Disk Utility and S.M.A.R.T.

Is it running off the native SATA ports and not a PCI
controller?

From the native SATA ports. I installed it using the wires stuck below the drives compartment, without installing anything else.

🙂

I never had any useful answer to this question, so I'm reviving this Topic this morning.

I posted the Topic on October 25, 2006. Could someone try and guess a bit, thus maybe generating a useful line of thought?

I hate to say this, but since the new Discussions, my Topics never received any useful answer except by myself. Come on, you fellows in the Lounge with astronomical number of points. I'm only a 4860-point Level 3 guy. Someone out there must more brilliant than I! 😀

There is something wrong here. Where have gone all my friends?

In order for Disk Utility to report the SMART status,
the drive needs to be spun up before launching
Disk Utility. I have two identical Maxtor drives in
my G5; usually the second drive is spun down. If I
launch Disk Utility, it will report the SMART status
of the second drive as Not Supported. But if I make
sure it is spun up first, then it reports it
identically to the first drive.

You might also try the freeware program
SmartReporter.

bd

Well, thank you both for your prompt answers, Tim and BD!

There are several very promising elements in there, one of them being that the disk is spun down, which it usually is. I will also have a look at the jumpers to see if it does something useful. Thanks also BD for the suggestion or SmartReporter. BTW DiskWarrior also does the job correctly, which probably means that it spins the drive first.

I will experiment all this today, guys, and come back to you later in the day.

Thanks a lot, once again. Do you realize, if both posts gives me a good answer, that I won't be able to give points to both (unless I am mistaken). And this is another thing, about this way of doing things, that infuriates me.

G5 1.8Dual, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 20" App Dsplay, ext. Lacie, iPod, Bach on Al-Lansing, Canon 5D, Canon L glass

Here I am again, BD.

First of all I installed SmartReporter. The Display log indicates that both internal hard drives are perfectly healthy. I will let it in the startup items as it seems quite good, very small, unobtrusive, and seems to do the job it is intended to.

I've had a go at this for a few hours now, and I am almost convinced that there is a bug in Disk Utility. Must be, as both SmartReporter and DiskWarrior never present any problem and always report correctly the S.M.A.R.T. status.

Other factors tell me that something is wrong with Disk Utility. For example, when I wake up my computer after a certain time away, I observe the following:

1. Disk Utility says that the Barracuda doesn't have S.M.A.R.T.

2. I open DiskWarrior, which tells me that "This hard drive's built-in S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics indicate the drive is functioning normally"

3. I come back to Disk Utility which now indicates that the disk's S.M.A.R.T. status is verified!

It is very important to note that DiskWarrior did not fire up the Barracuda, it was already running because I just woke up the computer. I never heard any supplemantary spinning of either drives, both were spinning from the beginning.

So it appears, for reasons unknown, that IF DiskWarrior is run, THEN Disk Utility does recognize the Barracuda's S.M.A.R.T. status!

There is something fishy here. For the moment, I will use Disk Utility for formatting purposes only. I will come back to you in a day or two after further research. 🙂

G5 1.8Dual, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 20" App Dsplay, ext. Lacie, iPod, Bach on Al-Lansing, Canon 5D, Canon L glass

UPDATE:

I was mistaken yesterday about DiskWarrior not firing up the Barracuda. DiskWarrior does indeed fire up the Barracuda second internal hard drive, if it was not already spinning.

This is why after testing with DiskWarrior, Disk Utility now reports correctly about the Barrracuda's S.M.A.R.T. state.

Either way, there is a bug in Disk Utility: either it should report correctly about the S.M.A.R.T. state, as SmartReporter seems able to do, either it should be able to fire up the Barracuda in order to report correctly.

I am still testing SmartReporter extensively and will report tomorrow about it and how it treats the Barracuda, using various settings.

🙂

G5 1.8Dual, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 20" App Dsplay, ext. Lacie, iPod, Bach on Al-Lansing, Canon 5D, Canon L glass

I would say the 7200.10 is 'relatively new' but the 9
series were out in '05.

Hello The Hatter, Tim and BD,

You're right The Hatter, the .09 series has been out for a certain time now (didn't know it was 05 though). As far as I know, certain compatibility problems have been reported with certain macs with the 7200.10, but I didn't read anything about the 7200.09.

Anyway, Tim, I finally did my homework almost correctly. I opened the G5 and had a look at the .09: the jumper is in place. I had asked for a drive compatible for my computer and by Jove, either the jumper was already in place or they put it. BTW my first hard drive, which is a 7200.07, also has the same jumper at the same place.

I guess that this looks a little more like a small bug in Disk Utility.

G5 1.8Dual, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 20" App Dsplay, ext. Lacie, iPod, Bach on Al-Lansing, Canon 5D, Canon L glass

Hi there RTP, my old friend!

I've recently installed a second 160 Gb internal
drive (Hitachi HDT722516DLA380) and the SMART status
appears to be Verified!
No need to fire up DiskWarrior!

I have a question for you: is your second drive
Journaled? Mine is.

Take care.

YYYesss it is! The problem is perhaps limited to some Seagate drives. I just don't know, not enough data.

Of course, if your hard drives are set never to sleep, or to sleep after a long period of time (say one hour...) maybe you don't see the problem because when you test it, the drive is already spinning. Just a maybe.

You could check this easily: have your drive spin down after a short period of time, say 5 minutes, and then check regularly, assuming that you're not working with the second drive. And I suggest that you quit Disk Utility and restart it, just to be sure that you have a "fresh" look...

Cheers,