Level 1

0 points

S.M.A.R.T. --Failing or Not?

Yesterday, for the first time since I bought my iMac G5 (PPC) two months ago, I ran Tech Tools Pro 4.1.1 just for housekeeping sake. When it finished it surprisingly told me my HD was failing. The Attribute 190 (Unknown) was out of limits. I checked with Disk Utility and it returned "SMART Status - Verified." I then downloaded and installed SMARTReporter and it reports the drive to be OK also.

The drive is a Western Digital WD2500JS-40MVB1. Any thoughts? Should I be concerned?

I should note that now that TTP has issued this alert I've probably run that test 100 or so times. If the computer has been asleep or off and I run the test shortly after the computer boots or wakes, it passes the SMART tests completely. After the computer has run for awhile is when it seems to fail the TTP SMART test. Almost seems to the uninformed observer that maybe Attribute 190 is some kind of a temperature reading. But that's just a guess. Regardless, any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Larry

BTW, the computer is running fine, no problems, no hiccups.

imac, emac, ibook Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 31, 2006 10:07 AM

26 replies

Dean Pahl

Level 4

3,870 points

Apr 4, 2006 11:33 PM in response to tklstuff

Larry,

I agree. That's about as appalling a case of Customer Non-Service as I've heard in a while.

Perhaps you should call back and ask to speak to a supervisor — for your own peace of mind, if nothing else.

Best wishes,
Dean

Apr 5, 2006 1:20 AM in response to tklstuff

THAT IS CRAP!

Maxtor is questionable and now Western Digital (after having many good years with them) is now a no go (I will have them taken off of all my vendor lists - a very large group of Fortune 100 buyers), so I guess we're left with Seagate of which I just bought a drive that I had problems with and they were great.

So sad . . . . time to move on. Bye WD. Will be looking at next quarters profits.

tklstuff Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 5, 2006 3:53 PM in response to TheGuyintheProjectionBooth

Well, after several back and forth emails to Western Digital, here's what I think is there final response....

"04/05/2006 11:47 AM
Dear Laurence,
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.
I am sorry, but Attribute 190 is an internal SMART code that we do not provide information on. However, based on the information you have provided, the drive appears to be failing. I would backup your data and replace the hard drive."

WD has offered to replace the HD but I think Apple should handle this event. If I replace the drive I'll get to deal with the labor charge. Hopefully Apple will take care of this, we'll see. I guess the question will be whether Apple will accept the results from TTP which show the drive failing or whether they will insist the drive is OK since that's what Disk Utility says.

BTW, here's is an updated response from the TTP support folks.

"The SMART routines in TechTool Pro 4 check all available SMART attributes. Some other utilities only check a subset of them--often the first 13 (which are standard across all drives). The higher attributes are proprietary and different for each manufacturer.

Thank You
Micromat Inc.
Technical Support Team"

So, maybe there is a difference between TTP, Disk Utility and SMARTReporter. OK Apple, it's your turn to shine!!

Apr 5, 2006 4:01 PM in response to tklstuff

Glad to hear that WD stepped up. This drive was the original drive in your machine? Yes, Apple should take care of it, but that's not always guaranteed. Good luck on convincing them. But since you got through to WD, you may fair well with Apple.

Good Luck and keep us informed.

tklstuff Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 5, 2006 6:12 PM in response to TheGuyintheProjectionBooth

Yep, original drive in the computer. Just bought the whole deal in early February of this year, thus just over 2 months old. I'll post back when I get something definitive from Apple. Thanks to you and others who have been so helpful in sorting out this issue.

Larry

tklstuff Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 19, 2006 7:32 PM in response to tklstuff

Two weeks has gone by since my last post and I wanted to wrap this topic up. The Western Digital support people had recommended that I replace the HD. I went to the local Apple store and had a long chat with a Genius. He told me he would take care of having the HD replaced BUT he thought I was making a big mistake or more likely wasting my time. He felt that if Apple's Disk Utility was showing the SMART status to be OK, it was not worth replacing. This opinion was shared by another Genius at another Apple store. (It was also shared by Julian Mayer who is the author of SMARTReporter.)

I was reviewing some of the information in a link that the Micromat Tech had put on his forum at MacFixIt. There was a posting supposedly from WD stating they were aware of a firmware problem with a similar HD and they were working on a fix. I posted this information to the WD support guy who then said he was aware of the problem and I should run WD diagnostics on the drive to sort of keep track of it's status. (Again, WD wants me to pull my HD out of my Mac and stick it in a PC so I can test it.) The WD support guy goes on to say I should continue to check the WD support site to see if a firmware patch is released. I wrote back to him and noted that all the patches I saw were for Windows OS, not Mac. I asked him if there was a firmware patch if it would also be released in OSX format. He replied that WD did NOT release firmware patches in OSX, Windows only. He told me I would need to pull the HD, put it in a PC, update the firmware, then put it back in my Mac. Now that's real customer service!!! So, I guess when this HD does finally fail (and I've decided not to have it replaced at this juncture), I **** sure won't replace it with a WD drive.

AldoA

Level 1

35 points

May 25, 2006 7:20 PM in response to Dean Pahl

ATA Drive: 'Maxtor 6Y200M0' - SMART condition exceeded, drive could fail soon!

OK, I just backup my internal Maxtor HD, so now I want to Erase and re-format this internal HD or Delete the annoying message above. So if that means I need to replace this Maxtor Drive? because everything is gray out (can't Repair or Verify Permissions) and still shows the red alert on the Disk Utility.

What should I do? any ideas...

Thanks

G5 tower Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 25, 2006 7:42 PM in response to AldoA

If the SMART status report says the drive is failing, then reformatting the drive isn't going to fix it. If the drive is still in warranty contact the manufacturer about a replacement. Otherwise the drive needs to be replaced.

AldoA

Level 1

35 points

May 25, 2006 7:57 PM in response to Kappy

Well it looks like I'm going to replace this internal Drive (Maxtor 6Y200M0) because is a least 3 years old. I wonder which is the best internal 2nd HD for this G5 tower, it looks like Maxtor or Western Digital fails the drive quickly, so I might need to check for other good ones, so that this S.M.A.R.T doesn't happens again.

Thanks for the info.

G5 Tower Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Mac OS X (10.4.6)

tklstuff Author

Level 1

0 points

May 26, 2006 5:16 AM in response to AldoA

It has been almost 2 months since I first noticed my WD drive intermittantly failing one of the SMART attributes. I never did swap out my drive and I still have the intermittant problem when using TTP. Still no problem with Apple's Disk Utility and no problems with SMARTReporter. So, I'm guessing the issue is a problem with TTP's diagnostics or the WD attributes. Anyway, my HD is still working fine. HOWEVER, with all the BS I got from WD's customer service, I'm not so sure I would replace my failing HD with another one from HD. Just my opinion.
I would say, if Apple's Disk Utility is telling you you have a SMART failure, it's time to find a new HD, soon.

May 26, 2006 6:16 PM in response to AldoA

Well now that Seagate bought Maxtor (what were they thinking?) we're down to only a few choices. I pray that Seagate doesn't assume Maxtors traits or we'll have even less to choose from. But then maybe Seagate will be good for Maxtor.

I have two Seagates and two WDs all with no problems. And pile of dead or dying Maxtors that I see out of the corner of my eye every so often. So . . .

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S.M.A.R.T. --Failing or Not?