{"id":6623,"date":"2021-04-17T15:35:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-17T13:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/?p=6623"},"modified":"2021-04-17T15:51:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T13:51:34","slug":"what-is-smart-and-how-to-use-it-to-predict-hdd-or-ssd-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/what-is-smart-and-how-to-use-it-to-predict-hdd-or-ssd-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"What is SMART and how to use it to predict HDD or SSD failure."},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 6<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

SMART is a system that monitors the internal information of your drive.\u00a0Its clever name is actually an acronym for\u00a0Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology. SMART, also written as S.M.A.R.T., is a technology found inside HDDs and SSDs. It is independent of your operating system, BIOS, or other software.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Original Tutorial (Edited) By\u00a0Codrut Neagu<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of us have experienced a hard disk or an SSD failure. Some of us have even tried to find out more about the reliability of hard drives and their hidden prediction function that\u2019s part of a technology called SMART. One might argue that SMART is not as reliable as it does not predict failure in all cases. This fact is partly true, but the actual inner workings of this self-monitoring system are not so simple, so let\u2019s examine how SMART works. We\u2019re also going to show you how to check the HDD SMART status, as well as the solid-state drive SMART status:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does SMART do for HDDs and SSDs?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SMART was invented because computers needed something that could monitor the health state of their hard drives. That means, plainly speaking, that\u00a0SMART should supposedly be able to tell you if your hard drive or solid-state drive is about to stop working<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drive health information is provided by SMART<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How does SMART do that? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be tempted to think that SMART can magically guess if your drive is healthy. What it does is an entirely different story, though.\u00a0SMART keeps track of a series of variables<\/strong>\u00a0whose number and type vary from drive to drive, which are\u00a0indicators of its reliability<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, know that, apart from some singular attempts (Google<\/a>,Backblaze), most of the S.M.A.R.T. data is undocumented. The system provides a great deal of internal data. Still, there are many inconsistencies in the statistics because many of the hard drive manufacturers use different definitions and measurements. For example, some manufacturers store power on-time data as hours, while others measure it in minutes or seconds. Also, they don\u2019t explain which of the various attributes or variables are worth our attention, making us drown in data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before attempting to understand which SMART attributes are relevant, we first have to differentiate between the main types of SSD and HDD failures: predictable and non-predictable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SMART details for a solid-state drive<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Predictable failures<\/strong> include the breakdowns that appear in time and are caused by faulty disk mechanics or damages of the disk\u2019s surface in the case of hard-disks. For solid-state drives, predictable failures can include normal wear over time or a high number of erasing attempts that have failed. Problems get worse over time, and the drive eventually fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-predictable failures<\/strong>\u00a0are caused by sudden events, of which we can mention, for example, sudden power surges or unexpected damage to circuitry inside the hard disk or solid-state drive. What is important to understand is that\u00a0S.M.A.R.T. can only help you detect predictable failures<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that you have a basic understanding of what SMART is and does, let\u2019s see how to check the SMART status of your drives from Windows and then also how to read and interpret the SMART details:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to check SSD and HDD SMART status<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Windows computers and devices, the easiest way to read SMART data from a hard disk or from an SSD is by using specialized apps. There are quite a few out there, but many of them are either poorly developed or cost money. Out of all the apps that can read SMART data, the best and the one that we\u2019re recommending that you use is\u00a0CrystalDiskInfo. It is free, able to read SMART attributes, and it\u2019s also one of the few such apps that can get SMART data both from IDE(PATA), SATA, and NVMe drives, as well as from portable drives that are using eSATA, USB, or IEEE 1394.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CrystalDiskInfo
CrystalDiskInfo shows detailed information about a drive using SMART<\/strong>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another excellent method of checking the SMART status and details of an HDD or SSD is to use the apps provided by its manufacturer. For example, most solid-state drives are accompanied by support apps that let you check information about them, check their health, run diagnostics, and so on. These apps usually include options for checking SMART status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drive
Drive manufacturers offer apps that can read SMART information<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A third way of checking the SMART status of your hard disk drive or SSD is offered by Windows 10. It doesn\u2019t show details, but can tell you whether the SMART status of your drives is OK or not. To check SMART,\u00a0open\u00a0Command Prompt\u00a0and run this command:\u00a0wmic diskdrive get model, status<\/strong>. The command outputs the list of drives connected to your PC and shows the SMART status for each of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Windows
Windows 10 lets you check the SMART status of your drives<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This last method to check the SMART status is probably the quickest way in Windows 10 to check whether your drives are failing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to run an SSD or HDD SMART test<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not satisfied with just reading the SMART status of your drives, you can also run an SSD or HDD SMART test. That is easier said than done because you need a specialized app for this purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to read SMART values and attributes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The health status of the hard disk is continuously tested and monitored with multiple sensors. The values are measured by the use of typical algorithms, and then the corresponding attributes are tweaked according to the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any SMART monitoring program, you should see attributes that contain at least some of these fields:<\/p>\n\n\n\n