S.M.A.R.T

Question

Level 1

0 points

S.M.A.R.T

I need to how to disable smart in the O.F.

I need to re-install my Mac and because my hard drive has bad smart status the installer will not allow me to proceed.

The bad status on the smart happened about 10 mths ago after my battery died and my macbook G4 just shut down.
I know people are going to swear by smart and say buy a new drive, but i think in the general users world it's over causous, so please don't just comment "buy a new one".

Thanks in advance

G4 700 Quicksilver, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Mar 29, 2008 10:40 AM

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Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Mar 29, 2008 7:15 PM in response to FallenDevil

Hi, Fallen. I can't tell you how to disable SMART monitoring, so I'll just tell you what you don't want to hear: you'd be a fool to rely on a failing drive. Back your data up at least daily if you're too cheap to spend $50-$70 on a new drive.

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Answer 2

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Mar 29, 2008 9:19 PM in response to FallenDevil

If you want to get a little more insight into the state of your hard drive, there is a utility called S.M.A.R.T. Utility you can download and use several times for free:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32454

Likely it will just tell you more of what you don't want to hear, but you will be able to get a good look at the inner workings of your drive. But S.M.A.R.T. was originally devised to give warning if impending hard drive failure, and that's pretty much what it does. You will see it all explained on the site.

Good luck!

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Answer 3

FallenDevil Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 30, 2008 6:44 PM in response to S.U.

I appreciate your time and remarks guys, but still i am looking for the way to disable s.m.a.r.t in open Firmware.

I feel in this case S.M.A.R.T is over causous and feel it un-neccessary to replace a drive that got the problem 10 moths ago and has performed perfectly untill now. (and even now it's not the drive thats the problem but the installer being fussy.

Thanks again.

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Answer 4

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Mar 30, 2008 7:01 PM in response to FallenDevil

The only way I know to disable S.M.A.R.T status is to remove the drive and put it in an enclosure. S.M.A.R.T. status is not supported on an external drive. If you put it in an external firewire drive, you may be able to boot from it and then install onto it. I don't know--I've never tried. But it seems a lot of trouble.

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Answer 5

tjk

Level 9

51,192 points

Mar 30, 2008 8:00 PM in response to FallenDevil

Hi F,

I see your point that a HD that's been working fine for so long does not appear to be failing.

However, I believe you'd be dealing with rewriting firmware code, and I suspect you'd need to find someone who actually writes/wrote firmware to manipulate it; I'd be surprised if you find one of the few who qualify, PLUS would be willing to share that info, but good luck.

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