Weird Hard drive SMART error

[porphyra]

I am a little stumped by this problem and would appreciate some insight into the matter from fellow rfd'ers. I have an IBM Deskstar drive (no this is not the deathstar models but a newer one), which has worked great the last few years.

Anyhow the other day at POST, it would stop and say that SMART failed and imminent failure. Should back up my data etc. So anyhow, I take it out, and pop it into my GF's computer. No errors in her computer.

So I take a drive fitness diskette by IBM (recommeded at their website for checking status). Anyhow, after all extended tests, the drive fitness test tells me that my HDD is ok, and SMART is fine.

So I pop it back into my computer and it again tells me the same thing...SMART error.

So now I am at a loss. Is it my BIOS that is suddenly becoming picky after all these years? or is it seeing something that another BIOS and the IBM fitness test didn't see? Should I trust data on this disk anymore?

Any suggestions will be welcome.

Cheers.

[Jucius Maximus]

The SMART test isn't always right. I would trust the IBM utility over any other software's diagnosis except maybe SpinRite.

Things to check:

Is the drive being properly cooled in your machine, and is the breather-hole unblocked?

Have you tried manually disabling the drive through the BIOS, rebooting, and then re-enabling?


I have this Maxtor drive that was giving SMART warnings every day for months, but the Maxtor util said it was fine. And then one day the SMART warnings stopped. To this day, the drive works normally.

[porphyra]

The SMART test isn't always right. I would trust the IBM utility over any other software's diagnosis except maybe SpinRite.

Things to check:

Is the drive being properly cooled in your machine, and is the breather-hole unblocked?

Have you tried manually disabling the drive through the BIOS, rebooting, and then re-enabling?


I have this Maxtor drive that was giving SMART warnings every day for months, but the Maxtor util said it was fine. And then one day the SMART warnings stopped. To this day, the drive works normally.


Thanks for the tip. I guess I will keep using it till it dies. Have backed up the crucial data already.

The only thing is that it always stalls on POST as it asks to press F2 to proceed or press 'delete' to enter BIOS. I guess there must be a setting to disable SMART testing from the BIOS. Am just not too sure if I wanna do that.

[kingfencer]

i have a similiar problem, but i'm in the process of replacing the drive. Its a S.M.A.R.T problem, it says is spining and reading data at a low rate. It still works, just takes like 10 min to load the O/S.

[bmaz]

I use hard drive diagnostics all the time, I would trust SMART over a manufacturers HD Diagnostics.
Make sure your GFs motherboard has SMART enabled with the latest BIOS update, to make sure. Also make sure when you do test it in her PC that it is set as master.
Also try popping your GFs Hard Drive in your PC see what happens.

[Jucius Maximus]

i have a similiar problem, but i'm in the process of replacing the drive. Its a S.M.A.R.T problem, it says is spining and reading data at a low rate. It still works, just takes like 10 min to load the O/S.
Declining performance is one of the warning signs that the drive is on its last legs.

Back up your data NOW!

[Mir]

Declining performance is one of the warning signs that the drive is on its last legs.

Back up your data NOW!
That is the Right thing to DO