Does enabling SMART reduce hdd lifespan?
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Thread: Does enabling SMART reduce hdd lifespan?

  1. #1

    Does enabling SMART reduce hdd lifespan?

    Hey,

    I have heard that enabling SMART check on hard drives reduces the lifespan... Can anyone verify if this is true or not?

  2. #2
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    i have never heard of that...
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  3. #3
    Registered User gazzak's Avatar
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    It's highly likely that S.M.A.R.T. will slightly reduce the performance of your hard drive, (NOT the lifespan). However, early warning of failure may well be worth the very minor performance trade off.
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    Registered User Gabriel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gazzak
    It's highly likely that S.M.A.R.T. will slightly reduce the performance of your hard drive, (NOT the lifespan). However, early warning of failure may well be worth the very minor performance trade off.
    Agreed.
    SMART will certainly give you ahead warning on HDD failure.
    It helped me b4...
    It especially needed since the IDE Drives are generaly less Reliable today.

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    Gabriel
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  5. #5
    Geezer confus-ed's Avatar
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    Through the S.M.A.R.T. ( Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) system, hard disk drives incorporate a suite of advanced diagnostics that monitor the internal operations of a drive and provide an early warning for many types of potential problems. When a potential problem is detected, the drive can be repaired or replaced before any data are lost.
    The S.M.A.R.T. system consists of software that resides both on the disk drive and on the host computer. The software on the disk drive monitors the internal performance of the motors, media, heads, and electronics of the drive. The host software (Active SMART) determines the overall reliability of the drive by analyzing the drive's internal performance parameters and comparing them to predetermined threshold limits.
    So it will affect performance (a bit ! - this is way down deep & involves some pretty slick algorithms inside a disks firmware) - BUT it needs to maintain some tables on the disk to do this & read & write to those on each 'start'... so in theory - yes it might shorten the disks life - but the tables aren't very big at all - they only hold updated performance/failure info for a few things ...

    Realistically no real extra 'wearing out' though

  6. #6
    Registered User arch0nmyc0n's Avatar
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    I have two hard drives at home that have been failing smart for over a year now... I don't store anything special on them... just games and such...
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.

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