HDD S.M.A.R.T. accuracy (computer)

[hyunelan2]

This morning I turned on my personal PC. It's about 2 months old, but the hard drive is a few yrs. old (Maxtor 7200 RPM, ATA100, 30GB). The S.M.A.R.T. feature in the bios gave me a warning of upcoming disk failure. I have a second hard drive that I use for storage, I just use this 30GB for my C:\ drive for windows and installed program files.

How good is the accuracy of the S.M.A.R.T. feature? Should I be ordering a new hard drive today? If I order one should I get an SATA drive (I can support it) or just stick with a cheaper IDE?

Thanks.

[FordFasteRR]

sata is cheeper in some cases..

try www.newegg.com

:)

[hyunelan2]

Yea, I think I'm gonna pick up a 160GB SATA drive (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-051&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE), partition it into 2, and get rid of both my IDE Hard Drives.

Edit: Drive Ordered, now I just hope my other drive holds out long enough for it to get here. Any suggestions on partition sizes? It's a 160GB. I was thinking of 60 for OS/software installed and 100 for storage (mp3s, videos, pictures, etc).

[kylemorg]

You really only need ~10-20 gigs for OS/Software unless you've got some HUGE software programs! IMO, I'd partition a max of 30 gigs for the OS/Software.

[FordFasteRR]

if i was you, i would not bother with partitioning a windows drive anyway !

its not worth the trouble....

[hyunelan2]

^^^ I was just figuring having the OS on it's own partition would make reinstallation/format easier in the future, rather than formatting out everything else that's stored on the drive. Reinstalling windows and reloading programs is easy, but going through and finding all the stored music/picture/movie files is a PITA.

[VTElantra]

I would never buy maxtor unless I had to, they are a pain to install becuase you gotta format it with there program which is stupid. I hope your mobo supports SATA. Did you biuld your computer or is it a Dell or something?

[hyunelan2]

Yes my mobo supports SATA. I built the computer. Specs:

Epox 8KDA3J (Nforce 3 250GB chipset)
Athlon 64 3000+
Radeon 9600 (256MB version)
512 MB Crucial PC3200

The drive I ordered is a Hitachi. Good reviews/votes from newegg, so I though I'd give it a shot.

[mrhoaf]

I would never buy maxtor unless I had to, they are a pain to install becuase you gotta format it with there program which is stupid.

I've never had to format a maxtor with their program..... Now if you're installing it in an ancient system and need to fool the BIOS into using the large drive, then you do....

I'm not a big Maxtor fan either...... but I think anymore they're all made pretty cheaply... just make sure you buy one that comes with a 3 year warranty....



OH, and from my experience with SMART, there is very little way of knowing how long the drive will last. I've seen drives not come on the next time you boot, and I have one that is still working 2 years later.... once you get your data off the drive, download the diagnostic tools from the manufacturer and run them on the drive. I've seen a couple drives that gave errors be recertified after running the diagnostic.

[XWRed5W3]

Yeah, SMART just basically checks the hdds stats (like seek time and error rate) against what it should be. Mechanical failure is a little harder to predict. If you plan on keeping it, I'd run scandisk (all checks) and defrag it. It'll take a while though - don't plan on being able to use your computer for a day. For the operating system, a 15 or 20 GB partition is fine. You could technically go as low as 6 or 7, but I wouldn't suggest it, since some programs like to use the operating system partition's pagefile while they're running, even if they're not on the same drive.

I used to like Newegg - before they got a warehouse in Jersey and now charge tax. Zipzoomfly.com is cheaper anyway, and everything has free two day shipping.

And I thought that Epox board crapped out on you?