Why can't SMART programs detect my drive?

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

Hi, I got a new computer recently (the RAM burnt out in the other one so rent-to-own place gave me a new one), it's got Vista, and I've been trying to install a *freeware* SMART program for my hard drive, a 500 gig Western Digital SATA/ATAPI, according to HWiNFO32, which is the only one that knows its there.

They install properly, but none of them will detect my drive, here's a screenshot to show what I mean:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/735/drive2s.jpg

Any ideas? The SMART info shows up in HWiNFO32, but I don't know how to understand it.

Thanks

DavidGP · Apr 8, 2009

Hi Aimee, welcome to Majorgeeks

In Vista with some applications its needed that you right click the shortcut and choose Run as Administrator, and if the full data appears as it should then right click the Shortcut to the application again and choose Properties > Compatability tab and at bottom tick the Run this program as Administrator then Apply.

Alternatively this works well in Vista to monitor Smart and test the HDD, HD Tune

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

Thank you -- I forgot to mention I did try the run as admin, but it didn't work.

More details:
Vista Home Basic
I got full admin rights on this machine
The drive is a WDC WD5000AAKS-22A7B0
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor
nVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS chipset, also video card
about 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM
FOXCONN mobo
LG DVD-RW

HDD Health can see the partitions, but not the actual drive.

The HD Tune program does detect the drive, But for some reason, no info is showing it, it just shows the drive but no info....

DavidGP · Apr 8, 2009

Hi Aimee

Try this for me and uninstall HDD Health and then download this version if not already HD Health 3.3 Build 217 Beta and save it to your desktop.

Make sure your logged into the Admin account then right click the Setup file and choose Run as Administrator to install it then open the application (still will need to open it as Run as Admin) and does it show your drives? as I just installed this to test for you so that I could try and recreate your issue, it works ok for me in Vista Ultimate x64, doesnt like Raid arrays, hence the weird characters in the image for Drive 0, but did recognise my other two Western Digital HDDs and you have a WDC drive too.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5808/56126055.jpg

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

Didn't work. It looks the same as the last one. Hmmm....

I'm wondering if my drive doesn't even have SMART, but it's a modern drive, and I thought all modern drives did.

jlphlp · Apr 8, 2009

Hi Amiee,

Don't know about your's but older mother boards have a shut off option in the BIOS setup for Smart. Have you checked for that. It it's there set it to Enabled.

Clark_Kent · Apr 8, 2009

I remember some motherboard you have to activated in the bios !!!

You should see S.M.A.R.T enabled/disabled

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

I'll do a reboot and check that, be back in a few minutes.

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

Back -- Checked everything in the BIOS (except for the obvious "Set Supervisor Password") and didn't see anything about SMART, except for Smart BIOS, which I assume is different :confused

DavidGP · Apr 8, 2009

Hi Aimee

Very strange that your HDD is not an old one circa 2007/8 plus the usual methods of getting some applications to show data in Vista is not working, while working for me, but will suggest anothe alternative application to try as this one I tested a while back to review.

Crystal Disk Info should not need installing as Admin or running as Admin, but also try those options if it doesnt work normally.

Quick question do you have UAC disabled? if so enable it and run the applications again.

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

It works!

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8885/uhohlsb.jpg

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 8, 2009

Sorry it took me so long to reply, for some reason when I posted a screencap it didn't go through and I didn't notice until now.

The Crystal Disk Info said:
Caution
Current Pending Sector Count: 1
Uncorrectable Sector Count: 1

What does this mean, exactly? Is the drive dying, or a single sector just went bad? (I'm thinking it's the latter.) Googling explains what it means, but now how serious it is.

DavidGP · Apr 9, 2009

Hi Aimee

Try to see if they will correct or at least be flagged out of use by using chkdsk and instructions here on use http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

for you command will be from a CMD prompt chkdsk /r first then chkdsk /f

Aimee Wilbury · Apr 10, 2009

Sorry for confusion, I think I figured out why my drive wouldn't detect.

I thought it was a SATA drive, but actually it was a SCSI drive!

On wikipedia:

Depending on the type of interface being used, some S.M.A.R.T.-enabled motherboards and related software may not communicate with certain S.M.A.R.T.-capable drives. For example, few external drives connected via USB and Firewire correctly send S.M.A.R.T. data over those interfaces. With so many ways to connect a hard drive (SCSI, Fibre Channel, ATA, SATA, SAS, SSA, and so on), it is difficult to predict whether S.M.A.R.T. reports will function correctly in a given system.
Click to expand...

Would that have anything to do with it?

Thanks

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Why can't SMART programs detect my drive?

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