Disk Utility’s dirty little secret and the antidote
Every hard drive sold today includes built-in diagnostics designed to warn users before a disk actually fails, giving users a chance to backup and/or transfer data. However, if you’re relying on Disk Utility, OS X’s generally capable drive and disk tool, to give you advance notice of a disk crash, you may be in for a rude shock.
On this week’s MacBreak Weekly (1:18:31), photography and Mac expert Peter Krogh taught me something new, surprising and, frankly, a little disturbing: Apple’s Disk Utility has Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) built-in, but it has been effectively crippled so it doesn’t report a problem until it’s too late — thanks for that, Apple.
It has this thing in there that says SMART data passed. The dirty secret is that your SMART data that the drive is collecting — this is a self-monitoring technology that’s built into every hard drive — can show a drive in a state of failure or starting to be in a state of failure, yet the SMART data flag [in Disk Utility] still says ‘passed.’
See also: S.M.A.R.T. (wikipedia)
He goes on to say that Apple purposely crippled SMART reporting because users were sending in their Macs for warranty work before their hard drives failed, which sounds reasonable — SMART is supposed to warn before a malfunction becomes critical. However, some bean counter [I guess] reckoned the company could save money by effectively turning off the feature, and leaving users and their data to swing in the breeze.
A solution…
Enter Volitans Software’s Smart Utility, a $25 app that can access a hard drive’s (sorry, internal disks only) SMART data and tell you when the drive is getting ready to crash and take your data with it. Also, this application can run a drive’s built-in self test, which is another way to detect a malfunction before it goes nuclear.
This is good information to know whether you’re just taking care of yourself or a couple hundred at a large site. Further, it’s good that Volitans has identified this problem and created a solution.
It would better if Apple’s Disk Utility actually provided real SMART monitoring instead instead of just a false veneer of protection…
What’s your take?
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December 18th, 2009
That’s not cool. Apple, man up and fix this cheap shortcut to reward your customers who paid the Apple Royalty charge to get a better experience.
December 18th, 2009
Or you can buy Snow Leopard Cache cleaner which as the Smart test plus 20 others for $14.99.
http://www.northernsoftworks.com/snowleopardcachecleaner.html
December 18th, 2009
Sorry, but this report is just garbage and amounts to nothing much more than an advertising puff for Smart Utility. Disk Utility does not run in the background and has never been intended to do so – it is a utility for managing your disks. When it is run it checks the SMART status of disks and provides the information to you. But that’s it, and I really can’t see why this is a problem.
If you want the SMART status to be monitored on a regular basis then you need to run a background utility that has this functionality – for example, SMARTReporter which is freeware (or donationware if you’re a generous type).
December 18th, 2009
We just bought 2 Xserves in July of 2009 and I had to get one with an SSD option because of the lack of options for the Xserves, but anyway Disk Utility warned me of a failing drive and had the warning light flashing on the Xserve. I checked Disk Utility and it said smart was detecting issues with the SSD or something and to replace it asap. I replaced the drive and so far its been good.
I didn’t think SSDs had SMART, but they must! I always thought it was a vibration or something it would detect. So I’m not sure? But the issue saved me from a total failure I think and let me repair the drive before it totally blew up.
December 18th, 2009
There is also free tool with a good versiontracker ranking that may be of interest to your readers.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23232
December 18th, 2009
I use SMARTReporter myself for this very reason.
December 18th, 2009
Actually, several programs will check the SMART status of your drive. I personally use Onyx for a host of problems and issues with my Mac, and the first task it does is to check the SMART status. Free program.
December 21st, 2009
My 24 Inch iMac had an internal drive failure so was concerned about SMART issues. I used the Software that monitors this. It immediately was sending a warning that the new Disk drive had issues. I called Apple Service and asked about this. There answer was very adamant that they do not recognize the results of unapproved software.
I did further research and found the disk drive manufacturers have never adopted a uniform standard. Each manufacturer has different standards so they can’t agree amongst themselves. So SMART while seemingly a great idea has never been fully adopted by the disk drive manufacturers so Apple is not the only one at blame. The reliability of hard drives is a very complex issue and their true failure rates seems to be shrouded in mystery. The users of many hard drives like Google have developed their own standards and know from experience which drives have the best reliability. It would be very interesting to have their numbers.
December 22nd, 2009
I use a great utility called disktools pro. It offers SMART monitoring and alerts, and comes with a ton of other tools. A little pricey ($79) but I found it has been worth it.
http://www.macwareinc.com/products/DiskToolsPro/keyfeatures.html