SMART monitoring, Does it Work..?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
the results are misleading.

the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..

So is SMART just a big waste of time


Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
no using.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:55:18 +1300, puss@purrpurr.com wrote:

>
>
>Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
>the results are misleading.
>
>the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
>model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005
>
>The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..
>
>So is SMART just a big waste of time
>
>
>Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
>my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
>that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
>no using.

SMART is an estimation not a guarantee. You can do a lot to preserve your
disks - keep them cool, keep them insulated from vibration, make sure they
have adequate power.

--
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/

 

[cjt]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

puss@purrpurr.com wrote:
>
> Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
> the results are misleading.
>
> the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
> model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

It sounds like SMART was correct. Or are you complaining that it missed
by a couple of months?

>
> The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..
>
> So is SMART just a big waste of time
>
>
> Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
> my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
> that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
> no using.

No such problems here. Are you running them hot?

>
>
>
>
>


--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Previously puss@purrpurr.com wrote:


> Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
> the results are misleading.

> the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
> model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005

> The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..

> So is SMART just a big waste of time


> Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2
> years, this is my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2
> weeks the other drives that I had were IBM they were replaced with
> Seagates that I still have but no using.


I found SMART monitoring is worthwhile on Maxtors, however their
threshold for an actual failure is far too high. I had one disk
that was already incredibly slow from having to reallocate unreadable
sectors all the time, but the smart status was fine. The reallocated
sector count was already in the hundreds.

I am now logging and monitoring the realocated sector count and the
temperature. Smartd also does a nice job of notifying you of any
change in the more critical attributes.

Not perfect by any means but a real time-saver so far. SMART allows
me to replace a disk at the first hint of trouble and give it some
heavy testing load. So far this resulted in all but one disks in
a SMART failure within some days.

One additional consideration: Most of my disks are from Maxtor.
Thay have a tendency to fail gradually over days or even weeks.
IBM/Hitachi and WD disks (don't know about others) seem to have
a tendency to fail fast and catastrophically. SMART monitoring
will probably help far less in that case.

Arno
--
For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 16:57:32 GMT, CJT <abujlehc@prodigy.net> wrote:

>puss@purrpurr.com wrote:
>>
>> Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
>> the results are misleading.
>>
>> the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
>> model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005
>
>It sounds like SMART was correct. Or are you complaining that it missed
>by a couple of months?



Yes but the dealer will not replace the drive unless its stopped working.

>>
>> The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..


But the bar graphs show the drives as OK..

>> So is SMART just a big waste of time
>>
>>
>> Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
>> my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
>> that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
>> no using.
>
>No such problems here. Are you running them hot?



Average Temp is 30c has a large 120mm in front of them..


>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 10:14:04 GMT, Michael Cecil <macecil@comcast.net> wrote:

>On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:55:18 +1300, puss@purrpurr.com wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
>>the results are misleading.
>>
>>the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
>>model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005
>>
>>The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..
>>
>>So is SMART just a big waste of time
>>
>>
>>Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2 years, this is
>>my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2 weeks the other drives
>>that I had were IBM they were replaced with Seagates that I still have but
>>no using.
>
>SMART is an estimation not a guarantee. You can do a lot to preserve your
>disks - keep them cool, keep them insulated from vibration, make sure they
>have adequate power.



Yes done all that..

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On 3 Jan 2005 23:59:56 GMT, Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote:

>Previously puss@purrpurr.com wrote:
>
>
>> Yes just has another hard drive fail, I was using Active Smart but some of
>> the results are misleading.
>
>> the TEC was Jan 2005 its now failed the other drive Seagate 120g, the same
>> model was showing March 2005 not showing Jan 2005
>
>> The Bar graphs showed the Drives all OK..
>
>> So is SMART just a big waste of time
>
>
>> Also can some one recommend a drive that will last more than 2
>> years, this is my 2 second one to fail, first Seagate failed in 2
>> weeks the other drives that I had were IBM they were replaced with
>> Seagates that I still have but no using.
>
>
>I found SMART monitoring is worthwhile on Maxtors, however their
>threshold for an actual failure is far too high. I had one disk
>that was already incredibly slow from having to reallocate unreadable
>sectors all the time, but the smart status was fine. The reallocated
>sector count was already in the hundreds.
>
>I am now logging and monitoring the realocated sector count and the
>temperature. Smartd also does a nice job of notifying you of any
>change in the more critical attributes.
>
>Not perfect by any means but a real time-saver so far. SMART allows
>me to replace a disk at the first hint of trouble and give it some
>heavy testing load. So far this resulted in all but one disks in
>a SMART failure within some days.
>
>One additional consideration: Most of my disks are from Maxtor.
>Thay have a tendency to fail gradually over days or even weeks.
>IBM/Hitachi and WD disks (don't know about others) seem to have
>a tendency to fail fast and catastrophically. SMART monitoring
>will probably help far less in that case.
>
>Arno


Yes I was using ActiveSMART and these Drives 2 x 120g Seagate's have only been
used for 5 months, the TEC for the other drive is showing Jan 2005..

Problem here is the Have to fail to get a replacement..


What monitoring software are you using..?

The main problem here is the drives are not shipped correctly from the
Importer/Agent or the Mail ordershop..

I know this as the shop that I deal with sent me a Photo of the Maxtor drives
that he received for the Agent, 5 drive loose in a box with a few bubble bags
thrown in fact the drives were showing physical damage.


I also received one drive sent in a Jiffy bag with a bit of bubble rap around
it..

Seagate shows on there web site how to pack a drive for a RMA..

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Previously puss@purrpurr.com wrote:
> On 3 Jan 2005 23:59:56 GMT, Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote:

>>Previously puss@purrpurr.com wrote:
[...]
> Yes I was using ActiveSMART and these Drives 2 x 120g Seagate's
> have only been
> used for 5 months, the TEC for the other drive is showing Jan 2005..
> Problem here is the Have to fail to get a replacement..
> What monitoring software are you using..?

smartd and a self-written perl-script that calls smartctl from a
cron-job. smartd alone is fine, but I do not have it on all machines,
since smatd sends email in case of problems, but some of the machines
cannot really send mail. The perl-script is run from another machine
via ssh or is used locally and logs to file.

> The main problem here is the drives are not shipped correctly from the
> Importer/Agent or the Mail ordershop..

Use a different shop. Seagate drives also should be mailed in
a special plastic case the "sea-shell". Pretty handy.

> I know this as the shop that I deal with sent me a Photo of the
> Maxtor drives that he received for the Agent, 5 drive loose in a box
> with a few bubble bags thrown in fact the drives were showing
> physical damage.

Yes, you can basically send them back.

> I also received one drive sent in a Jiffy bag with a bit of
> bubble rap around it..

> Seagate shows on there web site how to pack a drive for a RMA..

I know. I think you can also order from Seagate directly or
form an authorized reseller. That should ensure good packaging.

Arno
--
For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus