Hard drive life predictor tools.....

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)

"PSYCHOPIXIE" <PSYCHOPIXIE.1mwnny@news.win98banter.com> wrote in message news SYCHOPIXIE.1mwnny@news.win98banter.com...

> I checked the 'storage' menu in Everest and the report gives 'theshold'
> and 'value' and 'worst figures that I don't understand but the 'status'
> with regards to each attribute in the majority say 'Ok always passing'
> but some do say, 'OK Value is normal'.

Reading SMART data may be closer to an art than science. That's why I
pointed you to a web-site that has that info   I don't really understand
it fully myself.

Here's a good primer
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983
Though it refers to smartctl, the basics are the same.


> Is that a good sign.

Yep.

> It is possible that I have some sloppy software on
> my pc that may be upsetting it.

Nope.

> Here are the stats on my HD from Everest:
> ID Attribute Description Threshold Value Worst Data Status
> 01 Raw Read Error Rate 34 69 66 65854918 OK: Value is normal
> 03 Spin Up Time 0 70 70 0 OK: Always passing
> 04 Start/Stop Count 20 98 98 2093 OK: Value is normal
> 05 Reallocated Sector Count 36 100 100 0 OK: Value is normal
> 07 Seek Error Rate 30 78 60 74806703 OK: Value is normal
> 09 Power-On Time Count 0 97 97 2893 OK: Always passing
> 0A Spin Retry Count 97 100 100 0 OK: Value is normal
> 0C Power Cycle Count 20 100 100 814 OK: Value is normal
> C2 Temperature 0 29 45 29 OK: Always passing
> C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 0 69 66 65854918 OK: Always passing
> C5 Current Pending Sector Count 0 100 100 0 OK: Always passing
> C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0 OK: Always passing
> C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 200 200 0 OK: Always passing
> C8 Write Error Rate 0 100 253 0 OK: Always passing
> CA <vendor-specific> 0 100 253 0 OK: Always passing
>
> Could someone tell me what it means?


First realize that SMART data is vendor specific, and they basically
set the "thresholds of failure". "Value" is the current reading, and
"Worst" is the lowest or highest value that was ever reached. "Data"
is usually the total "non-normalized" amount. Generally.

It also depends on what "Attribute" you are looking at. For example
"Power-ON time" is just the number of hours (some use minutes!) the
drive has been on and "value/worst/threshold" doesn't mean a thing.
The same with "Temp", which is the number of degrees in Celsius. Your's
apparently got pretty hot at least one time. Start/stop count is also
obviously not using a threshold.


That's why I said it's more of an art. You have to look at each attribute
individually, and try to determine what it is saying.

On attributes where value/worst/threshold pertain, usually if
value or worst is below the threshold, then that particular attribute
has failed in the past (worst) or is failing now (value). So how
can some values be lower than worsts? That I haven't figured out
yet   and I need to read up on it myself.

Overall, it looks good. The "Reallocated Sector Count", "Off-Line
Uncorrectable Sector Count", and "Write error rate" are all 0.
Just for reference, I have a bad hard drive here that showed
these attributes (among others) using smartctl-

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 109 109 140 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 1455
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 001 001 051 Pre-fail Offline FAILING_NOW 2646

Note that it had reallocated 140 sectors.

I agree with the others though. A hard drive can fail at any time with
no warning. I wouldn't be without at least 2 in one system.


>
> while in Everest look under Storage Smart for a clue to
> general health of the HD as reported by SMART. (if available)
>
> You can dig through this site to find out how to interpret the
> output
> http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
> (also an excellent command line utility for reading SMART data)
>
>
>
> "PSYCHOPIXIE" PSYCHOPIXIE.1mvqby@news.win98banter.com wrote in message
> news SYCHOPIXIE.1mvqby@news.win98banter.com...-
>
> Ok well I have just had a nosey at my system info via Everest and I
> have
> printed out a rather large report too. But I'm a bit confused because
> Everest reports My harddrive as being 20 gb in size however when I
> right click the HD icon within my computer it shows its full capacity
> at 13.9gb and then shows me what I have used and what is free which
> does add up to that. Any idea why that is? Anyway the info on my HD
> is
> as follows,' ST320011A (20GB 7200 RPM, ULTRA-ATA/100). When I click
> on
> it is suggests the manufacturer is Seagate and wants to connect me to
> the site.
>
> -
>
>
> --
> PSYCHOPIXIE