In Disk Utility S.M.A.R.T. Staus says Failing! Uh Oh!

Question

Level 3

771 points

In Disk Utility S.M.A.R.T. Staus says Failing! Uh Oh!

Well this doesn't look like a good sign for my old iBook G3 500mhz, 128mb RAM. What does this mean?

G5 4.7ghz, iBook G4, iMac G3, Powermac G3, iBook G3, New iPod Nano!, Mac OS X (10.4.4), T1 LAN, Airport, Connection Link Speed 100 Mbps, iLife 06 New!, iWork 05, .Mac

Posted on Feb 17, 2006 5:15 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Maxit

Level 4

3,649 points

Feb 17, 2006 7:27 PM in response to Internet Wiz

Well, it means that the next time you go to boot up, you may not be able to, or you may suddenly start having system freezes from which you can't recover, as your hard drive is failing. Once it is gone, it is unlikely you will be able to retrieve anything from it. So quit stalling and back up your important data asap. Best way to do this is with an external drive, but however you decide to do it, do it now.

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 17, 2006 9:36 PM in response to Internet Wiz

This Apple Knowledge Base article says it all:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=152349

Reply

Answer 3

Internet Wiz Author

Level 3

771 points

Feb 18, 2006 8:48 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

There really isn't much on it so backing up isn't worth it, how much longer do you think I have with it?

Reply

Answer 4

solo hans

Level 2

469 points

Feb 18, 2006 11:39 PM in response to Internet Wiz

Could be tomorrow, could be a year from now, NO ONEknows!

Reply

Answer 5

Maxit

Level 4

3,649 points

Feb 19, 2006 6:58 AM in response to Internet Wiz

Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) detects performance degradation--hard to tell how long you have, but I think it's safe to say sooner rather than later. Also, unless you have been checking the status regularly, you could have been in "failing" mode for a while now.

Reply