Re: Checking SMART capability in disks

Arun Anbalagan wrote:
> Dear All,
> We are proposing our customers to use 'smartmontools' to regularly 
> monitor the disk health. But, they don't want to install new software, 
> unless they know that their disks are indeed SMART capable. They are 
> looking for a way to check if 'smartmontools' would really work on 
> their disks, before they install it on their systems. Can you please 
> let me know how I can check if a disk is SMART capable or not, without 
> using 'smartctl'?

Virtually all ATA/SATA HDDs and SDDs support ATA SMART Feature Set.


> This needs to be tested on Windows and Linux platforms. Thanks.

Smartmontools uses pass-through I/O-controls to access the SMART 
functionality. It depends on platform, protocol (ATA/SCSI/NVMe), driver, 
RAID controller[1], USB bridge[2], ... whether this works or not. 
Especially on Windows, it is often not documented whether a specific 
driver supports pass-through I/O-controls.

Therefore a test with smartctl is needed in many cases.

Thanks,
Christian

[1]
https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Supported_RAID-Controllers
[2]
https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/USB


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attend Shape: An AT&T Tech Expo July 15-16. Meet us at AT&T Park in San
Francisco, CA to explore cutting-edge tech and listen to tech luminaries
present their vision of the future. This family event has something for
everyone, including kids. Get more information and register today.
http://sdm.link/attshape