SMART status over USB but not eSATA???

[taisingera]

I have a WD 640GB in a NexStar3 and a WD 320GB 2.5" in a NexStar3 over eSATA plugged into the ICH9R ports with AHCI installed and I get no SMART info. I just connected the enclosures to USB and now I get SMART info. Is something wrong with eSATA and supporting SMART or is the eSATA bridge in the enclosure?

 

[Zap]

Do you get SMART info for your internal drives? I've seen BIOS options to enable SMART, which works with onboard ports. Perhaps that is disabled?

 

[taisingera]

Yes I get SMART info in Everest, but I tried some other programs like HDD Health and it reported that SMART was not available on any drives.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: taisingera
I have a WD 640GB in a NexStar3 and a WD 320GB 2.5" in a NexStar3 over eSATA plugged into the ICH9R ports with AHCI installed and I get no SMART info. I just connected the enclosures to USB and now I get SMART info. Is something wrong with eSATA and supporting SMART or is the eSATA bridge in the enclosure?

Strange. SMART info normally is not avaliable for USB connected drives.

There are some programs that work with certain USB chipsets to provide that info, but normally it's not avaliable.

IDK if enabling AHCI has any bearing on SMART.

 

[taisingera]

OK, this is really weird. The 3.5" enclosure also has Firewire and I hooked it up that way and there is SMART data available in Everest 4.60 using that. Hmm, SMART with USB and Firewire but not with eSATA???

 

[Hardlin]

I would think that is related to your BIOS (as Zap suggested). Getting it through USB and 1394 is provided by the enclosure. Getting it from SATA/IDE is a function of the BIOS for integrated solutions. This is all assuming the drive supports it (yours must or the enclosure couldn't present it).

 

[taisingera]

I am positive SMART is enabled in the BIOS. I just installed the latest Intel Matrix Storage drivers 8.6, the AHCI one in my case, and there is still no SMART data over eSATA. However, the new drivers now keep the "Write Cache Enabled" checked in XP and everything feels a bit snappier. It was always grayed out and unchecked but I thought XP enabled it automatically.