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howtos:hardware:smart_hdd_diagnostics [2015/01/05 00:58 (UTC)] – [Bad Blocks (#5, 196, 197, 198)] metaschimahowtos:hardware:smart_hdd_diagnostics [2015/01/05 01:19 (UTC)] (current) – [Is my drive failing ?] metaschima
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 However, this method is difficult to implement safely, so you should usually just wait for the HDD to remap/reallocate. However, this method is difficult to implement safely, so you should usually just wait for the HDD to remap/reallocate.
  
-How often should you run these tests ? That depends. If you run a server then more often is better, the smartmontools site recommends weekly tests. For a home user, I usually run a long test every 1000 power on hours, but that is up to you and also depends on the details of the drive and situation. Do not ignore your senses, if the HDD sounds unusual or makes strange noises, monitor it closely and/or replace it.+How often should you run these tests ? That depends. If you run a server then more often is better, the smartmontools site recommends weekly tests. For a home user, I usually run a long test every 1000 power on hours, but that is up to you and also depends on the details of the drive and situation. 
 + 
 +====== Is my drive failing ? ====== 
 + 
 +A failing drive is defined as: 
 +  - Having a ''Pre-fail'' attribute below or near threshold, marked ''FAILING_NOW'' or ''In_the_past''. 
 +  - Having an ''Old_age'' attribute below or near threshold, marked ''FAILING_NOW'' or ''In_the_past'' **PLUS** other signs of failure such as consistent failure of SMART tests, strange noises, slowing down, corrupt data, etc. 
 + 
 +<note important>A failed long test does NOT mean your drive is failing, it could be just bad blocks. See previous section.</note> 
 + 
 +Do not ignore your senses, if the HDD sounds unusual or makes strange noises, monitor it closely and/or replace it. Again, SMART cannot tell you with great accuracy if or when the drive will fail. The drive can fail with above threshold attributes and minimal signs. The only hope you have to keep your data safe is to backup your data, use the 3-2-1 strategy as mentioned above. 
 + 
 +====== smartd ====== 
 + 
 +What is smartd ? It is a daemon that monitors SMART. So if you don't want to manually monitor and run tests, you can set up smartd to run them on a regular basis. You should refer to ''man smartd'' and ''man smartd.conf'' and ''/etc/smartd.conf'' for everything you need to know about setting up smartd to do what you want it to do.
 ====== Sources ====== ====== Sources ======
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