HDD S.M.A.R.T Option

[Syphanx]

Hey guys,
I have recently discovered that my hard-drive supports the "HDD S.M.A.R.T" option. For those who don't know what this is, I have been told that it somehow tells you before the hard-drive is going to fail so that you can backup all your stuff if necessary (Please correct me if I am wrong!). Anyway, I don't know how to activate it, I've looked through the bios back to front and through all the options in my hard-drive... does anyone know how to do this? Because when the system starts up, after it goes through the memory check it keeps coming up on the next screen with HDD S.M.A.R.T option.... Disabled. How do I get it to work?

-- Michael --

 

[OIDanTheManIO]

if your bios support it, most likely it will be in the advanced (fill in the blank) _______ category of ur bios. its not that necessary, i dont have it enabled, it takes 4ever to boot when u do have it enabled tho, its just not worth it....but if u must have it, you might want to consider upgrading your bios (not recommended) i would just leave it alone tho...."if it works, leave it alone!!!"

 

[Syphanx]

Yeah I think my bios supports it and I know what you mean about not recommended about updating the bios. I did that before on my last mobo and it screwed everything up pretty bad! But fair enough, If it's going to slow down the computers start up time then I think I'll forget about enabling it.
Thanks for the feedback OIDanTheManIO

Regards,

-- Michael --

 

[iulius]

SMART

there is no need to activate the SMART option, it is already working, you just have to instal a software capable to read it [like aida 32 enterprise from:http://www.blue-hardware.com/divers/download/telecharge98.php

 

[Syphanx]

Ok,
so if I install this aida 32 enterprise, as
OIDanTheManIO said, will it slow down my computer start up time? Because if so I don't really want to be doing that...

Thanks,

-- Michael --

 

[iulius]

you can try other programs like:SIGuardian, from: http://www.bykeyword.com/downloads/software-7/download-7481.html
or: hdtune_200[for free], from:http://www.hdtune.com/hdtune_200.exe

 

[Syphanx]

Oh ok thanks for all the help guys, I'll check out some of these programs and see how they work, but I've only got a 40gb H.D and there isn't much important stuff on it, just SOME work but nothing really that great. But if I get like an 120gb hd, which I am thinking about getting soon, then I will be storing alot more stuff so it would probably be a wise idea to start using one of these programs....

Thanks for all the help guys,

-- Michael --

 

[Apokalipse]

S.M.A.R.T will slow down your computer on boot because it checks the hard drive for problems every time it boots, IMO it is not worth having this option on.

in your sig you say you want a sound card; do you want something high, mid or low end?
these are good cards:
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 - $72 (high end)
Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1 - $22.66 (mid end)

 

[crazybeans]

I too agree. Turn it off and forget about it lol. Unless your running a server or your data is very important to you, I would rather disable it and speed up the system. Having programs loaded to monitor your HDD can slow down windows and windows load times as well. It just isn't worth using.

EDIT:

I just wanted to add that I purchased a 20GB HDD about 4 years ago and it's still running great. I have had no problems with it. If you were to enable SMART it slows down your system and is only useful in very rare occasions. Trust me, if you prefer speed over relyability disable that sucker (btw, 3x160GB HDDs on RAID 0 means 3x the chance for disaster )

 

[WalnutMon]

I am not absoluetely sure of this, but I think you can get free utilities to work with the SMART ability of your computer. This can be useful and will give you all sorts of information on how your hard drive is running, temperatures, disk access times, etc. Definately very useful, but not something that is neccesary to have running all the time, just back up your important information often... if you are like me you have 80 MB of ireplacable information, and 100 gigs of worthless crap! go to the salvation army and get a zip drive, hehe, zip drives, what a waste of everyones time!