Question SMART 's output - How healthy is harddisk ?

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Jun 5, 2025
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Hello,
This is my main internal hard drive, which has been working for over 10 years.
I read that several SMART attributes are the most important indicators of a drive's health and those are showing fine with green check mark in software.. Although Sentinel (HDSentinel) reports it as 100% healthy, I am still worried.
I plan to replace it with a new HDD soon, instead of the DVD-ROM.
NOTE: If the lines are jumbled, I will upload images from txt file.
Code:
 Hard Disk Summary
   -------------------
    Hard Disk Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0
    Interface  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : S-ATA II
    Disk Controller  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Standard SATA AHCI Controller (AHCI) [VEN: 8086, DEV: 1C03] Version: 10.0.******6-21-2006
    Disk Location  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Bus Number 0, Target Id 0, LUN 0
    Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ST***420AS
    Firmware Revision  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0002SDM1
    Hard Disk Serial Number  . . . . . . . . . . . . : 5*********
    Total Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 715402 MB
    Power State  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Active
    Device Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Fixed Disk
    Logical Drive(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ********
    Current Temperature  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 36 °C
    Maximum Temperature (Ever Measured)  . . . . . . : 46 °C, 5/11/2025 6:43:05 PM
    Minimum Temperature (Ever Measured)  . . . . . . : 21 °C, 12/21/2024 9:45:53 PM
    Maximum Temperature (During Entire Lifespan) . . : 48 °C
    Power On Time  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1879 days, 0 hours
    Estimated Remaining Lifetime . . . . . . . . . . : more than 100 days
    Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : #################### 100 % (Excellent)
    Performance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : #################### 100 % (Excellent)

    The hard disk status is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found and there are no spin up or data transfer errors.
    The disk drive reached the end of the designed lifetime. Chance of sudden, unforeseen failure is higher.
    In a critical system, it is recommended to consider replacement.
      No actions needed.

    ATA Information
   -----------------
    Hard Disk Cylinders  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1453521
    Hard Disk Heads  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16
    Hard Disk Sectors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 63
    ATA Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ATA8-ACS version 4
    Transport Version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SATA Rev 2.6
    Total Sectors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 183143646
    Bytes Per Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 4096 [Advanced Format]
    Buffer Size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16384 KB
    Multiple Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16
    Error Correction Bytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 4
    Unformatted Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 715405 MB
    Maximum PIO Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 4
    Maximum Multiword DMA Mode . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
    Maximum UDMA Mode  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 300 MB/s (6)
    Active UDMA Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 300 MB/s (5)
    Minimum Multiword DMA Transfer Time  . . . . . . : 120 ns
    Recommended Multiword DMA Transfer Time  . . . . : 120 ns
    Minimum PIO Transfer Time Without IORDY  . . . . : 120 ns
    Minimum PIO Transfer Time With IORDY . . . . . . : 120 ns
    ATA Control Byte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Valid
    ATA Checksum Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Valid

  Disk Information
   ------------------
    Disk Family  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Momentus 7200.5 750420
    Form Factor  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.5"
    Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 750 GB (750 x 1,000,000,000 bytes)
    Number Of Disks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
    Number Of Heads  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 4
    Rotational Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 7200 RPM
    Rotation Time  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.33 ms
    Average Rotational Latency . . . . . . . . . . . : 4.17 ms
    Disk Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Serial-ATA/300
    Buffer-Host Max. Rate  . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 300 MB/seconds
    Buffer Size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16384 KB
    Drive Ready Time (Typical) . . . . . . . . . . . : 4.5 seconds
    Average Seek Time  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 11.0 ms
    Track To Track Seek Time . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.5 ms
    Full Stroke Seek Time  . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 22.0 ms
    Width  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 69.9 mm (2.8 inch)
    Depth  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 100.4 mm (4.0 inch)
    Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 9.5 mm (0.4 inch)
    Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 115 grams (0.3 pounds)
    Acoustic (Idle)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.3 Bel
    Acoustic (Min Performance And Volume)  . . . . . : 2.5 Bel
    Acoustic (Max Performance And Volume)  . . . . . : 3.0 Bel
    Required Power For Spinup  . . . . . . . . . . . : 1,200 mA
    Power Required (Seek)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.4 W
    Power Required (Idle)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.2 W
    Power Required (Standby) . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.4 W
    Manufacturer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Seagate Technology
    Manufacturer Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products
 
Last edited:
Most people don't keep their computers for such long periods as 10+ years
Sorry , it's dependent clause ?!
Most people don't keep their computer [WHAT , HOW] ?

So yeah, statistically you won't lose any data if you don't have backups. But statistically you also won't have a heart attack or cancer, or suffer a major injury, or be in an accident that totals your car, or have your luggage lost while traveling, but you still want to have insurance for those things (if you can afford it). Backups are just insurance on your data and the odds are vastly in favor of never needing it.
I like your analogy and comparison, but the point is that when you pay for insurance, it covers you for one year, and if anything happens, the insurance company must be responsible. However, if you use an HDD beyond its usual writing capacity, expose it to high temperatures, drop it, subject it to shocks, or experience power loss, you may lose important data.maybe I can't reach my actual purpose😀sorry.

I believe that in many cases, the value of data is far more important and valuable than what could happen to your car, house, or company
 
It seems pointless to replace a DVD drive with an SSD or mechanical drive in an ancient laptop, and depends on getting one of those caddies that is designed to fit your specific laptop model. Unless you have extremely specific reasons, you don't need a second drive. Just get a very large SSD or mechanical drive to replace the 750GB drive that is in the machine now. When your laptop was made, there just weren't such large drives available. I don't know what makes you think 20MBps is the limit for laptop drives. USB is MUCH slower than a SATA drive.
 
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It seems pointless to replace a DVD drive with an SSD or mechanical drive in an ancient laptop, and depends on getting one of those caddies that is designed to fit your specific laptop model. Unless you have extremely specific reasons, you don't need a second drive. Just get a very large SSD or mechanical drive to replace the 750GB drive that is in the machine now. When your laptop was made, there just weren't such large drives available. I don't know what makes you think 20MBps is the limit for laptop drives. USB is MUCH slower than a SATA drive.
Hi @evermorex76
Since I am not aware of my hard drive’s longevity or when its lifespan will end, I am considering additional steps for fault tolerance. Honestly, what you are saying makes sense and logic.
I thought that since hard drive failures can happen unexpectedly and without warning, and I am not using a DVD-ROM for additional OS. The first one is already running two operating systems (Windows 7 and Windows 10). A second, new internal HDD or SSD could also have another installation of Windows 10 to provide OS fault tolerance. That way, if my old HDD fails, I could switch to the second one.(Also, obviously there are more efficient way to restore defect and malfunction OS)
 
Hi @evermorex76
Since I am not aware of my hard drive’s longevity or when its lifespan will end, I am considering additional steps for fault tolerance. Honestly, what you are saying makes sense and logic.
I thought that since hard drive failures can happen unexpectedly and without warning, and I am not using a DVD-ROM for additional OS. The first one is already running two operating systems (Windows 7 and Windows 10). A second, new internal HDD or SSD could also have another installation of Windows 10 to provide OS fault tolerance. That way, if my old HDD fails, I could switch to the second one.(Also, obviously there are more efficient way to restore defect and malfunction OS)
Having another OS on another drive is a really bad way to ensure you could keep using the machine if the drive fails. Are you going to maintain all your software on the other drive, booting it up every time there are any updates? Keep the OS updated the same way? What about software that requires an activation key that can only be used on one OS at a time? It would be just as easy to simply get another drive if there's a failure and install everything on the new drive when needed, but even easier to just have a USB drive and perform image-based backups to it on a regular basis, so you can just restore it to a replacement drive if needed.

If the system performs well enough to make you happy right now, just keep using it as it is and don't worry when or if it will fail, but make sure you have backups of at least your data files and preferably the entire drive. If you'd like more speed at a pretty low cost, buy an SSD and clone/replace the HDD, which will also be less likely to fail in the near future, but you still need backups. If you can't accept having the system down for two or 3 days if it fails, while you wait for a replacement drive to be delivered, order an HDD now and have it sitting in a drawer, but still make backups. (Or order two HDDs, or two SSDs, and replace the current drive now for improved performance and have the spare, but still make backups. Or order enough for two spares, if downtime is really really unacceptable, since one of the replacements could be defective.)

https://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-1TB-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-BX500-NAND-2-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07YD579WM

There's really nothing more to be said about any of this.
 
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Having another OS on another drive is a really bad way to ensure you could keep using the machine if the drive fails. Are you going to maintain all your software on the other drive, booting it up every time there are any updates? Keep the OS updated the same way? What about software that requires an activation key that can only be used on one OS at a time? It would be just as easy to simply get another drive if there's a failure and install everything on the new drive when needed, but even easier to just have a USB drive and perform image-based backups to it on a regular basis, so you can just restore it to a replacement drive if needed.

If the system performs well enough to make you happy right now, just keep using it as it is and don't worry when or if it will fail, but make sure you have backups of at least your data files and preferably the entire drive. If you'd like more speed at a pretty low cost, buy an SSD and clone/replace the HDD, which will also be less likely to fail in the near future, but you still need backups. If you can't accept having the system down for two or 3 days if it fails, while you wait for a replacement drive to be delivered, order an HDD now and have it sitting in a drawer, but still make backups. (Or order two HDDs, or two SSDs, and replace the current drive now for improved performance and have the spare, but still make backups. Or order enough for two spares, if downtime is really really unacceptable, since one of the replacements could be defective.)

https://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-1TB-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-BX500-NAND-2-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07YD579WM

There's really nothing more to be said about any of this.
Hello, I'm sorry I couldn't respond sooner. You're right—there are definitely better ways

I ll order one of them thank you🙏
 
Hakaru, you are using excellent common sense! The chance of an older drive failing is higher, regardless of what S.M.A.R.T. reports!
Should you panic? Not at all!
If you don't need the optical drive then by all means swap it for another drive.
I would suggest clone from original drive to NEW drive. Remove old drive then replace the optical drive. It can sometimes be impossible to get the original optical drive software. Remember the computer industry is try to push people away owning their own physical media.