Smart Mac Care removes duplicates scattered in various locations on your Mac. There’s also a Memory Optimizer feature that promises to free up RAM on your Mac. In a word, Smart Mac Care resembles every other generic product whose only difference is in packaging. This is supported by the fact that we couldn’t find any credible third-party reviews for this app.

On another skeptical note: to uninstall Smart Mac Care you have to enter your admin password. This is not the case with other Mac cleaners we’ve used.
Price
: $56.62 per year
Free version
: Demo available

8. Drive Genius

Drive Genius is labeled a “Mac monitoring software.” It’s a whole suite of tools that provide powerful disk diagnostics. It’s hard to list a thing that this software doesn’t do. You can scan for malware, secure-erase files, customize icons — it’s dozens of apps in one body. What makes Drive Genius unique is, probably, its search for corrupted files and inconsistencies on your drive. If your Mac is an old one, keeping it in good health will be easier with Drive Genius.

In a free version, you can use just a fraction of tools, notably a DiskPulse utility. This is an automatic Mac health checker that notifies you before your hard drive fails. Unlike Mac cleaners that merely scan, it is able to repair damage on your disks, which makes it a real deal. Be prepared that hard drive scan may take some time, but the results are worth it. Also note that Drive Genius is not available for macOS Catalina (as of the beginning of 2020).

Price: $299 for Professional edition
Free version
: Limited Lite edition is available

9. CCleaner

Originally created in 2004 by Piriform, CCleaner comes with a free and professional version, focusing on businesses and business customers. CCleaner is a cross-platform tool, for PCs, Macs, Android, and it has a Cloud, Network and Technician tool, depending on what you need and the platform/software you use.

The premium version comes with a lot more features, including real-time alerts, free updates, and dedicated support. Although created for PCs in the early days, CCleaner does well to identify unwanted files on a Mac, so that users can select and delete the files and folders they don't need to free up space. As a cleaner for Mac, customers are pretty happy with the results of CCleaner.
Price: $19.95
Free version
: Available

10. Sensei

The Sensei app is a relatively new app on the market, but it can be another useful tool for your Mac. The Sensei software developers call the app “Pro Mac Cleaner” on their website. I would call it a performance controlling tool.

Sensei presents a detailed picture of how your Mac performs. In the Dashboard, you can find out information about your MacBook, check your CPU’s current temperature, and see how much of your RAM is used. Cooling gives you exact information on your Mac’s fans' speed.

Its Clean option helps to get rid of user cache, logs, large files, etc. The Uninstaller feature allows you to delete apps from your Mac and remove their traces. It doesn’t list pre-installed apps from Apple, such as Safari or Calendar, but it shows every app you have installed on your Mac.

Surely, you can clean up your Mac manually, but using dedicated software will save you tons of time.

Price: $29 per year
Free version
: Available

Mac

Frequently Asked Questions

Can’t my Mac clean itself?

Your macOS also has a built-in Mac cleaner, which Apple called Optimized Storage. Though its capabilities are limited, it gives you basic directions on where to start the cleanup. But for a thorough system cleanup and removing malware, you’ll need a dedicated Mac cleaner app.

Can Mac cleaner apps delete my important files?

Typically, best Mac cleaner apps have a protection built-in. They will usually select only those files that are safe for deletion.

Will Mac cleaners slow down my Mac?

Some cleaners try to get into your Login items, thus creating an extra burden on processor. On a flip side, the reliable Mac cleaner apps might even speed up your Mac. They remove all the outdated junk files giving your Mac an extra boost.

Drive Genius 5 Mac Protection And Optimization Software Download

Mac cleaning apps you should avoid

Above we've touched the trusted Mac cleanup solutions but there are many that work on the dark side. Malwarebytes lists Advanced Mac Cleaner Pro and similar tools as unwanted applications. Here are some signs that should warn you against using scam Mac cleaners.
Signs of Mac cleaner scam:

  • 'Your Mac is infected' intrusive message
  • An app is installed as part of different app
  • An app finds 2323 (the number is an example) threats on your Mac
  • Mac cleaner redirects your search page

Be safe and happy cleaning.

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