smart failure

[doddsy]

i have a friend with a new pc and today i was helping set up his net connection

installed the cable modem and nis 2004 all ok..........updated virus defs and patches............then on reboot there was an error message saying that the smart test had failed and that the hdd might be about to fail........press f1 to continue

pressed f1 and apart froma slower startup all was working fine

he has a wd800eb hdd.........i've checked their site and it suggests hdd replacement.........but also suggests running some diagnostic tools and checks to verify if the drive is bad.

anyone out thhere know of this smart failure, or if thers an alternative to hdd replacement

what would have caused the failure?

any info appreciated

cheers

doddsy

[Bovon]

S.M.A.R.T. HDD technology has been know to have errors with its reporting of bad hard drives. Personally, I disable SMART in the BIOS. It would be advisable to have a spare hard drive available to clone to the working drive once it is setup and running like the user wants it.

The working drive may be reporting an error and it may be reporting correctly. Download and run the diagnostics, and go by what is found there, not the SMART report.

I have had drives with the SMART technology report an impeding failure...and the drive is still running. On the other hand, I have had drives fail that had the SMART technology and nothing was ever detected.

In other words, its a crap shoot.

[doddsy]

cheers for the reply, i'd had a look at the western digital hd site and it seemed to say as much..........the error report might be an error............

i was gonna dl the tools but the guys pc is still under warranty so he's gonna try the sellers helpline this evening, they promise to replace if its faulty..........we'll see!

thanks again

doddsy

[Peter M]

With a drive that new, I'd trust the SMART system. If BIOS says the drive thinks it's bad, use WD's diagnostics utility to see the details on what it thinks is internally wrong. Apart from temperature problems, it's back-to-dealer time. Backup your data and replace the drive.

Remember, SMART is a failure prediction system. The drive monitors its internal operating conditions - and if something is off, it'll complain, before it actually starts losing data.

[Foggy]

Iv'e only had smart pop up twice and both times the HDD failed in a very short time.

[Bovon]

Heh... I'm glad these forums and advice are just opinions... I have been batting out a bunch recently... touché Foggy & Peter M.