Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Disks > Should I enable S.M.A.R.T in bios? Pros & cons?

Should I enable S.M.A.R.T in bios? Pros & cons?

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - Should I enable S.M.A.R.T in bios? Pros & cons?

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trale   11-16-2009 at 06:44:12 AM

I have a new Core i7-860 build, mobo=Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, with my OS drive being a WD Caviar Black 640 GB. I'll be installing Win 7 (64 bit) on it soon.

I've always wondered about the S.M.A.R.T. feature in the bios. I've never turned it on in my earlier systems, but I'm wondering if there are enough benefits to enable it on my new system.

What does it do really? How would I actually ~use~ it even if I enable it? How does Win7 make use of it?

I heard somewhere that Win7 uses SMART whether or not I enabled it in the BIOS. If this is true, is there any point in me enabling it in the BIOS?

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Bronze Storage badge sub mesa   11-16-2009 at 06:48:33 AM

Yes enable it. It would enable logging of the harddisks when errors occurs, and monitors many statistics of the harddrive, such as temperature over time and errors that occur.

Its useful when you use a SMART application inside windows and actually get some useful information, as when you didn't enable it it would not have recorded as much information.

I can' t see any reason not to enable it. Some simple flash devices do not support SMART and may even fail booting because of it. Other than that, i simply wouldn' t know any reason to deactivate it.

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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trale   11-16-2009 at 08:51:12 PM

I have heard suggestions that it may decrease the overral performance of the hard drive, if ever so slightly.

Is there some general consensus that this should be enabled for pretty much everyone?

I get slightly worried whenever I I'm looking to change from a default BIOS setting. There's a good reason why it's off by default, right?

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Mimoso   11-16-2009 at 09:22:55 PM

Just install a SMART application and don't worry about the BIOS setting.
The only thing it does is give you a warning message when the SMART check fails but it won't tell you which parameter failed.

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Bronze Storage badge sub mesa   11-16-2009 at 11:04:42 PM

It also enables SMART logging; if you set the BIOS SMART to disabled and do not use any software to enable it right after loading the operating system - it will stay disabled. And that will mean no logs when bad things happen.

SMART is useful - so enable it. :)

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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