SMART analysis and self-test for ATA hard drives

The SMART analysis

First you will see the SMART status according to the plate. This is the condition from the manufacturer's perspective. That can be "okay" or "Mistake. The following field represents toolhouse's overall rating. This overall rating is a technique developed by toolhouse itself for evaluating fitness attributes. Here there are the values ​​“optimal”, “very good", "good", "medium", "Caution!" or "MISTAKE“. If the value “None” is displayed, an evaluation is not possible because the output values ​​have not yet been initialized. What follows - with the worst value as the overall rating - is a list of the fitness and performance attributes. Which attributes are supported and how depends heavily on the manufacturer and disk model. Although there are common types of use, there is unfortunately no consistent standard that is always adhered to by every manufacturer.

The hard drive saves a current (akt.) value from 253 (optimal) to 1 (very poor), a minimum (min.) (the worst that has occurred so far) and for the fitness attributes there is also an additional threshold value (threshold), below which the plate is considered defective. The values ​​100 and sometimes 200 represent values ​​that have not yet been initialized, meaning that the disk has not yet collected enough data to evaluate the respective attribute since SMART was first activated. The Typ-Designations F and A stand for the attribute type: F=Pre-fail=there is a risk of imminent failure if the limit is exceeded, A=Old age=age-related or informative.

In addition, some attributes have a raw value. For example, the start-up time in milliseconds, the temperature in ø C°, number of reading errors, etc. toolstar® test and toolstar®shredder evaluate the fitness attributes themselves by classifying the minimum value in the range 253 to threshold with “optimal”, “very good”, “good”, “medium”, “Caution!” and, if it falls below this value, “ERROR!” . In the options dialog you can set whether “Caution!” should be considered an error for the results report or not. Likewise, whether SMART when starting toolstar® test or toolstar®shredder should be turned on if it wasn't turned on.

If supported, this includes information from the error logs in which the disk records all errors, including those where other software such as backup software or copy software simply sent incorrect commands. A high value should not worry you as long as no critical errors (read/write errors and others) are displayed.

The SMART self-test

Self-tests run internally on the disk - which means, on the one hand, that they can continue to run in the background while you are using them toolstar® test or toolstar®shredder carry out other tests (with restrictions on other plate tests), but on the other hand also that toolstar® test or toolstar®shredder has no further influence on these self-tests! You can view the results of the last (max. 21) self-tests and start a short self-test in which the disk firmware only performs basic tests and which usually lasts about 1 or 2 minutes. A detailed self-test also examines the entire plate surface and therefore takes significantly longer, depending on the plate size.

The estimated duration initially given is the minimum duration stated by the record itself; the SMART specification recommends not addressing the disk earlier. You have the option of canceling a self-test, but this is not recommended as it cannot be ruled out that the plate will react undesirably, especially at the beginning of the test.

Important SMART attributes (excerpt, further parameters and information)