Changes between Version 84 and Version 85 of FAQ


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Timestamp:
Jun 23, 2025, 3:03:00 PM (9 months ago)
Author:
Christian Franke
Comment:

Move outdated entries to "Historic" section

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  • FAQ

    v84 v85  
    1111
    1212== Attributes ==
    13 
    14 ----
    15 
    16 === I see some strange output from {{{smartctl}}}.  What does it mean? ===
    17 
    18 The raw SMART attributes (temperature, power-on lifetime, and so
    19 on) are stored in vendor-specific structures. Sometime these are
    20 strange. Hitachi disks (at least some of them) store power-on
    21 lifetime in minutes, rather than hours (see next question below).
    22 IBM disks (at least some of them) have three temperatures stored
    23 in the raw structure, not just one. And so on.
    24 
    25 If you find strange output, or unknown attributes, have a look
    26 at our wiki pages, were we collect vendor specific info:
    27 
    28  * [wiki:AttributesFujitsu Fujitsu]
    29  * [wiki:AttributesIBM IBM (Hitachi)]
    30  * [wiki:AttributesMaxtor Maxtor]
    31  * [wiki:AttributesSeagate Seagate]
    32  * [wiki:AttributesWestern-Digital Western Digital]
    33 
    34 When you don't find an answer to your question there, please send an email to
    35 [https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/smartmontools-support smartmontools-support] and we'll help you try and figure it out.
    3613
    3714----
    … …  
    9168}}}
    9269The last message would also be sent as a warning email to ADDRESS.
    93 
    94 ----
    95 
    96 === Attribute 194 (Temperature Celsius) behaves strangely on my Seagate disk ===
    97 
    98 Some Seagate disks store the current temperature Celsius in both the RAW and NORMALIZED Attribute 194 values, and the maximum lifetime temperature in Celsius in the WORST value. Since cooler is better, this means that in this case, ''lower'' NORMALIZED Attribute values are farther from failure, and that over time the WORST Attribute values get ''larger'', not ''smaller'' (as with other Attributes).
    99 
    100 ----
    101 
    102 === {{{smartctl}}} reports the age as thousands of hours for my !Maxtor/Hitachi/Fujitsu disk, yet it is only a few days old ===
    103 
    104 On recent disks, Maxtor has started to use Attribute 9 to
    105 store the power-on disk lifetime in minutes rather than hours.
    106 In this case, use the: {{{'-v 9,minutes'}}} option to correctly
    107 display hours and minutes.
    108 
    109 Some models of Fujitsu disks use Attribute 9 to store
    110 the power-on disk lifetime in seconds. In that case, use the:
    111 {{{'-v 9,seconds'}}} option to correctly display hours, minutes and seconds.
    112 
    113 ----
    114 
    115 === The power-on timer (Attribute 9 raw value) on my Maxtor disk acts strange. ===
    116 
    117 There are three related problems with Maxtor's SMART firmware:
    118 
    119  1. On some Maxtor disks, the raw value of Attribute 9 (Power On Time) is ''supposed'' to be minutes. But it advances at an unpredictable rate, always more slowly than one count per minute. This is because when the disk is in idle mode, the counter stops advancing. This is only supposed to happen in standby mode. This will be corrected in Maxtor product lines released after October 2004.[[BR]][[BR]]
    120  1. In Maxtor disks that use the raw value of Attribute 9 as a minutes counter, only two bytes (of the six available) are used to store the raw value.  So it resets to zero once every 65536=2^16^ minutes, or about once every 1092 hours. This is fixed in all Maxtor disks manufactured after July 2003, where the raw value was extended to four bytes.[[BR]][[BR]]
    121  1. In Maxtor disks that use the raw value of Attribute 9 as a minutes counter, the hour time-stamps in the self-test and ATA error logs are calculated by right shifting 6 bits.  This is equivalent to dividing by 64 rather than by 60.  As a result, the hour time stamps in these logs advance 7% more slowly than they should.  Thus, if you do self-tests once per week at the same time, instead of the time-stamps being 168 hours apart, they are 157 hours apart.  This is also fixed in all Maxtor disks manufactured after July 2003.
    122 
    123 ----
    124 
    125 === The time stamps in the self-test log don't correspond to the power-on time, when test was run on my Western Digital (WD) disk ===
    126 
    127 The self-test log timestamps in many WD disks roll back to zero every
    128 1092 hours (65536 minutes).  This problem is due to a WD firmware bug.
    129 The power-on lifetime in hours is correctly stored in Attribute 9.
    130 However when the power-on lifetime is calculated for self-test log
    131 entries, the lifetime in minutes is put into a 16-bit register then
    132 divided by 60.  The 16-bit register overflows and wraps around every 1092 hours.
    133 
    134 For WD drives that exhibit this firmware bug, the relationship between
    135 Attribute 9's raw value (H) and the time-stamps in the self-test log (h) are given by:
    136 {{{
    137  Let H = power on hours as shown by Attribute 9 (correct)
    138  Let M = 60*H (power on minutes, correct)
    139  Let m = M mod 65536 (incorrect value of power on minutes)
    140  Let h = m/60 (incorrect value of power on hours, shown in self-test log)
    141 }}}
    142 
    143 ----
    144 
    145 === The (normalized) WORST Attribute values of my Western Digital (WD) disk are larger than the (normalized) CURRENT Attribute values ===
    146 
    147 Western Digital firmware initializes SMART Attributes 10, 11, and
    148 199 after either 120 spin-ups or 8 power-on hours.  Until that time,
    149 they have the uninitialized value 253.
    15070
    15171----
    … …  
    720640----
    721641
     642=== I see some strange output from {{{smartctl}}}.  What does it mean? ===
     643
     644The raw SMART attributes (temperature, power-on lifetime, and so
     645on) are stored in vendor-specific structures. Sometime these are
     646strange. Hitachi disks (at least some of them) store power-on
     647lifetime in minutes, rather than hours (see next question below).
     648IBM disks (at least some of them) have three temperatures stored
     649in the raw structure, not just one. And so on.
     650
     651If you find strange output, or unknown attributes, have a look
     652at our wiki pages, were we collect vendor specific info:
     653
     654 * [wiki:AttributesFujitsu Fujitsu]
     655 * [wiki:AttributesIBM IBM (Hitachi)]
     656 * [wiki:AttributesMaxtor Maxtor]
     657 * [wiki:AttributesSeagate Seagate]
     658 * [wiki:AttributesWestern-Digital Western Digital]
     659
     660----
     661
     662=== Attribute 194 (Temperature Celsius) behaves strangely on my Seagate disk ===
     663
     664Some Seagate disks store the current temperature Celsius in both the RAW and NORMALIZED Attribute 194 values, and the maximum lifetime temperature in Celsius in the WORST value. Since cooler is better, this means that in this case, ''lower'' NORMALIZED Attribute values are farther from failure, and that over time the WORST Attribute values get ''larger'', not ''smaller'' (as with other Attributes).
     665
     666----
     667
     668=== {{{smartctl}}} reports the age as thousands of hours for my !Maxtor/Hitachi/Fujitsu disk, yet it is only a few days old ===
     669
     670On recent disks, Maxtor has started to use Attribute 9 to
     671store the power-on disk lifetime in minutes rather than hours.
     672In this case, use the: {{{'-v 9,minutes'}}} option to correctly
     673display hours and minutes.
     674
     675Some models of Fujitsu disks use Attribute 9 to store
     676the power-on disk lifetime in seconds. In that case, use the:
     677{{{'-v 9,seconds'}}} option to correctly display hours, minutes and seconds.
     678
     679----
     680
     681=== The power-on timer (Attribute 9 raw value) on my Maxtor disk acts strange. ===
     682
     683There are three related problems with Maxtor's SMART firmware:
     684
     685 1. On some Maxtor disks, the raw value of Attribute 9 (Power On Time) is ''supposed'' to be minutes. But it advances at an unpredictable rate, always more slowly than one count per minute. This is because when the disk is in idle mode, the counter stops advancing. This is only supposed to happen in standby mode. This will be corrected in Maxtor product lines released after October 2004.[[BR]][[BR]]
     686 1. In Maxtor disks that use the raw value of Attribute 9 as a minutes counter, only two bytes (of the six available) are used to store the raw value.  So it resets to zero once every 65536=2^16^ minutes, or about once every 1092 hours. This is fixed in all Maxtor disks manufactured after July 2003, where the raw value was extended to four bytes.[[BR]][[BR]]
     687 1. In Maxtor disks that use the raw value of Attribute 9 as a minutes counter, the hour time-stamps in the self-test and ATA error logs are calculated by right shifting 6 bits.  This is equivalent to dividing by 64 rather than by 60.  As a result, the hour time stamps in these logs advance 7% more slowly than they should.  Thus, if you do self-tests once per week at the same time, instead of the time-stamps being 168 hours apart, they are 157 hours apart.  This is also fixed in all Maxtor disks manufactured after July 2003.
     688
     689----
     690
     691=== The time stamps in the self-test log don't correspond to the power-on time, when test was run on my Western Digital (WD) disk ===
     692
     693The self-test log timestamps in many WD disks roll back to zero every
     6941092 hours (65536 minutes).  This problem is due to a WD firmware bug.
     695The power-on lifetime in hours is correctly stored in Attribute 9.
     696However when the power-on lifetime is calculated for self-test log
     697entries, the lifetime in minutes is put into a 16-bit register then
     698divided by 60.  The 16-bit register overflows and wraps around every 1092 hours.
     699
     700For WD drives that exhibit this firmware bug, the relationship between
     701Attribute 9's raw value (H) and the time-stamps in the self-test log (h) are given by:
     702{{{
     703 Let H = power on hours as shown by Attribute 9 (correct)
     704 Let M = 60*H (power on minutes, correct)
     705 Let m = M mod 65536 (incorrect value of power on minutes)
     706 Let h = m/60 (incorrect value of power on hours, shown in self-test log)
     707}}}
     708
     709----
     710
     711=== The (normalized) WORST Attribute values of my Western Digital (WD) disk are larger than the (normalized) CURRENT Attribute values ===
     712
     713Western Digital firmware initializes SMART Attributes 10, 11, and
     714199 after either 120 spin-ups or 8 power-on hours.  Until that time,
     715they have the uninitialized value 253.
     716
     717----
     718
    722719=== Startup message: {{{smartd [FAILED]}}} on Fedora Core Linux system ===
    723720