How smart is S.M.A.R.T. ?

[Oyeve]

I have 6 HDs in my system, all S.M.A.R.T. enabled. WhenI run speedfan and check all of my drives they all test fine but none are above 92% as far as health is concerned. IMO thats not a good thing, or am I reading to much into it? Or is speedfan and /or S.M.A.R.T. just not accurate? I have seen HDs die at work with S.M.A.R.T. enabled and S.M.A.R.T. never even reported something was wrong.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
I have seen HDs die at work with S.M.A.R.T. enabled and S.M.A.R.T. never even reported something was wrong.

Yeah, I've never seen a SMART error, and I've seen lots of hard drives fail without warning. If somebody actually SEES a SMART error, I advise them to pay attention, 'cuz it seems like it's REALLY hard to get a SMART error.

 

[natto fire]

SMART is really just there to measure parameters. How you interpret the data is up to you, and the program you are using to read the data.

 

[lobbyone]

not so smart i guess...its hard to predict the future! give the HDD a break

 

[WobbleWobble]

If you're concerned about the health of your hard drives, run the diagnostic tools that are provided freely by the manufacturer.

 

[Leros]

I was under the impression that SMART just enabled a bunch of data collecting and that its up to the user to use the data to check the health of their drives.

 

[Slammy1]

I've seen health improve with SMART.

 

[Texun]

I never had a SMART warning but I did check the SMART status on my WD-JB drive with Speedfan's query. It stopped short of telling me to duck for cover, but I ran WD's diag in every way possible and it came back clean as a whistle each time. That was months ago. Speedfan still says the end of the world is near, but the diags show otherwise and it performs perfectly so I'm not really sure which to believe. I'm backed up so if it goes down I can live with it.

 

[Stan]

All of my desktops at work (Optiplex) have smart enabled, and I actively monitor any drives for spinup errors, read errors, bad sectors. Any drives that show up frequently get an email to Dell to be replaced. With sufficient reports from SMART I can usually just email the log to Dell support, and a new drive arrives the next morning. Its a godsend to me (replacing drives WELL before they fail).

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: lobbyone
give the HDD a break

They do that on their own! lol