P4T-E users: SMART Failure Predicted on Primary Master!

[DN]

I just installed WinXP NTFS on my newly built PC.. I have an Asus P4T-E /w audio (disabled) motherboard with the 1005 BIOS.. My primary master is a Western Digital 100Gb 7200 rpm ATA-100 hard drive - nothing else is on the primary IDE controller.. I currently have the "smart" feature (not so smart imo) in the BIOS disabled for this hard drive.. I can give more details about my setup if necessary..

The problem is whenever I boot my machine, I always get the following message after it detects what's on the primary IDE and secondary IDE:

SMART Failure Predicted on Primary Master: <The drive above>
Warning: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent.

I can then press F1 to continue or Del to go into the BIOS setup..

If I press F1, I boot into WinXP without ANY problems.. There doesn't seem to be ANYTHING wrong, so why is this smart feature (I guess that's what's detecting this non-existant issue) giving me this warning message EVEN WHEN the feature is disabled in the BIOS..? Even if it ISN'T disabled, why is it complaining..?

I've used this hard drive in another machine without any problems whatsoever and it's currently working in the new machine as I've mentioned, so why is SMART so "DUMB"..? Is it in fact the smart feature that is presenting this message to me..? Have I overlooked something..?

Any help would be appreciated besides something like "reformat" as I =just= installed WinXP and everything went just fine.. I suppose I could swap out the IDE cable for another one, but if it WAS the IDE cable, the drive wouldn't be working most likely.. I've also tried to disable "virus warning" in the BIOS, but that didn't help.. I can't seem to think of anything else to try..

Thanks in advance..

 

[WhoDeeny]

You're drive's dying and there's nothing you can do to stop it. I suggest you take the advice it gave you and start backing up before its too late!
Its not a fact of issues with SMART, your old system probably didn't have it and therefor missed it, in my experience with SMART is its very reliable.

 

[Mark R]

SMART is a system for monitoring hard drives.

For some years, hard drives have been so sopisticated and have used such powerful error recovery systems, that they have been capable of hiding even very serious defects within themselves. These systems were introduced to improve reliability and yields by covering up minor manufacturing defects.

The side effect of this, is that a drive would often fail catastrophically for no apparent reason - the reason being that the drive was failing and getting worse and worse, but the recovery systems were so powerful that the drive appeared to work perfectly until the damage completely overwhelmed the recovery systems and the drive stopped working all together.

Many people were very concerned about this tendency to sudden, unexpected total drive failure, and so the drive manufacturers introduced SMART. SMART is an early warning system, which operates within the drive itself, allowing a user to act by backing up and replacing a drive that is about to fail. The drive has internal monitoring systems, and when it detects that it has suffered terminal damage it tells a SMART compatible BIOS that it is about to fail. Meanwhile the drive can continue to appear to be working perfectly, because it is capable of working around severe damage.

Very few tools, e.g. scandisk take any account of SMART information - so if you are using these tools, you cannot be reassured by a clean bill of health.

The reason the message is appearing is because your drive thinks it is about to die. (and trust me, it knows more about it's health than you do).

You need to back-up. Then get the latest version of WDs datalifeguard tools test the drive, after it fails the tests, send it back

If you are curious, then you can download SMARTmon, and it will tell you exactly why the drive thinks it is dieing.

 

[DN]

Mark R,

You've got to be kidding me..? LOL.. I can't believe it.. Can you tell me why, even if I disable SMART in the BIOS, that it'll still give me this "warning"..? That's about the only other thing I don't understand after having read your message.. I mean, if I disable SMART, SMART should not be warning me, right..? Thanks!

Edit: I ran SmartMon and it screamed at me -- Basically reported an error just like the BIOS's SMART feature.. Sigh, I guess I'll run the Western Digital HD Diagnostics and see what it says.. I guess I'll return the drive..

 

[Idontcare]

When the BIOS initially handshakes the IDE drive it will query the SMART before deciding it no longer will listen to it, you are not disabling SMART you are disabling the option in your BIOS that your BIOS will pass along the SMART warnings to any software that would/will care about them later after your system is running (such as a diagnostic tool like the one bundled with Promise IDE controllers). And take a hike buddy, Mark is trying to help, where the f' do you get off blowing away the helping hand when you clearly have no f'ing clue what you are talking about otherwise you wouldn't be needing to ask the question in the first place.

 

[DN]

<< When the BIOS initially handshakes the IDE drive it will query the SMART before deciding it no longer will listen to it, you are not disabling SMART you are disabling the option in your BIOS that your BIOS will pass along the SMART warnings to any software that would/will care about them later after your system is running (such as a diagnostic tool like the one bundled with Promise IDE controllers). And take a hike buddy, Mark is trying to help, where the f' do you get off blowing away the helping hand when you clearly have no f'ing clue what you are talking about otherwise you wouldn't be needing to ask the question in the first place. >>



Maybe YOU should be the one taking the hike? You obviously misread the tone of my message! I first of all THANKED HIM for his reply, secondly my TONE was one of SHOCK that my Western Digital has been "bad" ever since I've had it based on his explanation -- that's IT! Understand? Thanks for your concern..

 

[AKA]

FYI quit being a dick.

DN,

Here is the exact definition of S.M.A.R.T.

Active SMART is a hard disk status analyzer and failure prediction software for your hard drive. It uses S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) to monitor the health status of Hard Disk Drives (HDD), prevents data loss and predicts possible drive failure using special algorithms

Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (or S.M.A.R.T.) is a technology that enables a PC to in some cases predict the future failure of hard disk drives. Armed with prediction information the user or system manager in some instances has the opportunity to backup key data or replace a suspect device prior to data loss or undesired downtime.

Just because that comes up does not mean it will definitely fail soon. All hard drives are definitely going to fail, period.
That hard drive could live another 3 yrs or 1 hour.

 

[DN]

Thanks for the reply AKA.. I think I now know the whole SMART thing -- I guess it isn't as DUMB as I had initially though, lol.. Well, I just WONDER what the guy at the store is going to say when I tell him that SMART is warning me that the drive will fail -- chances are he'll just look at me with a "what?" face.. Nonetheless, I still haven't exchanged the drive, I'm still going to run the WD diags disk first to see if it reports anything and if it does, I'll bring a copy of that to the store with me so there are no arguments.. Thanks again..