SpeedFan is a free utility that may be of interest to many readers of this forum.  With support for over 300 hard disks from 11 manufacturers, the tool can retrieve and display the temperature sensor information of the hard disk drive by accessing the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) capability of the hardware.

Depending upon your PC, SpeedFan can also display CPU and system temperatures, as well as the fan RPM.

SpeedFan appears to be functionally similar to Hmonitor Pro (US$29), but the 'look-and-feel' seems to be more professional.

Rad, if you like data, you’ll love SpeedFan.

It’s a small world:  Alexander Van Kaam sounds like quite an accomplished acquaintance.  It is unfortunate that he choose to discontinue development on Motherboard Monitor in June, 2004 – although it is still available for download.

Unlike SpeedFan, my understanding is that Motherboard Monitor never had the capability to retrieve and report the temperature of hard disk drives.

Yes, SpeedFan is a free utility.

I do not enable “stand-by” on my desktop PC, and so can’t comment on whether or not the program impacts the ability of the PC to enter into that mode.  By default, SpeedFan does periodically (once every few seconds) update the sensor data it displays, although there is a command line parameter (“/NOTIMER”) to suppress that capability.  If the query of the sensor is registered as “activity” by the PC, then one would anticipate that it would interfere with stand-by mode.  The best option, of course, is simply to download and test the utility on your own PC.