SMART status test

[Compuitincolo]

Hi there, I'm an user of PCD6. Is there any difference in getting results if I run a DOS diagnostic with the MUD or if I run the diagnostic on windows?

    The question is cause I'm fixing an old laptop that would not recognize the MUD so I decided to run my test on windows. This laptop does some beep when is turned on, so I did a HD test and I got the following message:

    SMART Status Test
Error Message  Failure prediction threshold exceeded.  Wednesday, February 10, 2010 
Test Finished  Failed  Wednesday, February 10, 2010 11:11:24 PM.
    Does this HD need to be replaced? or I can do a chkdisk to have this fixed....
   

[fwilson]

Compuitincolo,

Basically the DOS product talks directly to the hardware with no intervening drivers.  On systems that won't boot Windows it is useful in determining if the hardware is worthy of spending time on.

In both DOS and Windows the SMART tests query the SMART logs on the drive itself to see if the drive thinks it is failing.  SMART logs keep track of things such as temp, timeouts, errors, retries, bad sectors and the like.  The drive manufacturer determines when certain thresholds are reached that it indicates impending failure of the drive i.e. too many retries to get data.

I would back up the data replace this drive.  The drive itself is telling you it is about to fail, I would listen.

-Fred

[Compuitincolo]

Thank you very much is good to know computer's language.

Can one determine what's the life time left for this hard drive with this problem?

[fwilson]

Compuitincolo,

You can't determin the hours to failure with any accuracy but, it will be soon.  The thing to bear in mind is that these logs are all internal to and generated by the hard drive itself. 

Warranties being what they are I would wager that a drive would have to be really bad before these logs would trip and the drive would start shouting I'm going to die, I'm going to die. A manufacturer would not want to be replacing drives under warranty unless they really had to.

Id replace it before putting a substantial amount of time into it, provided of course the other hardware tests pass.

-Fred

 

[Compuitincolo]

thank you very much!!!!!

[fwilson]

Compuitincolo,

You are most welcome. 

-Fred