What is S.M.A.R.T.

[dooviewhacker]

I was wondering what the hell S.M.A.R.T. for HDD's is. I've got an old 10.2gb seagate medalist, running a new gigabyte triton board. What does it do, and will I be able to use it?

Cheers.

 

[dual3gigs]

S.M.A.R.T.

Hi ,s.m.a.r.t. stands for,,,Self- Monitoring ,Analysis,and Reporting Technology,it is a support feature for your hard drive,and myself ,personally,i disable it.hope this helps

 

[neb1211]

Basically Smart is a feature that lets you if you hard drive is failing. It is always a good idea to have it enabled because when it thinks that your hard drive is about to die it will let you know and you will have time to back up all your data.

 

[ekÆsine]

when it thinks that your hard drive is about to die it will let you know and you will have time to back up all your data.

sure in theory maybe , i wouldn't count on it as a failsafe way to protect your data. its always a good idea to make regular backups of important files you want saved.

in my opinion you should turn it off too. it is an old feature that really is worthless.

 

[neb1211]

I leave it on. It has warned me 100% of the time before my hard drive failed.

 

[ebullock]

My thoughts:
1. I absolutely would leave it on. There is NO advantage to turning it off.
2. To find the original Users and Installation guides for your drive, go www.seagate.com and enter the drives' model number (from the label on it's top) in the "Enter model #" box. Shows you all kinds of good things.

 

[tech4hire]

also on some systems such as new compaqs, evo for sure. the diagnostics on the system use the smart features to generate codes that are used for warranty replacement. As has been said there is no benefit to turn it off. Leave it on it may save you from pulling your hair out one day.

 

[bhoney]

Just wanted to throw out my opinon on the weither to leave smart on or off. I think you should leave it on! Like they said maybe it is older technology but Ill tell you one thing if you call up to tech support (assuming it is under warrenty) they would replace the drive alot faster than if it was a primary drive 0 notfound(just an example). And what the heck if it warns you once out of every 5 or 10 harddrive failures than atleast that one time you would have time to get back in and backup data. I also agree that it is good to have have a current back up either on another hdd or cd/dvds

 

[dooviewhacker]

Thanks for the advice, chaps

sounds like a good fail-safe thing to use. Does it use any extra cpu power? or is that going to be negligible?

Cheers.

 

[bhoney]

Dont quote me on this but I think its just a test that runs when you first startup your computer. Because that is the only time the error will come up. That error I dont believe will pop up in the middle of windows only at startup(if you get it). The only thing i would think it may do is take your computer an extra 10 seconds to start up but some of these other guys might know for sure