Heed the warning and replace the hard drive, they are like all mechnical devices, it's just question of when they will fail, that's why there's warranties. I've had HDs fail in less than thirty days of receiving a new computer, plus had them fail after a year, yet, other hard drives are still running after three years of constant use. Yes, you will have to reinstall windows, etc, that is your responsibility under Dell's computer warranty, but Dell's Tech, Support, will talk and assist you through this. The following article give details about the S.M.A.R.T technology.
Bev.
Message Edited by shesagordie on 02-09-2004 02:47 PM
Well if virus - you never know. I have had drives last 3-5 years without a problem and on systems that are virtually on 24/7 all that time - but those did not have SMART enabled on the particular PC, too old I think (Pentium III/600) or perhaps SMART is not a part of SCSI drives - not sure - but have always hated when a drive flakes and dies without warning.
Not know how well protected you are, but consider using a combination of the programs below to ensure agains virus/scripts etc etc and against the nasties like kazzzzas (or is that kacccaaaa LOL). grin.
Adding to Bev and to try to answer your questions, yes do make arrangements to have the hard drive replaced. The challenge is going to be backing up your files - hopefully you have media you can back up your important files to say a CD-RW drive.
On the new drive you will indeed have to install Windows XP all over and you will have to reinstall any applications you have that you want on it and then recopy back your documents and files.
Why is this happening? Who knows any number of factors - environmental (too much heat), electrical (power dips/spikes etc), mechanical failures in the drive, bad sectors on the drive media itself, interference such as electrical/magnetic etc. all sorts of things could or could not be a factor that either contributes or is the reason for the hard drive beginning to fail.
Be happy you are getting the advance warning, many drives that not have the SMART when they fail, they just... hummm ohh... just fail - LOL no warning at all and usally means you lost everything on the drive.
thank you for your help! I feel a little better now knowing this must be a normal thing. It is just funny because I had this cheap little Packard Bell computer for like 8 years (it was slow as molasses!) but never had a bit of problem with the hard drive like this..
I have ordered a new one from Dell (Of course my warranty was up last month!) and I am hoping they will help me reload everything. Last night I saved all my pictures and files to a CD...
I thought maybe it was some sort of virus because my 13 year old son had downloaded Kazaa and some music files some time ago and I have been hearing about viruses caused from this site...
I am reading all of the posts to this subject and am amazed at all of the stupidity. Does it even occur to you that it more than a coinsidence that all of these Drives are going out. Mine have the same SMART errors. I have been a A+ and MCSE for 10 years and never ever have seen Hard Drives fail like the Hard Drives in these Dells. Lo!! Yea RIGHT!!! The SMART program is bogus. Dells Technical staff is only reading to you out of a manual. What does the manual say " Replace the Hard Drive" Give me a break,,,not a chance. You are just plain ignorant if you have replied to one of these posts telling people they should run and buy a new hard drive right away. Only for them to go and buy one and then the same errors begin happening yet once again. You people really should have a little professional training before you make people start spending money. If you were working for my company I would fire you on the spot. Yes.. It is always wise to back up your data because you will always have it if and when your Hard Drive actually crashes. But replacing hard drives just because some software told you or a robot tech support guy read to you is unreasonable. It is eveident that Dell realizes there is a problem with SMART running on their machines because they have released a patch to repair F1 errors. Just do a search on DISK MONITORING SYSTEM you will find it. Geeez People. Demand better Computers and Support from Dell!! Think before you spend your money.
thank you very much ... chill man.. we are just trying help one another - nice you have all those fancy credentials - we do not - neither do we work for Dell - and frankly for someone so smart as you, to be calling us so stupid is apalling. If the orginal poster was not asking the questions then perhaps one may say stupid... but asking questions is not stupidity, how else do you think one becomes informed. Right now cuz ur attitude towards tuff noggies on your 10 years - big deal - your attitude towards us lesser-folks is stunning.
Thank You for accepting my appology... Check this article ou on SMART. let me know if you find the option in your BIOS. I am thinking that it is not going to be a user option but rather a command line interface type of utility. Let me know what you find.
First of all I have to say that I do apologize that I was so blunt to begin with. I really should not have been so arrogant. Really just trying to be of some assistance this time. I am sorry for what was said earlier. All is fine if your PC is still under warranty but what about those who are not. Even if it is under warranty it still costs companies on a very large scale to have these HD's changed out. If you hace access to a program such as Ghost, that is by far the best way to back up a drivesince it will clone the entire HD. The problem with that is you need enough storage to hold the data. When I say backing up is a good idea I am only talking about sensitive and important files not programs and such. Those can be reinstalled. I have had a tough expierience working with Dells. Currently I am maintaining roughly around 300 Dell PC's. I also maintain hundreds of IBM's and HP's. The Dells for the most part are riddled with Different errors. The Smart system error is by far the most abundant. The IBM's and the Compaq's do not have the imminent HD failures. Yes HD's do crash but defintely not like the ones in these Dell Models. Dell began using SMART I think back in 2000 integrated within the Motherboard Software. Before SMART I cannot remember Dell ever having these kind of HD problems. Looking at the abundant amount of complaints on this subject it is clearly a Dell issue. They have released fixes for these exact SMART problems. Dell really needs to look at their use of SMART in future models. Either improve on it or get rid of it. Dell has cost me great credibility when I sign off on the purchase of 50 or so Workstations and they all begin to have problems apparently related to the Hard Drive. Im sorry but I would dare to say that at least 98% of them were not HD failure problems. It was an Integrated Software named SMART implemented by Dell. Now remember, all other brands I deal with are not having these SMART errors. I rearely have to replace HD's on simple PC's. Now Servers.. thas a different story all together. Yes SMART will still give you the chance to press F1 and continue on. But this is not always the case. Some times when you press F1 the SMART will just continue to repeat its message giving some the apparent conclusion that indeed their HD has crashed. My personal computer is a GX 400 Optiplex and was having that very problem. Being a tech I refused to believe my HD had crashed. I went to Dells support site for my model (on a different computer) and dowloaded the BIOS fix for this SMART error. The problem was resolved. My HD had not failed. Anyway I stronly believe that Dell needs to urgently address this issue before more credibility is damaged and more regrets are made for buying a Dell. Once again I really apologize for being so arrogant to begin with. I am just upset with Dell. All they have to say is " You need to replace your Hard Drive" If anyone needs any help from me please feel free to send me a line here or to my email mikeyhow30@yahoo.com. I can also be reached on Yahoo Messenger ID mikeyhow30. It is the least that I can do for being so rude to begin with. Thanks all hope everone has a great day.
Mikey - your apologies are accepted, thank you for saying what you have. Its pretty clear that the global issue of the SMART/HDD/Dell thing is what your anger is about - and somehow got directed to us instead. I will now out of curiousity reboot my D/8300 to see if there are any BIOS options for SMART - or if it even is involved with the SATA HDDs in use. You certainly have me curious. Anyway for most people at home or small business type situation where they do not have an IT person/department such as yourself - being greated with a SMART error is "unsettling" to say the least, however correct or incorrect that message might be. Kind of starts to come down to who should the customer believe the SMART message, the advise of the dell/tech/help folks or... And what of the consequences if under warranty and you refuse the advise of Dell, it would not surprise me a bit if Dell notes in their system customer refuses advise, and thereby begins a process of voiding the warranty and all that. Just a lot of wormy-worms if you ask me. Granted there should be a better solution/diagnostics stuff available to the customer - rather than the customer being told what to do based on a pre-ordained script rather than help the customer do more indepth diagnostics or whatever the tools might be at their disposal.
So, collectively lets hope we all can be of help to one another!
Peace
The 2 links you gave both are auto redirected to: http://docs.us.dell.com/index.aspx
So did not get to see/read what you are referencing to.
To answer your other question, I checked the BIOS in our D/8300 P4/2.8GHz - there is nothing in our BIOS for SMART stuff. Our HDDs are SATA drives, not IDE/SCSI - not sure if that makes a difference.
Sorry about that, should have known that would happen. Just do a search on Dell support area on
DiskMonitoring System and
Disable Disk Monitoring System
Hi - thank you all for being so helpful.. I am learning a little from it. So if I go on dell support area on my computer and disable disk monitoring - will this get rid of the smart error screen that comes up?
I have already backed all my files up in case.. and Dell gave me new part# to order hard drive but I have not done it yet- I have a laptop I use also so I am not in a big hurry yet..(until it crashes!)
PS. I am currently trying to figure out just how to disable that darn SMART system anyway. To be safe always back up your important files...... If your Computer is under warranty you may have to seltle for a new drive anyway. I am 99% sure that the same problem will arise once again even with your new hard drive because the SMART system is intergrated within BIOS. Good Luck
Thank You... The Dell support area is on their website. You can find information on their Disk Monitoring System there by searching on it. Dell has released some fixes that repairs a lot of these SMART errors. Go to your Model at their support site and then to downloads. I found my fix for my GX400 under the catergory BIOS. Yes indeed it very well may mean that your Hard drive may not be bad as in my case and many others. But sadly there are people who just dont have the means to to get technical with their computer and really are at the whim of Tech Support. I really hope you can find your Downloadable patch for your model. Follow the directions very carefully. Also within this forum there is a post from an indiviual with the same problem and posted the link to one of the fixes here at Dell. Just do a search on Disk Monitoring System within the Dell Support area of their Website. Hope this helps...
I realize this is dating a ways back... but I've been having this same problem with my Dimension 8100 for a long long time now. (I figured that the alert was bogus after the first failure and replacement) Now I'm looking to sell this old rig that's been running for another 2 years with this "impending doom of disk failure" warning every time I boot.
Anyhow.. I saw no fixes for this under the model of my machine. Am I missing something?
shesagordie
10 Elder
•
46K Posts
0
February 9th, 2004 18:00
frustrated35.
Heed the warning and replace the hard drive, they are like all mechnical devices, it's just question of when they will fail, that's why there's warranties. I've had HDs fail in less than thirty days of receiving a new computer, plus had them fail after a year, yet, other hard drives are still running after three years of constant use.
Yes, you will have to reinstall windows, etc, that is your responsibility under Dell's computer warranty, but Dell's Tech, Support, will talk and assist you through this.
The following article give details about the S.M.A.R.T technology.
Bev.
Message Edited by shesagordie on 02-09-2004 02:47 PM
Seventy
2 Intern
•
417 Posts
0
February 10th, 2004 12:00
Well if virus - you never know. I have had drives last 3-5 years without a problem and on systems that are virtually on 24/7 all that time - but those did not have SMART enabled on the particular PC, too old I think (Pentium III/600) or perhaps SMART is not a part of SCSI drives - not sure - but have always hated when a drive flakes and dies without warning.
Not know how well protected you are, but consider using a combination of the programs below to ensure agains virus/scripts etc etc and against the nasties like kazzzzas (or is that kacccaaaa LOL). grin.
Seventy
2 Intern
•
417 Posts
0
February 10th, 2004 12:00
Adding to Bev and to try to answer your questions, yes do make arrangements to have the hard drive replaced. The challenge is going to be backing up your files - hopefully you have media you can back up your important files to say a CD-RW drive.
On the new drive you will indeed have to install Windows XP all over and you will have to reinstall any applications you have that you want on it and then recopy back your documents and files.
Why is this happening? Who knows any number of factors - environmental (too much heat), electrical (power dips/spikes etc), mechanical failures in the drive, bad sectors on the drive media itself, interference such as electrical/magnetic etc. all sorts of things could or could not be a factor that either contributes or is the reason for the hard drive beginning to fail.
Be happy you are getting the advance warning, many drives that not have the SMART when they fail, they just... hummm ohh... just fail - LOL no warning at all and usally means you lost everything on the drive.
Make use of your warranty!
frustrated35
4 Posts
0
February 10th, 2004 12:00
thank you for your help! I feel a little better now knowing this must be a normal thing. It is just funny because I had this cheap little Packard Bell computer for like 8 years (it was slow as molasses!) but never had a bit of problem with the hard drive like this..
I have ordered a new one from Dell (Of course my warranty was up last month!) and I am hoping they will help me reload everything. Last night I saved all my pictures and files to a CD...
I thought maybe it was some sort of virus because my 13 year old son had downloaded Kazaa and some music files some time ago and I have been hearing about viruses caused from this site...
mikeyhow30
16 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 05:00
Seventy
2 Intern
•
417 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 10:00
mikeyhow30
16 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 17:00
Thank You for accepting my appology... Check this article ou on SMART. let me know if you find the option in your BIOS. I am thinking that it is not going to be a user option but rather a command line interface type of utility. Let me know what you find.
Dell Info on SMART
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1012192
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
Command Line Help for Smart
mikeyhow30
16 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 17:00
First of all I have to say that I do apologize that I was so blunt to begin with. I really should not have been so arrogant. Really just trying to be of some assistance this time. I am sorry for what was said earlier. All is fine if your PC is still under warranty but what about those who are not. Even if it is under warranty it still costs companies on a very large scale to have these HD's changed out. If you hace access to a program such as Ghost, that is by far the best way to back up a drivesince it will clone the entire HD. The problem with that is you need enough storage to hold the data. When I say backing up is a good idea I am only talking about sensitive and important files not programs and such. Those can be reinstalled. I have had a tough expierience working with Dells. Currently I am maintaining roughly around 300 Dell PC's. I also maintain hundreds of IBM's and HP's. The Dells for the most part are riddled with Different errors. The Smart system error is by far the most abundant. The IBM's and the Compaq's do not have the imminent HD failures. Yes HD's do crash but defintely not like the ones in these Dell Models. Dell began using SMART I think back in 2000 integrated within the Motherboard Software. Before SMART I cannot remember Dell ever having these kind of HD problems. Looking at the abundant amount of complaints on this subject it is clearly a Dell issue. They have released fixes for these exact SMART problems. Dell really needs to look at their use of SMART in future models. Either improve on it or get rid of it. Dell has cost me great credibility when I sign off on the purchase of 50 or so Workstations and they all begin to have problems apparently related to the Hard Drive. Im sorry but I would dare to say that at least 98% of them were not HD failure problems. It was an Integrated Software named SMART implemented by Dell. Now remember, all other brands I deal with are not having these SMART errors. I rearely have to replace HD's on simple PC's. Now Servers.. thas a different story all together. Yes SMART will still give you the chance to press F1 and continue on. But this is not always the case. Some times when you press F1 the SMART will just continue to repeat its message giving some the apparent conclusion that indeed their HD has crashed. My personal computer is a GX 400 Optiplex and was having that very problem. Being a tech I refused to believe my HD had crashed. I went to Dells support site for my model (on a different computer) and dowloaded the BIOS fix for this SMART error. The problem was resolved. My HD had not failed. Anyway I stronly believe that Dell needs to urgently address this issue before more credibility is damaged and more regrets are made for buying a Dell. Once again I really apologize for being so arrogant to begin with. I am just upset with Dell. All they have to say is " You need to replace your Hard Drive" If anyone needs any help from me please feel free to send me a line here or to my email mikeyhow30@yahoo.com. I can also be reached on Yahoo Messenger ID mikeyhow30. It is the least that I can do for being so rude to begin with. Thanks all hope everone has a great day.
Seventy
2 Intern
•
417 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 17:00
So, collectively lets hope we all can be of help to one another!
Peace
Seventy
2 Intern
•
417 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 18:00
So did not get to see/read what you are referencing to.
To answer your other question, I checked the BIOS in our D/8300 P4/2.8GHz - there is nothing in our BIOS for SMART stuff. Our HDDs are SATA drives, not IDE/SCSI - not sure if that makes a difference.
Peace
mikeyhow30
16 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 18:00
frustrated35
4 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 18:00
Hi - thank you all for being so helpful.. I am learning a little from it. So if I go on dell support area on my computer and disable disk monitoring - will this get rid of the smart error screen that comes up?
I have already backed all my files up in case.. and Dell gave me new part# to order hard drive but I have not done it yet- I have a laptop I use also so I am not in a big hurry yet..(until it crashes!)
mikeyhow30
16 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 18:00
mikeyhow30
16 Posts
0
February 11th, 2004 18:00
Drio
8 Posts
0
January 28th, 2005 01:00