"What does SMART status mean? Here's everything you need to know."

In this guide, we'll explain what SMART status means and guide you on how to utilize it to thoroughly inspect your hard disk:

Hard drives don't last indefinitely, and their demise often arrives without warning. But is there a method to assess the health of your hard drive and predict how long it will continue to function properly and efficiently?

The good news is that contemporary hard drives utilize S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status to evaluate their reliability and predict potential failures. But what exactly is SMART status? Keep reading to find out.

What Does SMART Status Mean?

S.M.A.R.T., an acronym for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, is a monitoring system incorporated in solid-state drives and hard disk drives for computers. It detects and reports various indicators of drive reliability to anticipate impending hardware failures.

It informs the user of a possible imminent hard drive failure, allowing actions to be taken to prevent data loss and replace the failing drive to preserve data integrity. Consequently, regularly checking the SMART status is crucial.

Unfortunately, the Command Prompt only permits you to view the basic S.M.A.R.T. status in Windows. If you wish to access the complete data, you'll need to utilize a third-party application. To discover an efficient and reliable third-party tool for checking the SMART status, proceed to the next section of the article.

A Professional Tool to Check SMART Status A Professional Tool for Checking SMART Status

You can promptly and effortlessly examine the SMART status with just a few clicks by utilizing Partition Master. The tool's "Disk Health" feature is conveniently located on its user-friendly interface within the discovery section.

Here are the parameters that can be found in the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status of your drive using tools like Partition Master: 1. **Attribute ID**: A unique number identifying the specific SMART attribute. 2. **Attribute Name**: The descriptive title of the attribute, such as "Reallocated Sector Count" or "Temperature". 3. **Current Value**: The current value of the attribute, reflecting the drive's health status. 4. **Worst Value**: The worst value recorded for this attribute since the drive was in use. 5. **Threshold Value**: The value at which the attribute is considered to be failing or nearing a critical level. 6. **Raw Value**: The raw data from the drive's firmware, which may require interpretation by the software. 7. **Status**: Indicates whether the attribute is within acceptable limits ('PASSED') or has a potential issue ('FAILED' or 'WARNING'). 8. **When Failed**: If applicable, the date and time when the attribute first failed. 9. **Pending Sector Count**: The number of sectors that have been identified as problematic but not yet reallocated. 10. **Command Timeout**: Records instances where commands to the drive took longer than expected to complete. 11. **Power Cycle Count**: The number of times the drive has been powered on and off. 12. **Power-On Hours**: The total amount of time the drive has been powered up and running. 13. **Temperature**: The current temperature of the hard drive, often measured in Celsius. 14. **End-to-End Error**: Related to data integrity during read/write operations. 15. **Reallocation Event Count**: The number of times the drive has had to relocate data due to bad sectors. These parameters provide valuable information about the overall health and performance of your hard drive. Monitoring these values can help predict potential failures and ensure timely data backups.

• Temperature
• Unsafe shutdowns
• Controller busy time
• Hard drive/SSD status
• Total host writes/reads
• Power cycles and more

Download this tool and use it to check the health status of your hard drive or SSD now.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant and click the blue arrow to activate the "Disk Health" feature under the "Discovery" section.

Click the blue arrow.

Step 2. Choose the target disk and click the "Refresh" button. You will then see the health status of your disk.

Now, let's examine some prominent features of Partition Master:

• Check disk
• Inspect hard drive health
• Check SSD temperature in Windows 10/11
• Repair bad sectors on SD card/external hard drives
• Check SSD health on Windows 10 and Windows 11/8/7/Vista/XP
• Resize/delete/create/move partitions for efficient hard drive management

tools Partition Master enables you to check the SMART status without needing to input any commands. Consequently, even if you are new to computing, you can utilize it with ease.

Watch the video for more solutions and to monitor the health of your hard drive:

 

Conclusion

If your disk fails, you run the risk of permanently losing the data stored on it, and your system may begin to experience performance issues. Hence, it is essential to regularly monitor your drive's health to minimize or prevent data loss, as well as the loss of time and money.

SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status is indeed a blessing as it enables you to keep tabs on the health of your storage devices effortlessly. With a reliable third-party utility like Disk Partition Master, you can monitor the SMART status of your drives without needing to issue any commands. Simply download the Disk Partition Master tool and assess the health condition of both your hard disk drive and solid-state drive (SSD).

"What Does SMART Status Mean?" FAQs

The article provides a comprehensive understanding of the SMART status concept and how it can effectively and comprehensively indicate the health status of a disk. It also offers a tool to examine the SMART status of your hard drive.

However, if you still have questions about the software or your drives, please refer to the FAQs below.

**1. What does SMART status failing mean?** The SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status failing indicates that there is a potential issue or imminent failure with a hard disk drive. SMART is a built-in feature in modern hard drives that constantly monitors the drive's health and performance. When the SMART status fails, it means that the drive has detected one or more critical errors or anomalies that could lead to data loss or complete failure. It is advisable to back up your data immediately and consider replacing the drive to prevent potential data loss.

SMART status failing indicates that your hard drive or SSD could fail or become corrupted at any moment and requires immediate attention. However, there's no need to panic; you can back up your disk and have the drive either replaced or repaired promptly.

2. What is SMART status in BIOS? SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status in BIOS refers to the health status of a hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD) as reported by the drive's firmware. When you check the SMART status in BIOS, you can get an indication of whether the drive is functioning normally or if there are any potential issues that could lead to data loss or failure. The SMART system monitors various parameters, such as reallocated sector counts, spin-up times, and error rates, to assess the overall reliability of the storage device. If the SMART status shows an error or indicates that the drive is failing, it's advisable to back up your data and consider replacing the drive.

SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) establishes a connection between your device's BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and the storage drive. The BIOS is capable of processing data from the storage device and deciding whether to log a warning message regarding a possible drive failure. By default, SMART is already enabled in the BIOS, so no additional configuration is required for it to function properly.

3. How do you read SMART status? To read the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status of a hard drive, follow these steps: 1. **Windows:** - Press `Windows key + X` and choose "Device Manager." - Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" or "Disk Drives." - Right-click on your hard drive and select "Properties." - Go to the "Tools" tab and click "View Details" under "Error Checking." - If available, click "Check" to initiate a quick or extended SMART test. 2. **MacOS:** - Open "Terminal" from the "Applications > Utilities" folder. - Type `diskutil info /dev/diskX`, replacing "X" with the disk number (e.g., /dev/disk2). - Look for the "SMART Status" entry. It should say "Verified" or "Failing." 3. **Linux:** - Open a terminal. - Type `smartctl -H /dev/sda`, replacing "sda" with the appropriate drive identifier (e.g., sdb, sdc). - The output will show the overall SMART status, usually "PASSED" or "FAILED." 4. **Third-party Tools:** - You can also use third-party software like CrystalDiskInfo (Windows), Disk Utility (MacOS), or GSmartControl (Cross-platform) to view detailed SMART information and health status. Remember that a "PASSED" or "Verified" SMART status does not guarantee a healthy drive, and a "FAILED" status indicates potential issues that may require immediate backup and replacement.

To check the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status of your drive via Command Prompt, follow these steps: 1. **Open Command Prompt:** - Press the `Windows key + R` on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box. - Type `cmd` in the dialog box and press Enter to launch Command Prompt. 2. **Run the Command:** - In the Command Prompt window, type the following command, replacing `[DriveLetter]` with the letter representing your hard drive (e.g., C:, D:, E:): ``` wmic diskdrive get smartstatus ``` - Press Enter to execute the command. 3. **View the Output:** - The command will display the SMART status of your drive. Look for the "SmartStatus" entry. If it says "OK," the SMART status is good. Any other value or a missing entry might indicate a potential issue with the drive. Please note that using a third-party tool might provide more detailed information about the specific SMART attributes, which can be helpful in diagnosing potential problems. Examples of such tools include CrystalDiskInfo, HD Tune, and Speccy.

Step 1. Open the "Command Prompt" terminal on your Windows PC.

Step 2. Type "wmic diskdrive get model, status" into the Terminal box and press the "Enter" key.