[RESOLVED] Hard drive trouble (S.M.A.R.T reads good & bad)

OK, not sure what to do. I have a laptop that gave me a warning that my hard drive was going to fail. I put it in my work PC and on POST I get a S.M.A.R.T failure.

Now, I ran "EasyRecovery Pro" and used the "Disk Diagnostics". The S.M.A.R.T. status check fails, physical drive problems have been found.
BUT, when I run the short or extended test it shows no errors. Also if I run "Drive Test" all tests come out normal.

SO, is the drive bad?
If the drive is good is there a way to remove the S.M.A.R.T. data from the drive?

Continue using at your own risk.

Do you understand what SMART is for? It is basically giving you an early warning of drive failure. If you want to ignore it, don't be surprised if you lose your data.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/...esSMART-c.html

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. If all SMART tests gave me the same results I wouldn't be here.

Yes, the SMART status check says there is physical damage, BUT when I run the extended SMART test it says there is NO PHYSICAL DAMAGE.

Never mind, I'll just replace the drive. I just wondered why I got the conflicting results.

I question the statement that a Smart warning is always 100% accurate. In a system I repaired for my girlfriend, there is a second hard drive in it that I've had for a while, an older 120 gig Western Digital that for the past 3 years has given that warning in two different systems it's been in. Yet the drive works fine (has games that run off it on her system) and the only option I had was to disable the SMART setting in the bios for this drive. Though if it does fail it would be a big deal, the drive in her system has no data that can't be replaced lol she uses mainly for internet use and some gaming. But so far it's been working fine (along with the other 120 gig in her system as the primary drive)

Since my data and time is worth way more than the cost of a new hard drive, I simply dupe and replace the drive at the first sign of a failing drive.

(Less than $60 for a new 1TB HD and an hour or two to create the dupe).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpywareDr

Since my data and time is worth way more than the cost of a new hard drive, I simply dupe and replace the drive at the first sign of a failing drive.

(Less than $60 for a new 1TB HD and an hour or two to create the dupe).

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I feel the same way but this isn't for me. I have a cheap customer. Usually when I explain to the customer what's up, they understand and just say "Change it" but this guy is way cheap. I'm calling him tomorrow and suggesting a new HDD for or they have a refurbished one at geeks.com for about $25.

The thing is, I wondered what test to trust, the SMART report says bad drive, the extended SMART test says the drive is good but no one answered my question........

I seriously doubt anyone is going to be able tell you exactly why you got a conflicting report. Could be because of a flaky drive or some other flaky hardware or software problem.

I'm sure Ontrack's test equipment could tell you if the drive is failing or not. But, why spend hundreds to find out if a <$50 item is failing? It's cheaper, faster, and safer to simply replace the drive -- with a *NEW one -- and be done with it.

Brand spanking new SATA 320GB hard drives start at $34.99, with Free shipping, at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ng&Order=PRICE


*Anything other than brand new has had some kind of problem . . . which is what you already have.

I'd be confused by those conflicting results. Not sure what the extended SMART test is -- I use the manufacturer test utilities. But I agree with the others -- no way would I trust that drive with any important data that was not backed up elsewhere.

I think I've had (old guy memory) a drive reporting excessive temp in SMART in a laptop that had become clogged with dust and experienced issues with overheating. I intend to keep using that drive.