HELP: S.M.A.R.T detected a failure

the past few weeks everytime i boot up my second pc the following error pops up.

"Warning, SMART has detected that a hard drive failure may be imminent. Please back up your data immediately. Hit F1 to continue"

so what i did was to reformat my drive thinking it would solve the prob but it didnt i still get the same msg. does this mean my hd has gone bad and pretty much dead?. or is there a way to fix this?. any help is appreciated thanks in advance

It means exactly what it says. Time for an RMA.

Download a diagnostics program from your HD manufacturer, it should give you more info and may even help you RMA if drive is still under warranty.

turns out my hd is still under warranty... hoorah.. now ive never done any sort of RMA b4 and just wondering if n e one has dealt with Maxtor b4?.. im running their powermax program coz it tokd me to do so from their site..

now i have 2 option when it comes to testing the drive basic and advance.. and from the site it tells me that if i chose basic the item will be shipped to me once they receive it and no credit card is needed.. now advance tells me that a replacement hd will be shipped to me first and a credit card is needed..

now my question is will my credit card be charged for it if i chose the advance method?.. again n e help would be appreciated

call your HDD manufacturer and demand a new drive

RMA it.... get a refund and never get a maxtor again....

this is the reason i stay away from maxtor.... i've own 6 in my life... 2 have had the S.M.A.R.T failure and 2 have just simply died.... 1 is still going good (but who knows).... one is just starting to act up (could be the system but i suspect it's the drive)

Originally Posted by cmge

turns out my hd is still under warranty... hoorah.. now ive never done any sort of RMA b4 and just wondering if n e one has dealt with Maxtor b4?.. im running their powermax program coz it tokd me to do so from their site..

now i have 2 option when it comes to testing the drive basic and advance.. and from the site it tells me that if i chose basic the item will be shipped to me once they receive it and no credit card is needed.. now advance tells me that a replacement hd will be shipped to me first and a credit card is needed..

now my question is will my credit card be charged for it if i chose the advance method?.. again n e help would be appreciated

Under an Advance RMA, they only charge your card if you don't return the drive within the time frame specified.

ahhh... ok... so ive done thee basic test and it tells me to do the advance tes... o_O ... i do the advance test and it tells me that its passed all the test?.. reformatted installed win2k and still ge the same S.M.A.R.T failure.. >_< ... guh i think ive learned my lesson when buying maxtor hd's.. >_<

Originally Posted by cmge

ahhh... ok... so ive done thee basic test and it tells me to do the advance tes... o_O ... i do the advance test and it tells me that its passed all the test?.. reformatted installed win2k and still ge the same S.M.A.R.T failure.. >_< ... guh i think ive learned my lesson when buying maxtor hd's.. >_<

If the PowerMax diagnostics don't generate an 8 digit error code you will have a tough time RMA'ing your drive. It is quite possible the error is due to problems with your MB. What MB do you have?

BTW - I have found Maxtor drives to be no better or worse than others. YMMV

Last weekend I had a WD 120gig SATA poop out on me, most disappointing.. First drive to die on me though.. Gotta RMA that sucker.. Their website says to run some diagnostic software on it but I can't even boot the pc when the drive is plugged in the controller (using other drives to boot) so something is majorly wrong there!

Still, by and large WD is a fine company.

Originally Posted by othy

....Their website says to run some diagnostic software on it but I can't even boot the pc when the drive is plugged in the controller (using other drives to boot) so something is majorly wrong there!...

If you go to there website search for Data Lifeguard Tools follow the steps to create a bootable floppy.
Boot from the floppy and have it test the drive thats defective.

Originally Posted by JAC

Under an Advance RMA, they only charge your card if you don't return the drive within the time frame specified.

What WD did to me once was 'hold' the ~ value of the drive they were sending to me, which was ~US$60.
Then when they got the drive they refunded the amount to my CC.
It turns out that while they were waiting for my defective drive, the Canadian dollar gained on the American so when the US$60 was 'returned' to my credit card I actually lost money in the conversion.

Originally Posted by bmaz

If you go to there website search for Data Lifeguard Tools follow the steps to create a bootable floppy.
Boot from the floppy and have it test the drive thats defective.

I actually don't have a floppy drive anymore.. The last machine of mine that had one got passed off to my folks not too long ago. But the drive is definitely hooped, so RMA it goes..

Originally Posted by Jim123

If the PowerMax diagnostics don't generate an 8 digit error code you will have a tough time RMA'ing your drive. It is quite possible the error is due to problems with your MB. What MB do you have?

yeah it didnt generate any code at all... and with the advance test it passed all the tests.. my mobo for my other comp is an ASUS A7V-266E... im thinking of complaining to the place where i got it from coz im sure it still has some warranty on it... otherwise i may hafta change mobo instead?

Download ActiveSmart http://www.ariolic.com/ and find the smart value that's giving you the problem. I have an old Fujitsu with a problem SMART value (Power-On Hours Count at 0, which it's been at for ages) that works fine so I just turn off SMART in the bios for that computer. Of course, if it's under warranty, exchange it.

WOA! this is the first time, that I have heard of this SMART technology working. Usually the hard drive dies before the SMART kicks in.