Check SMART parameters on a mac?

[ClickRight]

Does anybody know a free tool (I've seen several paid ones) that will give your the SMART parameters of a hard drive in a mac? Preferably a bootable CD, but it doesn't have to be. I've seen several that will give the hard drive a pass or fail, but never give the actual SMART attributes.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Did you try to repair the drive with disk utility? Did it say "volume Macintosh HD appears okay" or "failure on exit" or perhaps "repaired successfully".

 

[ClickRight]

Did you try to repair the drive with disk utility? Did it say "volume Macintosh HD appears okay" or "failure on exit" or perhaps "repaired successfully".

No, I'm just trying to find an easy way to read the SMART data. I had a customer come in yesterday with an iMac that would kernel panic on boot, even if I booted from the OS X DVD. Turns out the hard drive was bad, but the only way that I fond that out was opening up the whole machine. It would be a lot easier if I could just pop in a disc and read the SMART data like I can on a PC.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I use a combination of disk utility, Disk Warrior, and the Apple Service Diagnostics available to AASPs, but sometimes it just a matter of swapping drives. Disk Warrior is best of all the above in picking out a bad HD a lot of times and all of the above will tell you SMART status, but not break it down to the attribute level. If it is really a toss up between software and bad HD, I'll clone the HD if possible, or at least get everything I can. Zero the HD because that is a good drive fitness test, then try to reload the OS. If all is well after that its usually safe to put the data back on and give it to the customer.

 

[Reset]

I use a combination of disk utility, Disk Warrior, and the Apple Service Diagnostics available to AASPs, but sometimes it just a matter of swapping drives. Disk Warrior is best of all the above in picking out a bad HD a lot of times and all of the above will tell you SMART status, but not break it down to the attribute level. If it is really a toss up between software and bad HD, I'll clone the HD if possible, or at least get everything I can. Zero the HD because that is a good drive fitness test, then try to reload the OS. If all is well after that its usually safe to put the data back on and give it to the customer.

Just like Mac Tech said, we do it the same way at our shop.

 

[ClickRight]

Alright, thanks for the answer. I guess I can always pull the drive and stick it in a PC to read the SMART data. Also, what program do you use for cloning a mac drive?

 

[purple_minion]

I know little about Mac's software wise, but is it possible that some linux boot cd's could run and communicate smart attributes with the drive? I know there were live cd's back in the day for the powerpc architecture, and from what I know the new macs are x86 now.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Alright, thanks for the answer. I guess I can always pull the drive and stick it in a PC to read the SMART data. Also, what program do you use for cloning a mac drive?

You can just do it with disk utility in applications/utilites by making a disk image or else there is Carbon Copy Cloner which is free http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

 

[ClickRight]

You can just do it with disk utility in applications/utilites by making a disk image or else there is Carbon Copy Cloner which is free http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Thanks! As you can probably tell I'm relatively new to the mac scene and really appreciate your help.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Thanks! As you can probably tell I'm relatively new to the mac scene and really appreciate your help.

Anytime! I'm hoping to get this lonely Mac catagory going a bit more. Its been picking up a little as of late. Any time you got anything, please post.

 

[john_pc]

Smart

A free OS X utility that does S.M.A.R.T is:

SMARTReporter - 2.3.9


I found it on versiontracker.com


I also puchased DiskWarrior, which also keeps track of S.M.A.R.T errors and notifies you via popup/email/etc.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I also puchased DiskWarrior, which also keeps track of S.M.A.R.T errors and notifies you via popup/email/etc.

The thread was pertaining to digging into the attribute level. I use DW all the time and it will pass/fail SMART status, but not break the attributes down.

But regardless, DW is a great must have tool for servicing Macs, no question about that!