Dell Linux Engineering

[Tom Bruno]

Almost all motherboards support S.M.A.R.T.  this is not a compaq only 
included feature.  I've never owned a compaq, and yet all my bios's say 
Enable/Disable Compaq Smart

Brian Kelsay wrote:

>It is possible that the Compaq systems were accessing/running the SMART info excessively, prematurely wearing out the drives, but the reports I heard were that the drives went out in more than just Compaq PCs.  The drive itself and its implementation of SMART are more than likely to blame.  With the Compaq you have a workaround is all.  With other PC models the same should apply.  Turn off SMART monitoring in the BIOS and the drive will not burnout prematurely.  Problem is, you won't know when it is ready to keel over.
>
>What is S.M.A.R.T. technology for hard drives?
>
> S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology. S.M.A.R.T. technology was developed by a number of major hard disk drive manufacturers in a concerted effort to increase the reliability of drives. It is a technology that enables the PC to predict the future failure of hard disk drives. S.M.A.R.T. technology has become an industry standard for hard drive manufacturers.
>
>Through the S.M.A.R.T. system, modern hard disk drives incorporate a suite of advanced diagnostics that monitor the internal operations of a drive and provide an early warning for many types of potential problems. When a potential problem is detected, the drive can be repaired or replaced before any data is lost or damaged.
>
>The S.M.A.R.T. system monitors the drive for anything that might seem out of the ordinary, documents it, and analyzes the data. If it sees something that indicates a problem, it is capable of notifying the user (or system administrator). S.M.A.R.T. monitors disk performance, faulty sectors, recalibration, CRC errors, drive spin-up time, drive heads, distance between the heads and the disk platters, drive temperature, and characteristics of the media, motor and servomechanisms. The errors the system can detect can be predicted by a number of methods. Currently the SMART system can detect about 70% of all hard drive errors.
>
>Here's an example: motor and/or bearing failure can be predicted by an increase in the drive spin-up time and the number of retries it takes to get the drive spinning at full speed. Or, if the drive notes that error correction is being needed excessively, it can attribute this to a broken drive head or surface contamination, and it will create an alert before the problem gets worse. Armed with a prediction of failure, the user or system administrator can make a backup copy of key data, replace a suspect device prior to data loss, and avoid undesired downtime.
>
>Brian Kelsay
>
>  
>
>>>>Tom Bruno <> 12/07/04 10:31AM >>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>Duane Attaway wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Tom Bruno wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>website, it says YOU MUST disable COMPAQ SMART support in your bios 
>>>or risk drive failure.  This is a default option is set to enabled on 
>>>most motherboards, and new pc's.
>>>      
>>>
>>WTF?  How would the SMART communications to the drive wreck a drive?
>>
>>Next I'll see, "running a virus checker on this computer may overheat 
>>the CPU and cause it to catch fire, burning down your house, and 
>>catching the whole city of Chicago to burst into flames."
>>
>>-=Duane
>>
>>    
>>
>
>I have no idea, but i still have that 7th drive, and it's still chugging 
>away.  the 7th drive was having all kinds of problems, so i took it out 
>of the pc and sat it on the shelf,  When i read that one day, i disabled 
>compaq smart support, and put the drive back in. been working now for 2 
>years.
>
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