SMART table for new Western Digital drive incomplete and buffer size, power on count, and power on hours all marked as unknown

[Cyanide2x4]

I have a relatively new Western Digital 4TB portable drive for which I cannot see the complete S.M.A.R.T table in any software.

I have tried:

- CyrstalDiskInfo
- Hard Disk Sentinel
- HD Tune
- HWiNFO

Yet all of them only show four entries in the S.M.A.R.T table and furthermore highlight Buffer size as unknown.

Screenshot from CrystalDiskInfo 7.0.5 is attached below:

What is the problem and how can I solve it? I have already tried updating the drive's driver through Device Manager and that has not worked either.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

It's because of the USB interface - - most drive diagnostic utilities, whilst supporting external hard drives generally (eg health status) are unable to display complete SMART data unless the drive is connected to a SATA port (ie internal drives).

For example, on the HD Tune website it states:

"Note: due to hardware limitations some drives may not support all functions".

Furthermore, for health status & temp of external drives you need to use HD Tune Pro, not the free HD Tune.

I distinctly remember having the same SMART Data issue myself a couple of years ago - - a support from the developer (EFD Software) confirmed it was because of the limitations of the USB interface, the SMART Data feature is very limited.

I no longer use third-party drive diagnostics, I only test with the drive manufacturer's software to check the drive's health ocassionally. The actual SMART data is unfathomable to most users anyhow (including me). As long as I see "Passed" in the Seagate or WD diagnostic test that's good enough for me.

 

[Cyanide2x4]

It's because of the USB interface - - most drive diagnostic utilities, whilst supporting external hard drives generally (eg health status) are unable to display complete SMART data unless the drive is connected to a SATA port (ie internal drives).

For example, on the HD Tune website it states:

"Note: due to hardware limitations some drives may not support all functions".

Furthermore, for health status & temp of external drives you need to use HD Tune Pro, not the free HD Tune.

I distinctly remember having the same SMART Data issue myself a couple of years ago - - a support from the developer (EFD Software) confirmed it was because of the limitations of the USB interface, the SMART Data feature is very limited.

I no longer use third-party drive diagnostics, I only test with the drive manufacturer's software to check the drive's health ocassionally. The actual SMART data is unfathomable to most users anyhow (including me). As long as I see "Passed" in the Seagate or WD diagnostic test that's good enough for me.

I have three other portable 2.5" drives; two of them WD, one Seagate. I can see complete S.M.A.R.T data for all of them in all of the aforementioned programs.

And I am using HD Tune Pro, not the free version and all's still the same. No data for this particular WD.

I have "WD Drive Utilities" installed and I don't find it helpful and reliable at all. You simply click a button and it tells you that the drive is "healthy" without showing you any details, whereas I have had situations where a certain drive marked "healthy" by 'WD Drive Utilities' was reported to be 'faulty' by all other four software I have mentioned above. Which one to trust, WD software or those other application, is a different story.