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mollusk · May 9, 2005, 11:19 PM

I have had many freezes lately and did an archive and install. Also ran Tech Tool Pro and ended up reinstalling all my software. I use iphoto and Photoshop Elements 3 every day and it has been very sluggish and I am seeing too much of the spinning beach ball (no matter what I do. When I repair permissions I keep getting the same (see below) I do not have a clue how to interpret it. Also getting S.M.A.R.T status failing........what is that?
Any simple advice? I miss the old "snappiness" (tried to insert smilies here)

Repairing permissions for �Macintosh HD�
Determining correct file permissions.
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/jobs. New uid is 1
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/spool. New uid is 1
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume

S.M.A.R.T staus failing

ibook 933 G4 640 MB 10.3.9

tooki · May 9, 2005, 11:22 PM

SMART is your hard drive's internal diagnostics. When you see this, it means your hard drive is failing, so back up your data NOW and replace the drive immediately.

tooki

mollusk · May 9, 2005, 11:27 PM

Thank you I guess! It is a good thing I have Apple Care. I don't like this situation, I did actually back up everything earlier tonight as I thought it didn't sound like a good thing. I usually back up on a regular basis anyway as recommended by these forums.

Tony Arnold · May 10, 2005, 12:27 AM

I think we're going to see a lot more of this. Tiger is the first version of the Mac OS to report SMART status using it's own utilities. I got hit by this on my laptop, but god knows how long it had been failing for before I upgraded to Tiger.

CharlesS · May 10, 2005, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by Tony Arnold

I think we're going to see a lot more of this. Tiger is the first version of the Mac OS to report SMART status using it's own utilities. I got hit by this on my laptop, but god knows how long it had been failing for before I upgraded to Tiger.

Panther's Disk Utility reported S.M.A.R.T. status as well.

tooki · May 10, 2005, 01:18 AM

Yep, and I think even in Jaguar on the xServe.

tooki

CaptainHaddock · May 10, 2005, 05:15 AM

Yes, I always check my drives' S.M.A.R.T. status every few weeks, so I know ahead of time if I have to back things up or get a drive replaced. It hasn't happened yet, but I've lost enough drives in the last 10 years of computing to know it's a common enough occurrence.

OreoCookie · May 10, 2005, 05:28 AM

It means: Do an Backup NOW and you'll have to replace your harddrive.

Since EBCDIC · May 10, 2005, 05:28 AM

So what does

S.M.A.R.T status: verified

mean? Perhaps "so far, so good". Verified? C'mon, let's try some plain language here, please!

OreoCookie · May 10, 2005, 05:36 AM

It means no error was detected. This is what it should say.

Millennium · May 10, 2005, 06:22 AM

If the SMART status was verified, then nothing is wrong. If the SMART status is failing, replace the drive immediately, because it is probably about to go bad on you. You might be able to get by for a few days, or even a few weeks, but it's not worth it to gamble with your data like that.

WJMoore · May 10, 2005, 07:38 AM

Originally Posted by Millennium

If the SMART status was verified, then nothing is wrong.

Technically no, it means nothing was detected as wrong and in most cases it probably means the drive is ok but there is still a possibility it could fail although not a very big chance. Still a good idea to backup regularly.

jdogg99 · May 10, 2005, 08:00 AM

I believe disk utility will report SMART status verified even if the drive doesn't support SMART technology. This seemed to happen on my friend's Powerbook. (Other disk utilities reported that SMART wasn't supported, but disk utility kept reporting "verified". Can anyone confirm this?

sniffer · May 10, 2005, 08:21 AM

jdogg99, on HDs that don't have SMART support it doesn't mention anything about SMART or SMART status IME.

doublep · May 10, 2005, 08:26 AM

In my Powerbook, the status was 'failing' and the hard disk died one week later...

mollusk · May 10, 2005, 09:21 AM

So...... What specifically do the letters S.M.A.R.T stand for?

tooki · May 10, 2005, 09:47 AM

Google is your friend, you know.

It means "Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting" Technology.

Anyhow, yes, it is important to understand that while a SMART error pretty much guarantees the drive is on its last legs, a drive can be failing and show up fine on SMART (it can't detect everything).

tooki

chris v · May 10, 2005, 10:13 AM

You can tell DiskWarrior to e-mail you if a drive fails the S.M.A.R.T. status. Handy, if you don't get around to checking it in Disk Utility too often.

chris v · May 10, 2005, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by mollusk

Thank you I guess! It is a good thing I have Apple Care. I don't like this situation, I did actually back up everything earlier tonight as I thought it didn't sound like a good thing. I usually back up on a regular basis anyway as recommended by these forums.

Model citizen. If only more folks behaved like you.

turtle777 · May 10, 2005, 11:35 AM

^^^ Seconded.

-t

analogika · May 10, 2005, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by chris v

You can tell DiskWarrior to e-mail you if a drive fails the S.M.A.R.T. status. Handy, if you don't get around to checking it in Disk Utility too often.

*ahem*

SMARTReporter is free and will even display a menubar icon if desired.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23232

turtle777 · May 10, 2005, 01:28 PM

^^^ What he said, plus, you don't have to waste resources having DW run in the background all the time...

-t

Angus_D · May 10, 2005, 02:03 PM

Server Monitor can do it, too

seanc · May 10, 2005, 03:13 PM

Yep, run smart reporter.

Mines verified on my ibook. What do the numbers in the middle in the square brackets mean? I've noticed they sometimes get low (like below).

2005-05-10 20:10:03.425 SMARTReporter[178] ATA Drive: 'FUJITSU MHT2030AT' - SMART condition not exceeded, drive OK!

Sean

chris v · May 10, 2005, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

^^^ What he said, plus, you don't have to waste resources having DW run in the background all the time...

-t

Well, if you've already GOT DiskWarrior, which you do if you're smart, then there it is. Also, I have mine set to check once a week. Doesn't seem like that'd be too much of a resource hog.

CharlesS · May 10, 2005, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by chris v

Well, if you've already GOT DiskWarrior, which you do if you're smart, then there it is. Also, I have mine set to check once a week. Doesn't seem like that'd be too much of a resource hog.

Indeed. My little dual G4/450 is no speed champ, but I still haven't noticed any performance penalties from DiskWarrior's daemon.

chris v · May 10, 2005, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

^^^ What he said, plus, you don't have to waste resources having DW run in the background all the time...

-t

I just started the daemon on my powerbook, and watched it in top for a minute or two. It's mostly 0.0%. Kicked all the way up to 0.6% once for 2 seconds. It's using 304k of private memory. not a big deal.

malvolio · May 11, 2005, 01:26 AM

Originally Posted by jdogg99

I believe disk utility will report SMART status verified even if the drive doesn't support SMART technology. This seemed to happen on my friend's Powerbook. (Other disk utilities reported that SMART wasn't supported, but disk utility kept reporting "verified". Can anyone confirm this?

Not exactly the same situation, but when I use Disk Utility's Info button to check on my Firewire hard drive, it says "SMART not supported."
Hmmm, I'll have to see what it says when I'm actually booted up from the Firewire drive...

IEEE1394 · May 11, 2005, 02:34 AM

Originally Posted by malvolio

Not exactly the same situation, but when I use Disk Utility's Info button to check on my Firewire hard drive, it says "SMART not supported."
Hmmm, I'll have to see what it says when I'm actually booted up from the Firewire drive...

It'll say the same thing, SMART isn't support on IDE->FireWire devices.