S.m.a.r.t HDD monitoring

[Sam]

does windows xp monitor the HDD usind S.m.a.r.t hdd
monitoring technology if i can get out of using 3rd party
software i would like to.

 

[JAX]

SMART does not take 3rd party software. It is part of your hard drives self
diagnostics, if compatible, and is enabled in the BIOS.

LOL, JAX

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

But error messages are not seen in Windows without 3rd party software that
monitors the drives!

 

[JAX]

Hi Crusty,

Would you please explain that? I had a HD fail last week and there was a
message at boot to that effect. I ran MAXTOR's "PowerMax" to confirm it. To
my knowledge, I have no special software to support SMART.

Thanks, JAX

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

As you said, "A message at boot".

If you were already in Windows when the error was picked up, you would not
have seen that message - until the next boot. Possibly, too late to save
your files.

 

[JAX]

Thanks Crusty but, what software is required to use SMART to it's fullest?

JAX

 

[George Bashore]

:: Disk Drive SMART Status


SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a diagnostic
method originally developed by IBM Corporation for their mainframe drives to
give advanced warning of drive failures. Large mainframe data centers wanted
to know in advance if a disk drive was going to fail, because this gave them
the opportunity to take steps to protect their data. Today all major disk
drive manufacturers support SMART, including IBM, Western Digital, Quantum,
Seagate, and Fujitsu.
How can SMART help a PC end-user? Not all disk drive failures are
predictable, but many mechanical failures are predictable and this is where
SMART can be of help. SMART measures many attributes of your disk drive over
time and decides if they are moving out of tolerance. Knowing that your disk
drive is going to fail and doing something about it, is infinitely better
than having one crash in the middle of your work. Backing up your disk drive
and possibly replacing it are far better options than trying to recover data
from a failed drive.

Keep in mind that most disk drives, even if they are SMART enabled, do not
have SMART turned on by default. When you install the BelManage client on a
PC, it will turn on SMART and begin tracking your drive health. SMART is
only useful when monitored over a period of time.

Shown below are sample SMART attributes. Each drive manufacturer uses its
own set of attributes to measure drive health.

Head flying height data
Throughput performance
Spin-up time
Re-allocated sector count
Seek error rate
Seek time performance
Spin try recount
Drive calibration retry count

http://www.belarc.com/belmanage.html

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

Well, among others - Norton System Doctor running minimized will continually
monitor the drives. I used this once when I received an "occasional" bootup
message. About 3 weeks later Norton System Doctor kicked in loud and clear
that I better do something NOW!

Note that I rarely run System Doctor, unless I suspect that something may be
going sour!

Thanks Crusty but, what software is required to use SMART to it's fullest?

JAX

As you said, "A message at boot".

If you were already in Windows when the error was picked up, you would not
have seen that message - until the next boot. Possibly, too late to save
your files.

Hi Crusty,

Would you please explain that? I had a HD fail last week and there was a
message at boot to that effect. I ran MAXTOR's "PowerMax" to confirm

it.
To

 

[JAX]

Thanks Crusty.

JAX

Well, among others - Norton System Doctor running minimized will continually
monitor the drives. I used this once when I received an "occasional" bootup
message. About 3 weeks later Norton System Doctor kicked in loud and clear
that I better do something NOW!

Note that I rarely run System Doctor, unless I suspect that something may be
going sour!

Thanks Crusty but, what software is required to use SMART to it's fullest?

JAX

message news:[email protected]...

was

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

You're welcome!

Thanks Crusty.

JAX

Well, among others - Norton System Doctor running minimized will continually
monitor the drives. I used this once when I received an "occasional" bootup
message. About 3 weeks later Norton System Doctor kicked in loud and clear
that I better do something NOW!

Note that I rarely run System Doctor, unless I suspect that something

may

be
going sour!

 

[Jack E Martinelli]

Readers interested in S.M.A.R.T. for hard drives may also find this
article from Storage Review useful:

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/qual/featuresSMART.html