How To Make An Hd Smart Capable?

[Captain Haddock]

So when I boot up I get the above message. How does one enable it? I saw from another post that it can date the usage and maybe keep a log. Is it useful otherwise? Cheers...

[dave_boo]

There should be an option in your bios. Usually a "Delete" or "F2" or other such key will get you there....

Usually on the first screen you use your down arrow to highlight the drive and then enter. There should be a mention of SMART monitoring. Sometimes it's page up/down to get the value you want, other times you can highlight the option by down arrow'ing to it and hit enter. Select Enable. Usually F10 is to save and exit.

Wikipedia has a pretty good write up on the options offered by SMART..

[Beggar]

There is a lot of free software out to check it. One is

http://crystalmark.info/?lang=en

or

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Some even allow you to check the S.M.A.R.T. data via USB for external enclosures - this is possible if your interface provides it.

In respect of the time be a bit careful. Different companies store different values - seconds, minutes, hours or whatever. So a good idea is to check the Smart data and compare them after an hour to find out what is the unit for your HD.

[Captain Haddock]

Thanks guys!