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PC hardware: SMART HD failure: genuine or money rackett?
SMART HD failure: genuine or money rackett?
by jgbower - 7/29/08 9:17 AMI currently have an HP dv5220us laptop equipped with the SMART HD. For the past 3 months it states I have a hard drive failure on disk and that i should backup and replace the disk on start-up. However... when I do the hard disk scan through the BIOS and also the Check Disk through the GUI, no errors are displayed. The computer works perfectly fine and has so for the past 3 months. Any ideas if this scenario would qualify for a new HD? Any advice would be grateful. Thanks in advance!!!
also............. to add some information
by jgbower - 7/29/08 10:05 AM In reply to: SMART HD failure: genuine or money rackett? by jgbowerit was the Hard Disk 0: ST9120821AS(S1) not disk 2. And... when I place the HD into my desktop with SATA, no startup errors occurs. Could it be the motherboard?
SMART is predictive
by ramarc - 7/29/08 10:30 AM In reply to: SMART HD failure: genuine or money rackett? by jgbowerSMART monitors errors as well as things like retrys, crc fixes, and delays. If the drive has too many retrys/fixes/delays, SMART considers that a problem and thus helps identify potential failures.
If you don't trust that SMART utility, install Everest Home and check its results: http://www.filehippo.com/download_everest_home/
btw, if everest's SMART listing says the disk has problems
by ramarc - 7/29/08 10:32 AM In reply to: SMART is predictive by ramarcreplace the disk.
Ok, here is what I got....
by jgbower - 7/30/08 6:22 AM In reply to: btw, if everest's SMART listing says the disk has problems by ramarcOk, thank you for your response! I have used the Everest Reporter and it did come back with a Smart Test "FAIL", but again.... when I place the HD into another computer with a SATA connection, I receive no errors and the HD and computer work flawless. So the question arises..... is the SMART utility linked into the motherboard, and the motherboard on the laptop going bad? I am at a loss with this situation. I don't want to buy another drive unless it is definitely necessary, and it appears that the drive is not genuinely bad. Any other suggestions? Thanks again!!!
have you installed/run the SMART diagnositcs on other PC?
by ramarc - 7/30/08 10:54 AM In reply to: Ok, here is what I got.... by jgbowerSMART diagnostics are built-into the drive, not the motherboard. It should report the same problems wherever it is installed.
ok, so..........
by jgbower - 7/30/08 12:49 PM In reply to: have you installed/run the SMART diagnositcs on other PC? by ramarc.........what can i do next? I mean the drive is fine, I have tried it in another computer today. There are no settings within the BIOS to disable the SMART feature. In an earlier post I corrected myself about which disk the SMART was referring to, but I did notice that each time I restarted the laptop, it goes back and forth between disk 0 and disk 2. is there a way to wipe off this feature? or reset the settings just on the drive? I have formatted it before, but could tell that that was not enough. thanks for all your help so far, but I am convinced this is just a ploy in the IT industry (in which I work, mind you, hal) to trick consumers into buying items that are not needed. I am absolutely stumped with this issue.
(NT) Have you tested the drives with the mfg's diagnostic SW ?
by VAPCMD - 7/30/08 7:41 PM In reply to: ok, so.......... by jgbowerwell well...
by jgbower - 7/31/08 7:06 AM In reply to: (NT) Have you tested the drives with the mfg's diagnostic SW ? by VAPCMDI have just tested it with the SeaGate DOS test (both acoustic and Long Test) and both came back passed. Still receiving the messages.
Any other options?
Should I just deal with the message?
Do you think SeaGate will replace the drive for free since it seems like a faulty/non-faulty drive?
you still haven't said if you ran SMART diagnostic
by ramarc - 7/31/08 7:13 AM In reply to: well well... by jgboweron the other PC. Even running Seagate's acoustic and long test don't check SMART values because they're physically testing the drive. SMART is predictive is noticing odd behavior (like excessive retries or excessive crc corrections), not physical errors.
if the drive is under warranty, Seagate will accept it for rma based on SMART results. but you have to run the proper SMART utility. contact Seagate for their RMA procedure.
SMART utility
by jgbower - 7/31/08 8:02 AM In reply to: you still haven't said if you ran SMART diagnostic by ramarcwhere would I find the SMART utility?
Smart Utility
by kmanley57 - 8/1/08 7:50 PM In reply to: SMART utility by jgbowerThe Smart diagnostic is embedded software on the drive. it will report you need to replace the drive after it has 'logged' X number of drive sectors that have been mark 'bad' and replaced with spare sectors that exist on the drive. You will not get an error because the 'bad' sector has been replaced. But the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic has logged the problem, and lets you know your drive is experiencing sector losses and should be replaced. Also if you put the drive into another machine and do not see settings for enabling SMART checking then it does not check the status of the SMART diagnostic at all.
Is the drive in question one that came with the PC ?
by VAPCMD - 7/31/08 7:13 PM In reply to: well well... by jgbowerIf yes...the warranty is with HP.
If you bought the drive separately, then the warranty from the drive mfg applies ....Seagate or WD, etc.,
VAPCMD
Who knows for sure?
by buzzvader - 8/2/08 6:05 AM In reply to: SMART HD failure: genuine or money rackett? by jgbowerI've run the same tests and software and the diagnostics told me the same things; yet, in 14 years of using a computer, I've never had a hard drive fail me yet! I've used just about every brand, had hard drives that were supposed to be disasters, had software constantly tell me the hard drives were running in the dangerous temperature zone(62 degrees Celsius at present), a computer guru I know tell me I HAD to replace my hard drive immediately because of imminent failure and that I would lose everything but after another year it still runs today; not only that, it cost me a lot more because I needed a new motherboard and cpu as well as redoing the OS to go along with it.
It may be bogus or it may be the software doesn't play well with your particular system. I'm not sure if these software writing experts can accurately write software that measures temperature and hard drive failure. The safest play is to back up your system either online to one of the services( Mozy, Carbonite, etc,) or to back it up to another drive offline. This way you can continue to run your system if you're happy with it, and be safe at the same time. It would be nice if someone could write some accurate software to measure all the parameters properly, without throwing everyone into a panic.
smart hard drive status
by Michael00360 - 8/2/08 6:42 AM In reply to: SMART HD failure: genuine or money rackett? by jgbowerI'm not sure if you mentioned what brand the hard drive is and I do know that dell uses different brands, but here is an idea. Download and burn to a disk the Ultimate boot CD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com and run the test from that. It has all the manufacture's test software for the hard drives. If you are not sure what brand you hard drive is, look at the post screen when the computer is first turned on. When it goes to detect the hard drive, it will usually display the serial number or part of the hard drive manufacture's information. ST is seatools, WD is western Digital, so on an so forth. These test will not hurt the hard drive and it will tell you if there is about to be a failure.
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