S.M.A.R.T Utility?

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S.M.A.R.T Utility?

For anyone else who has used the S.M.A.R.T utility... what did you think of it? Did it seem accurate? I repaired my hard disk using Disk Utility after it said that my hard disk was failing. After that, everything seemed completely fine, until I used S.M.A.R.T. This told me that my hard disk was "FAILING". I tried another application called SMARTReporter, and it told me the exact opposite.

Which should I rely on more to find out the status of my hard disk.... S.M.A.R.T utility, Disk Utility, or SMARTReporter?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Feb 18, 2011 2:34 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Fot-Nathan

Level 1

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Dec 21, 2015 7:43 AM in response to kylierawrrrr

if you are using a demo version of the S.M.A.R.T Utility,DON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT SAID,it just want you paid for full version.I have hack the software to make it full version,and it said to disk is fine.BTW,I found this out because i am upgrading my mac mini late 2014 from HHD to SSD,and it said my brand new SSD was failing!So I boot into ubuntu,and the disk check said my SSD is ok,and that is how I know it was fake.

So use SMARTReporter 🙂

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Answer 2

Lyssa

Level 8

41,405 points

Feb 18, 2011 2:45 PM in response to kylierawrrrr

I asked this same question not too long ago. The consensus was if SMART Utility indicates the drive is failing, you need to be ready to replace it.

My friend's iBook G4 reported a "failing" result as well and seems to be operating well (more or less) despite the report. However, the drive will fail eventually.

Not sure about SMART reporter vs. SMART Utility, but I do know Disk Utility is the least accurate of the bunch.

If you can afford to have downtime & have a good backup strategy, you can probably continue using your computer as-is until the drive starts acting up.

~Lyssa

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,001 points

Feb 18, 2011 3:10 PM in response to Lyssa

In reality it depends entirely on what information the drive's manufacturer has programmed to be delivered by the SMART firmware on the drive. DU, Smart Reporter, etc. just query the drive for data. They tend to report only raw data that provides no indication whether a drive is failing or fine. You have to know what is meaningful.

DU simply analyzes a sample of data, evaluates it against some standards, then reports a simple result - Failing or Verified. Based on other stats about SMART if DU reports a drive as failing then there's a 90% probability the drive is failing. If it reports a drive as verified then there's a 75% probability the drive is OK. This is not a problem with DU, rather a problem with the reliability of the SMART data for determining the health of a typical hard drive.

It's possible for SMART to provide false positives due to disk corruption. So for the SMART report to mean anything the drive needs not have corrupted tracks that could be fixed by DU or other disk repair utilities.

Message was edited by: Kappy

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Answer 4

Lanny

Level 6

13,225 points

Dec 22, 2015 7:45 PM in response to kylierawrrrr

I have found SMART Utility (by Volitans Software) to be very good a diagnosing hard drive conditions. I don't know if you're talking about it or some other named "S.M.A.R.T Utility," because I've never seen the Volitans software spelled with periods in the name.

https://www.volitans-software.com/apps/smart-utility/

I used the free version to diagnose a hard drive issue in my original MacBook Air. Disk Utility kept repairing it and stating that the SMART condition was okay, but the drive was very slow and kept requiring repair.

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