February 2022 • Macworld 27were various reports of Mac SSDs
showing advanced wear after just a
few months of use, But Apple said this
was a data reporting error and fixed
the problem in macOS Big Sur 11.4.)
So even if you have a brand new
M1 Mac, you might want to check
on your drive’s health from time to
time. To gain insight into the health
of your SSD, you can use a software
tool called smartmontools (available
from fave.co/3f7g0yw), which taps
into the Self-Monitoring, Analysis
and Reporting Technology (SMART)
system that’s built into SSDs. There is
a catch with smartmontools, though.
It’s not a typical app with an icon that
you double-click to launch and menus
and windows you navigate. It runs
in the Terminal, the command-line
interface for the Mac that you’ll find in
the Utilities folder inside Applications.
In this article, you’ll learn how
to set up the Terminal so you can
install and run smartmontools. Set
aside some time, however. While
the procedure isn’t difficult, since
you’re dealing with command line
entries, you need to pay a little closer
attention to what you’re doing than
with apps you usually use on the Mac.
There are so many times I could’ve
saved myself some frustration if I was
just more careful with my typing.
These instructions were created
using macOS Big Sur, but they can
also be used in macOS Catalina. If
something goes wrong, don’t panic.
The worst-case scenario is you’ll need
to reinstall macOS in Recovery Mode,
which will take some time but will
leave all of your files intact.HOW TO INSTALL XCODE
The first thing you need to do is
install Xcode, an Apple app for
developers. It has a set of command
line tools that your Mac needs before
you can install and run Homebrew
(available from fave.co/3tK1xfS),
which is a prerequisite for running
smartmontools. You can get Xcode in
the App Store for free.
After you download Xcode, head
over to the Utilities folder to open
it. You need to agree to its software
license before you can continue,
type your Mac password, and as well
as the Terms and Conditions. Then
you can quit the app.HOW TO INSTALL
HOMEBREW
Now you need to install a package
manager, which is a set of tools
needed to perform tasks like
installations and uninstalls. There are
different package managers available,