Note: This also works for IDE drives in new kernels that are being run through the SCSI stack and show up as /dev/sdX

To display detailed SMART information for a SATA drive, type: sudo smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sda To display detailed SMART information for an IDE drive, type: sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda You can view a drive's test statistics by typing: sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda You can initiate the test by typing: sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda The most useful test is the extended test (long). To find an estimate of the time it takes to conduct each test, type: sudo smartctl -c /dev/sda There are three types of test that can be conducted on a drive: You may run any type of test while the drive is mounted although there may be some drop in performance. In the case that SMART is not enabled for your drive, you can enable it by typing: sudo smartctl -s on /dev/sda SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. The last two lines may look something like this:

This will give you brief information about your drive. To ensure that your drive supports SMART, type: sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda You can install the smartmontools package from the Synaptic Package Manager (see SynapticHowto), or by typing the following into the terminal: sudo apt-get install smartmontools This how to will help you to configure Smartmontools to do actions such as shut down the computer or send an e-mail when the disk is going to fail. Note: SMART data may not accurately predict future drive failure, however abnormal error rates may be an indication of possible hardware failure or data inconsistency. Smartmontools is a set of applications that can test hard drives and read their hardware SMART statistics. Advanced: Running as Smartmontools as a Daemon.

Smart utility mac os