Hard Disk "S.M.A.R.T." questions

[CincyJim]

1) Can the S.M.A.R.T. program in a Hard Disk Drive be mal/mis functioning WHILE the Drive is mechanically OK? If so; Is there a way to fix/correct this problem?

2) IF S.M.A.R.T. is OK, why can't/doesn't it tell me exactly what is wrong? Ought I panic today, OR get a beer at the corner bar?

[dneilson]

Don't panic but get a beer anyway. There are some programs here that will give you S.M.A.R.T. information, which seems reasonable 'cause who would want D.U.M.B. information.

http://www.google.com/#q=hard+drive+...iw=853&bih=387

[SpywareDr]

1) Can the S.M.A.R.T. program in a Hard Disk Drive be mal/mis functioning WHILE the Drive is mechanically OK? If so; Is there a way to fix/correct this problem?

I'd be willing to bet that the cost to so would exceed the cost of a new drive.

2) IF S.M.A.R.T. is OK, why can't/doesn't it tell me exactly what is wrong? Ought I panic today, OR get a beer at the corner bar?

Wikipedia: S.M.A.R.T.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; often written as SMART) is a monitoring system for computer hard disk drives to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures.

When a failure is anticipated by S.M.A.R.T., the user may choose to replace the drive to avoid unexpected outage and data loss. The manufacturer may be able to use the S.M.A.R.T. data to discover where faults lie and prevent them from recurring in future drive designs.

The purpose of S.M.A.R.T. is to warn a user of impending drive failure while there is still time to take action, such as copying the data to a replacement device.

Hard disk failures fall into one of two basic classes:

• Predictable failures: These failures result from slow processes such as mechanical wear and gradual degradation of storage surfaces. Monitoring can determine when such failures are becoming more likely.
  
  
• Unpredictable failures: These failures happen suddenly and without warning. They range from electronic components becoming defective to a sudden mechanical failure (perhaps due to improper handling).

Mechanical failures account for about 60% of all drive failures.[1] While the eventual failure may be catastrophic, most mechanical failures result from gradual wear and there are usually certain indications that failure is imminent. These may include increased heat output, increased noise level, problems with reading and writing of data, or an increase in the number of damaged disk sectors.

Work at Google on over 100,000 drives found correlations between certain S.M.A.R.T. information and actual failure rates. In the 60 days following the first scan error on a drive, the drive was, on average, 39 times more likely to fail than it would have been had if no such error occurred.

[...continues...]

[Steve R Jones]

In other words - backup your important stuff while you can

[SuperSparks]

Be aware that SMART isn't 100% reliable. It can, and sometimes does, misreport a perfectly good drive as having a problem. But definitely back up your data, it is right a lot more often than it is wrong.

[CincyJim]

Duz weekly Ghoste copying count as a backup? Peter Norton convinced me to use his program before the Y2K alleged bomb. I've EVERYTHING I own saved on two (2) DVD-RW drives in protective cases, and EVERYTHING I have can be re-obtained via the 'net. Less IS more, eh?

THANKS for the re-plies.

[CincyJim]

Thanks y'all.

I've got SPINRITE 6 (http://www.grc.com/intro.htm) that I'll use on the HD whilst I sleep & see whut happens.