S.M.A.R.T. status

[TyWahn]

Is the SMART status only available for drives with an operating system on them? My internal drive has it, but my external FW LaCie 160 does not...
Thanks!

[robbieduncan]

I believe that SMART only works over ATA, not SCSI, USB or Firewire.

[dsharits]

I believe it is for drives connected to the onboard ATA bus. I have two drives in my B&W, a WD 80 GB connected to the onboard ATA bus and a Maxtor connected to a PCI ATA/133 card, and I only get the S.M.A.R.T. status on the WD.

Daniel

EDIT: Beat me to it!!

[yippy]

No, smart status is hardware, absolutely nothing to do with what is on it.

That is odd that your external doesn't have it, the only thing I can think of off hand is that the ATA -> FW bridge is blocking the S.M.A.R.T. signal.

It is possible that the drive doesn't have it, but any hard drive in the past 5 or so years should I think.

EDIT: Ah! beaten by 2 people.