Hard Drive how do you enable S.M.A.R.T.?

Hi. No doubt many of you know of Sandra pc analysis software? I have run it on my system and all is as expected - HOWEVER, in the 'tips', one of them states "S.M.A.R.T. not enabled. Consider enabling for safety." Can anyone explain this, and how do I enable it?

 

Hello Tony, you should be able to enable/disable SMART by going into the BIOS settings at startup. If there are many sub-menus in the BIOS it would be quicker to find the setting in the motherboard manual.

If for some reason you can't find it in the BIOS settings, there may be a utility for download at the HDD manufacturer's website (I think, it has been several years since I worked on SMART).

I like to keep SMART disabled and use a utility to check it every so often. There should be warning given at startup if problems are imminent, but if the information box does not work correctly all you will find is startup problems.

SMART is good for letting you know about the expectation of failure, but if the failure is instantaneous all your data is gone. You should have your data backed up for either eventuality (and that's why I don't need it enabled).

Matt

 

Hard Drive [enable S.M.A.R.T.]

Hi Mattman - Thanks for your useful info. I've found the reference in my BIOS manual (which doesn't actually explain anything), but as I am fairly meticulous about regular backups I think I shall follow your approach and leave SMART disabled.