Getting SMART data from a USB attached drive

[JW]

I though I remember a discussion some months back where it was impossible
to get SMART data from a USB attached drive. Am I mis-remembering?

I Found a free Windows utility which seems to work fine called Acronis
drive monitor. It also monitors your drive health and pops up when it
detects problems.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/
If anybody's interested.

 

[mscotgrove]

I though I remember a discussion some months back where it was impossible
to get SMART data from a USB attached drive. Am I mis-remembering?

I Found a free Windows utility which seems to work fine called Acronis
drive monitor. It also monitors your drive health and pops up when it
detects problems.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/
If anybody's interested.

Most USB interfaces do not support SMART.

Michael

 

[JW]

Most USB interfaces do not support SMART.

I'm using an Intel DP965LT motherboard which uses the ICH8, and a USB to
PATA/SATA adapter. Don't know what chipset it uses, but its VID is 04FC
and PID is 0C05.

 

[Rod Speed]

I though I remember a discussion some months back where it was impossible
to get SMART data from a USB attached drive. Am I mis-remembering?

Yes, it was never that absolute.

 

[mike]

I though I remember a discussion some months back where it was impossible
to get SMART data from a USB attached drive. Am I mis-remembering?

I Found a free Windows utility which seems to work fine called Acronis
drive monitor. It also monitors your drive health and pops up when it
detects problems.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/
If anybody's interested.

how can it take 17.5MB to monitor the smart data?
Maybe they think it's a small number given the 100MB for the backup
program. Sheesh!!!

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Most USB interfaces do not support SMART.

I believe most recent USB-SATA/PATA bridges support SMART.

Here are just a few applications that implemement SMART support
whenever it is available:

smartmontools (Linux / Windows):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/files/
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/Download

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

CrystalDiskInfo:
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/manual-en/ExternalDisk.html

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Arno]

I though I remember a discussion some months back where it was impossible
to get SMART data from a USB attached drive. Am I mis-remembering?

You are not. Except that it was only that there was no
standardized way to do so.

I Found a free Windows utility which seems to work fine called Acronis
drive monitor. It also monitors your drive health and pops up when it
detects problems.

The thing is that in the meantime
a) The smartmontools and HDDSentinel have implemented a lot
of vendor specific methods and others might just have
copied or licesed that.

b) A while ago the SCSI T13 comittee standardized a way to
get ATA SMART data through the SCSI command set that
USB used and vendors have started to implement that.

To you rmemory is (mostly) correct, but the information is
outdated.

Arno

 

[Arno]

how can it take 17.5MB to monitor the smart data?
Maybe they think it's a small number given the 100MB for the backup
program. Sheesh!!!

It is Windows-Software. To be culturally acceptable in that
environment, it has to consist of 95% zeros, 4.9% hot air
and 0.1% actual code.

Kind of like the developers you find in that environment....

If anybody takes this personally: Of course you are in
the 0.1% that actually knows what they are doing ;-)

Arno

 

[Yousuf Khan]

To you rmemory is (mostly) correct, but the information is
outdated.

Yeah, for a long time it seemed like HD Sentinel was the only utility
that could get SMART data out of a USB drive, but since then many other
utilities have come out that can do it also, even free ones.

Yousuf Khan