How reliable is S.M.A.R.T. at predicting hard drive failure?

[dakata24]

i just had my first hard drive fail on me.. i lost some important files (nothing to lose sleep over) and want to minimize this in the future.. in my bios, i had disabled S.M.A.R.T. never thinking my hard drive would ever be a problem.. i guess this is what i get when i buy a bare drive from fry's.. i have 1/2 dozen drives, including a 1.2GB drive that has never failed me.

to be on the safe side though, i will be enabling S.M.A.R.T on all my pcs and would like to know how good this S.M.A.R.T feature really is. thanks

 

[jrini]

It was developed by the drive manufacturers. It is the best there is at this time.

 

[Siddhartha]

How many people here have S.M.A.R.T. enabled? Is there a downside to using it?

 

[PowerMacG5]

What companies drives support S.M.A.R.T., what is S.M.A.R.T., and how do I enable it?

 

[AndyHui]

Please read the FAQ: What is SMART for hard drives?

 

[dakata24]

Originally posted by: AndyHui
Please read the FAQ: What is SMART for hard drives?

oh.. didnt realize their was a faq regarding SMART, thanks

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
How many people here have S.M.A.R.T. enabled? Is there a downside to using it?

I have it enabled on 2 IBM drives and a Seagate drive.