how to check S.M.A.R.T.?

[Peter G]

Greetings,
I've had a S.M.A.R.T warning for over a year now (disc about to fail,
replace immediately) but have (foolishly?) ignored it - reducing the data to
irrelevant, and waiting amusedly until it failed.
Since it hasn't, I wondered if I might "retrieve" it for real work. What
"diagnostic" routines can I use to check whether SMART is really smart - or
wrong?

cheers

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Peter

You could install a new drive out of a box and have it fail within 24
hours.. maybe SMART is not completely infallible, but you will kick yourself
if it goes down tomorrow..

Go to the HDD manufacturer website and download their diagnostic utility,
then run it as instructed.. you will then have a second opinion, but it
could still fail within minutes of being tested OK.. a drive that is having
errors reported on it is more likely to fail than a new one..

I think that you should count yourself lucky that it has not failed.. one
assumes that you have backups of important stuff?..

 

[Peter G]

Thanks Mike -
I ran Maxtor Powermax as suggested: Installation confirmationassed,
advanced test resultassed, burn test resultassed.
Now, as Groucho once said - "who do I believe?, you or my own eyes?"
Is there a way of telling SMART that it's wrong in this case, but not turn
it off?

cheers

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

Maxtor can tell you if it can be done, most likely. You may have to download
a utility to do it.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Peter

If SMART is telling you that you have bad clusters, then that is what you
have.. they may not be proliferating too fast presently, but it does not
take much to push an ailing drive over the edge.. bad clusters are a sign
that all is not well, and there is no cure.. that you have had a year's use
since being informed, you should see this as luck rather than good
judgement..

The Maxtor utility is designed to keep as many returns from Maxtor's door as
possible.. yes, of course it runs tests, but I wonder how tough they really
are.. here is a strange fact about Powermax.. it is more likely to pick up
an error, and give an RMA code # after the drive has passed its warranty
period.. this is just an observation of mine over time..

 

[Peter G]

Thanks again Mike etal
OK I'm convinced and give in - new drive ordered! - if it goes wrong out of
the box I'll blame you! (BG)

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

I ran Maxtor Powermax as suggested: Installation confirmationassed,
advanced test resultassed, burn test resultassed.
Now, as Groucho once said - "who do I believe?, you or my own eyes?"

Well, the vendor's tool isn't top of the list - like they really want
to replace your HD under warranty?

Is there a way of telling SMART that it's wrong in this case, but not turn
it off?

I wouldn't call it "wrong" until I'd checked the HD in a bit more
detail, and a good free tool for that is HD-Tune. No glib no-detail
"S.M.A.R.T. says it's OK" stuff here

http://www.hdtune.com/

This tool does 3 things:
- shows the HD temperature
- shows the S.M.A.R.T. detail
- tests the surface of the HD

If you see "old" bad sectors, non-zero values for errors, etc. then
you may want to keep data off the thing.

------------------------ ---- --- -- - - - -

Forget http://cquirke.blogspot.com and check out a
better one at http://topicdrift.blogspot.com instead!

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)"

Peter

If SMART is telling you that you have bad clusters, then that is what you
have.. they may not be proliferating too fast presently, but it does not
take much to push an ailing drive over the edge.. bad clusters are a sign
that all is not well, and there is no cure.. that you have had a year's use
since being informed, you should see this as luck rather than good
judgement..

The Maxtor utility is designed to keep as many returns from Maxtor's door as
possible.. yes, of course it runs tests, but I wonder how tough they really
are.. here is a strange fact about Powermax.. it is more likely to pick up
an error, and give an RMA code # after the drive has passed its warranty
period.. this is just an observation of mine over time..

Interesting -- How would it know what warranty was included? Isn't it
more likely that the drives which no longer have any remaining warranty
are older and hence more likely to have problems?

Or maybe I'm just a sucker...

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

If you call a one year old drive old, then so be it..

When I recently wanted to put a Maxtor drive through the test, I was
informed that the version of Powermax that I was using was old (version
4.07) and that I should use the latest version, that being 4.21.. so what
might the difference be, do you think?.. a better test, maybe?.. a database
of drive serial numbers that it compares against, maybe?.. the tests are
ostensibly exactly the same and of equal duration.. so you tell me what the
difference is?..

I had a couple of Maxtor drives that gave me hell.. the OS was so unstable
when installed on any of them, they were as good as unusable.. could I get
an RMA number out of the Powermax utility?.. not a chance.. so I wait till I
know one of them is out of warranty, and run the tests again.. well, hell..
an RMA number..

Feed the info into the Maxtor website.. essentially, I gotten a "sorry, you
lose.. better luck next time"..

I am not the most trusting of people at best.. I always read between the
lines, and take nothing for granted or as said.. am I paranoiac?.. no.. do I
ever hold my breath?.. no..

 

[Pavel A.]

Maybe the grc.com disk test utility can help here.
Not sure it is really so good as advertised - anyway it can be a second opinion.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm (not free any longer.. )

--PA