reading smart data ?

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:09 pm

i got a new 2TB drive in today, and want to make sure it is okay before i load everything to it, should i quick format, or full format ?

how can i read it's smart data, and how can i stress test it.

right now it is running in a E-sata dock until i can open the PC and install it.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:32 pm

CrystalDiskInfo can usually read/monitor most S.M.A.R.T. output
http://crystalmark.info/download/index- ... alDiskInfo

I'm still a fan of a full format. Fast disk drives these days, it gives me more comfort for the extra bit of time it takes.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:40 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:CrystalDiskInfo can usually read/monitor most S.M.A.R.T. output
http://crystalmark.info/download/index- ... alDiskInfo

I'm still a fan of a full format. Fast disk drives these days, it gives me more comfort for the extra bit of time it takes.

thanks cat, it will not read the drive, maybe once i install is internally it will.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:50 pm

Huh...I would have guessed it would read an eSata. USB usually not, but eSata...hmm..odd.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:30 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Huh...I would have guessed it would read an eSata. USB usually not, but eSata...hmm..odd.

maybe i need to change a setting in bios for the sata ports, like from IDE to AHCI, or whatever ?

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:43 am

Not sure what board you are using, however, some (typically proprietary-such as HP, etc.) will need to have BIOS set for the specific channel in order for the drive to be visible, so do check on yours... (SATA 0 may be active SATA 1 not, if you follow...)

It's weird, however some drives you also still need to activate first, at least on XP and older OS'es... (Disk Manager)

Like SCat said, full format! I lost a bunch of someones pics on an external that I did a quick format on...

From what I have read, go with AHCI if your set up will allow you...

As a note:

Work at Google on over 100,000 drives has shown little overall predictive value of S.M.A.R.T. status as a whole, but suggests that certain sub-categories of information which some S.M.A.R.T. implementations track do correlate with actual failure rates: specifically, in the 60 days following the first scan error on a drive, the drive is, on average, 39 times more likely to fail than it would have been had no such error occurred. Furthermore, first errors in reallocations, offline reallocations and probational counts are strongly correlated to higher probabilities of failure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

This may help a bit on reading SMART...
http://www.techenclave.com/storage-solu ... 62643.html

A good point or 2 here:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=457029

I can understand and relate to your skepticism as I can't believe the rate hdds are failing at anymore...

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:05 pm

changed the settings for e-sata from IDE to AHCI, still could not read smart, so this weekend i will install drive internally and see how it goes, and right now i am full formatting it before i transfer everything over.

thanks for the links Ken

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:20 pm

i have my drive installed onboard now, here are my results, there is no data on it just yet so i do not know if that will change things.............