Why isn't SMART telling me my disk is sick?

[Al Dykes]

I've had smart running on a bunch of w2k and XP systems and even
though a coupe disks have died I've *never* seen a hint from smart.


It just happened again. the w2k system has two disks in it.

Everest says everything's OK but there are a couple entries in the
event log that say there is a bad block. When i saw that I ran Maxtor
disgnostics and got an error code that will get me a new disk.

Why does everest say my disk is OK?

 

[Galen]

In Al Dykes had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I've had smart running on a bunch of w2k and XP systems and even
though a coupe disks have died I've *never* seen a hint from smart.


It just happened again. the w2k system has two disks in it.

Everest says everything's OK but there are a couple entries in the
event log that say there is a bad block. When i saw that I ran Maxtor
disgnostics and got an error code that will get me a new disk.

Why does everest say my disk is OK?

Ask them... Really... I've never once seen a utility that was able to
accurately predict drive failure - ever. I've tried a bunch over time. I've
seen SMART tell me the disk was FINE even though it wouldn't spin up at all.
I hate to say it but don't rely on it. It's not an XP thing, it's not even a
single vendor thing like Everest as I've seen failures predicted on drives
that ran a lot longer. I've even seen alternative utilities give me
different results.

The only realistic solution I can offer is backup, RAID, and spares. If the
data is at all important then those should already be in place.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes