Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The basic requirements for S.M.A.R.T. to function in a system are simple: You just need a
S.M.A.R.T.-capable HDD and a S.M.A.R.T.-aware BIOS or hard disk driver for your particular OS.
If your BIOS does not support S.M.A.R.T., utility programs are available that can support it on a
given system. Some of these include Norton Utilities from Symantec, DiskCheckup from PassMark
Software, and Acronis Drive Monitor.
When sufficient changes occur in the monitored attributes to trigger a S.M.A.R.T. alert, the drive
sends an alert message via an IDE/ATA or a SCSI command (depending on the type of HDD you
have) to the hard disk driver in the system BIOS, which usually reports the problem during the POST
the next time the system boots.
If you want more immediate reporting, you can run a utility that queries the S.M.A.R.T. status of the
drive, such as the programs listed earlier. The first thing to do if you receive a S.M.A.R.T. warning is
to back up all the data on the drive. I recommend you back up to new media and do not overwrite
previous backups you might have, just in case the drive fails before the new backup is complete.
After backing up your data, what should you do? S.M.A.R.T. warnings can be caused by an external
source and might not actually indicate that the drive is going to fail. For example, environmental
changes such as high or low ambient temperatures can trigger a S.M.A.R.T. alert, as can excessive
vibration in the drive caused by an external source. Additionally, electrical interference from motors
or other devices on the same circuit as your PC can induce these alerts.
If the alert was not caused by an external source, a drive replacement might be indicated. If the drive
is under warranty, contact the vendor and ask whether the company will replace it. The drive vendor
may ask you to test the drive with diagnostic software supplied with the drive or downloadable from
the vendor's website. If no further alerts occur or if the test does not locate any problems, the
problem might have been an anomaly, and you might not need to replace the drive. If you receive
further alerts, replacing the drive is recommended. If you can connect both the new and existing
(failing) drive to the same system, you might be able to copy the entire contents of the existing drive
to the new one, saving you from having to install or reload all the applications and data from your
backup. Because standard copy commands and drag-and-drop methods don't copy system files,
hidden files, and files that are open, to copy an entire drive successfully and have the destination copy
remain bootable, you need a special application such as Symantec Norton Ghost or Acronis True
Image.
Note
Special editions of Acronis True Image are available at no charge from Western Digital
(Acronis True Image WD Edition for WD drives) and Seagate (DiscWizard for Seagate and
Maxtor drives; MaxBlast 5 for Maxtor drives).
