Meaning of S.M.A.R.T. info? (or, Is my drive failing?)

[AdamWu]

I got my X64 just about a week ago, after installed Windows (a couple of times, due to paritioning & driver issus), I ran diskcheckup, it displays several entries in big red, saying my drive is failing.

 

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x0000   009   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
 9 Power_On_Hours          0x0000   033   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0000   011   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
184 Unknown_Attribute       0x0000   004   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0000   224   051   000    Old_age   Offline      -       3507
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0000   253   145   000    Old_age   Offline      -       3535
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0000   017   186   000    Old_age   Offline      -       50
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate    0x0000   031   240   000    Old_age   Offline      -       37
202 TA_Increase_Count       0x0000   021   004   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
203 Run_Out_Cancel          0x0000   021   004   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
204 Shock_Count_Write_Opern 0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
205 Shock_Rate_Write_Opern  0x0000   160   134   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1
206 Flying_Height           0x0000   001   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
207 Spin_High_Current       0x0000   243   003   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
208 Spin_Buzz               0x0000   018   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
209 Offline_Seek_Performnce 0x0000   100   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
210 Unknown_Attribute       0x0000   237   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
211 Unknown_Attribute       0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0

 

I thought it is likely that the drive is so new, some of its smart info is not interpreted correctly. So I went on installing several applications...

 

Today I looked at the smart data again, the highlighted entries are still there, and some values have increaed by a lot.

 

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x0000   008   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
 9 Power_On_Hours          0x0000   109   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0000   021   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
184 Unknown_Attribute       0x0000   004   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0000   022   046   000    Old_age   Offline      -       10320
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0000   105   133   000    Old_age   Offline      -       8139
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0000   123   057   000    Old_age   Offline      -       190
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate    0x0000   087   031   000    Old_age   Offline      -       92
202 TA_Increase_Count       0x0000   236   020   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
203 Run_Out_Cancel          0x0000   235   020   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
204 Shock_Count_Write_Opern 0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0
205 Shock_Rate_Write_Opern  0x0000   160   134   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1
206 Flying_Height           0x0000   001   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
207 Spin_High_Current       0x0000   227   004   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
208 Spin_Buzz               0x0000   047   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
209 Offline_Seek_Performnce 0x0000   100   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
210 Unknown_Attribute       0x0000   237   000   000    Old_age   Offline  In_the_past 0
211 Unknown_Attribute       0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline  FAILING_NOW 0

 

I wondered what do those numbers really mean, and is my drive really failing?

 

PS. The smart info here is printed by smartctl, and is basically the same as shown in diskcheckup.

[Davyc]

SMART is a bit iffy when it comes to SSDs - mostly because the programs written to report on smart were never designed for SSDs but for slowmobile HDDs. If everything is running fine I wouldn't worry about it. I get similar readings from different softwares and my drive is flying :-)

[AdamWu]

After seeing the number of drive "dead" or "disappeared" posts here, I was kind of afraid mine would also drop... thus I am seeking for an official answer of the meanings of those smart readings.

 

I really hope those numbers doesn't mean bad things... but even if they do, at least we know some precursors/indicators of drive problem, and make backups as early as possible.

[RAM GUY]

I would suggest contacting the software vendor to explain the errors they produced.

[AdamWu]

Well, s.m.a.r.t. data is not generated by any software. It is recorded and maintained by the harddrive hardware. And the software basically just read it from the harddrive and print it out on the screen.

 

So the error (or warning, or whatever) is produced by the harddrive itself.

The exact meaning of them can only be explained by hardware vendor, that is, corsair.

[Davyc]

Well, s.m.a.r.t. data is not generated by any software. It is recorded and maintained by the harddrive hardware. And the software basically just read it from the harddrive and print it out on the screen.

 

So the error (or warning, or whatever) is produced by the harddrive itself.

The exact meaning of them can only be explained by hardware vendor, that is, corsair.

 

Actually that's not quite accurate - the software takes the data from the hardware and then interprets the data it receives; however, if the software is not programmed to interpret the data correctly (which it isn't from an SSD) then it will give wrong results. It is well known that current software is not up to the job of interpreting SMART data from a SSD as most of the interpretations are geared up for spinnning platters, so when the software receives data relating to spinning platters that has no bearing to SSDs it throws its toys out of the pram and scares the hell out of you.

 

I tried the VERY LATEST software that was SUPPOSED to support SSD's (though my X-64 was not in the official supported list) and it returned a result that my drive was only 9% functional .... which is, of course, rubbish.

 

Eventually, software will be able to interpret the data correctly - but as of now I would pay little notice to what it says. As long as your drive is functioning and returning good results from a benchmark I wouldn't worry too much about the outmoded software that needs a much needed update.