SMART and RMA

[Man-wai Chang]

Do hard disk distributors in USA use SMART data to determine the health
of a hard disk first before replacing it?

What other data do they make use of?

 

[Rod Speed]

Do hard disk distributors in USA use SMART data to determine the health of a hard disk first before replacing it?

Some do, some dont. Some just take the customer's word for
it and replace it when the customer says its got a problem.

What other data do they make use of?

The manufacturer's lists of which models have known firmware 'issues'

 

[Arno]

Do hard disk distributors in USA use SMART data to determine the health
of a hard disk first before replacing it?

What other data do they make use of?

AFAIK the current policy is still direct replacement without
any checks. The drives then get shipped offshore to some
cheap place and tested there. As you get a recertified
replacement (i.e. one of these tested successfully offshore),
that approach is sound forma business side, if not necessarily
from a technological POV, as you get a drive that somebody
else may have mistreated (or somebody else gets a drive that
you may have mistreated), just not enough to make the symptoms
show yet.

Arno

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Do hard disk distributors in USA use SMART data to determine the health
of a hard disk first before replacing it?

What other data do they make use of?

Seagate insists that the user runs SeaTools against their drive. If
SeaTools fails the drive, it provides a "test code" which is an
encrypted hexadecimal number that uniquely identifies the drive's
serial number and the number of the failing test.

If SeaTools is inconclusive, or cannot be run due to the nature of the
hardware or due to the type of fault, then the user can supply a
"Self-Service SeaTools Test Code":

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/seatools/seatools-test-codes.html

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Arno]

Seagate insists that the user runs SeaTools against their drive. If
SeaTools fails the drive, it provides a "test code" which is an
encrypted hexadecimal number that uniquely identifies the drive's
serial number and the number of the failing test.

If SeaTools is inconclusive, or cannot be run due to the nature of the
hardware or due to the type of fault, then the user can supply a
"Self-Service SeaTools Test Code":

I remember that from Maxtor. Basically you could select "diagnostic
software does not work" and got an RMA code directly.

Arno