SMART monitoring, Does it Work..?

[puss]

Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
the results are misleading.

the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..

So is SMART just a big waste of time


Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
no using.

 

[Michael Cecil]

Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
the results are misleading.

the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..

So is SMART just a big waste of time


Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
no using.

SMART is an estimation not a guarantee. You can do a lot to preserve your
disks - keep them cool, keep them insulated from vibration, make sure they
have adequate power.

 

[CJT]

Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
the results are misleading.

the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

It sounds like SMART was correct. Or are you complaining that it missed
by a couple of months?

The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..

So is SMART just a big waste of time


Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
no using.

No such problems here. Are you running them hot?

 

[puss]

It sounds like SMART was correct. Or are you complaining that it missed
by a couple of months?

Yes but the dealer will not replace the drive unless its stopped working.


But the bar graphs show the drives as OK..

No such problems here. Are you running them hot?

Average Temp is 30c has a large 120mm in front of them..

 

[puss]

SMART is an estimation not a guarantee. You can do a lot to preserve your
disks - keep them cool, keep them insulated from vibration, make sure they
have adequate power.

Yes done all that..

 

[Arno Wagner]

Previously (e-mail address removed) wrote:

Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
the results are misleading.

the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..

So is SMART just a big waste of time

Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2
years, this is my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2
weeks the other drives that I had were IBM they were replaced with
Seagates that I still have but no using.

I found SMART monitoring is worthwhile on Maxtors, however their
threshold for an actual failure is far too high. I had one disk
that was already incredibly slow from having to reallocate unreadable
sectors all the time, but the smart status was fine. The reallocated
sector count was already in the hundreds.

I am now logging and monitoring the realocated sector count and the
temperature. Smartd also does a nice job of notifying you of any
change in the more critical attributes.

Not perfect by any means but a real time-saver so far. SMART allows
me to replace a disk at the first hint of trouble and give it some
heavy testing load. So far this resulted in all but one disks in
a SMART failure within some days.

One additional consideration: Most of my disks are from Maxtor.
Thay have a tendency to fail gradually over days or even weeks.
IBM/Hitachi and WD disks (don't know about others) seem to have
a tendency to fail fast and catastrophically. SMART monitoring
will probably help far less in that case.

Arno

 

[puss]

Previously (e-mail address removed) wrote:







I found SMART monitoring is worthwhile on Maxtors, however their
threshold for an actual failure is far too high. I had one disk
that was already incredibly slow from having to reallocate unreadable
sectors all the time, but the smart status was fine. The reallocated
sector count was already in the hundreds.

I am now logging and monitoring the realocated sector count and the
temperature. Smartd also does a nice job of notifying you of any
change in the more critical attributes.

Not perfect by any means but a real time-saver so far. SMART allows
me to replace a disk at the first hint of trouble and give it some
heavy testing load. So far this resulted in all but one disks in
a SMART failure within some days.

One additional consideration: Most of my disks are from Maxtor.
Thay have a tendency to fail gradually over days or even weeks.
IBM/Hitachi and WD disks (don't know about others) seem to have
a tendency to fail fast and catastrophically. SMART monitoring
will probably help far less in that case.

Arno

Yes I was using ActiveSMART and these Drives 2 x 120g Seagate's have only been
used for 5 months, the TEC for the other drive is showing Jan 2005..

Problem here is the Have to fail to get a replacement..


What monitoring software are you using..?

The main problem here is the drives are not shipped correctly from the
Importer/Agent or the Mail ordershop..

I know this as the shop that I deal with sent me a Photo of the Maxtor drives
that he received for the Agent, 5 drive loose in a box with a few bubble bags
thrown in fact the drives were showing physical damage.


I also received one drive sent in a Jiffy bag with a bit of bubble rap around
it..

Seagate shows on there web site how to pack a drive for a RMA..

 

[Arno Wagner]

Previously (e-mail address removed) wrote:

[...]
Yes I was using ActiveSMART and these Drives 2 x 120g Seagate's
have only been
used for 5 months, the TEC for the other drive is showing Jan 2005..
Problem here is the Have to fail to get a replacement..
What monitoring software are you using..?

smartd and a self-written perl-script that calls smartctl from a
cron-job. smartd alone is fine, but I do not have it on all machines,
since smatd sends email in case of problems, but some of the machines
cannot really send mail. The perl-script is run from another machine
via ssh or is used locally and logs to file.

The main problem here is the drives are not shipped correctly from the
Importer/Agent or the Mail ordershop..

Use a different shop. Seagate drives also should be mailed in
a special plastic case the "sea-shell". Pretty handy.

I know this as the shop that I deal with sent me a Photo of the
Maxtor drives that he received for the Agent, 5 drive loose in a box
with a few bubble bags thrown in fact the drives were showing
physical damage.

Yes, you can basically send them back.

I also received one drive sent in a Jiffy bag with a bit of
bubble rap around it..

Seagate shows on there web site how to pack a drive for a RMA..

I know. I think you can also order from Seagate directly or
form an authorized reseller. That should ensure good packaging.

Arno