yes but also no... you can get a SMART tool to read HDD "health" data, but if it reads perfect it could still die tomorrow and if it looks awful it could still last for 15 years.

Also fans and things rely on SMBUS being included on the motherboard, basically PIII era upward, and having the 3rd wire for speed monitoring. Then you can use utils to determine if a fan is not running full speed etc, and if voltages are alright. Older hardware, nope, gotta break out the multimeter.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-11-28, 19:12:

yes but also no... you can get a SMART tool to read HDD "health" data, but if it reads perfect it could still die tomorrow and if it looks awful it could still last for 15 years.

Also fans and things rely on SMBUS being included on the motherboard, basically PIII era upward, and having the 3rd wire for speed monitoring. Then you can use utils to determine if a fan is not running full speed etc, and if voltages are alright. Older hardware, nope, gotta break out the multimeter.

Ahh, I see. That’s unfortunate. 😕 I’ve yet to invest in a multimeter, though that would be to check the voltage to find out if I can upgrade to Coppermine.

My experience with CrystalDisk and "smart" HD's is that if they show green for a while and then one suddenly shows yellow, the drive will die in days to months, but the death is coming.
Have never had one show green suddenly die, always it goes yellow just before death (usually retries, allocations error, etc).... I check my drives weekly now. This is only my experience with the tool.

Yeah it's the change that mostly tells you anything, monitor for 6 months, get one more bad sector, no biggie, monitor after 6 hours and get one more bad sector, and another in another 6 hours, backup, she's going south.

Horun wrote on 2024-11-29, 02:34:

My experience with CrystalDisk and "smart" HD's is that if they show green for a while and then one suddenly shows yellow, the drive will die in days to months, but the death is coming.
Have never had one show green suddenly die, always it goes yellow just before death (usually retries, allocations error, etc).... I check my drives weekly now. This is only my experience with the tool.

CrystalDisk. Cool. And I was sorting of hoping for a tool that shows you a component’s health with colour. I’ll look into it. Thank you. 😀

There are some good HDD tools for Windows - the ones I use(d) are HD Tune 2.55 (free version, Win2k+, https://www.hdtune.com/), SpeedFan (just S.M.A.R.T. values, Win9x+, https://soggi.org/misc/tools.htm), TesDisk (partition repair and stuff, many OSes, FOSS, https://www.cgsecurity.org/).

kind regards
soggi

I wouldnt trust SMART as it is as the guys said above, once it shows a warning of any kind of moribund. In your case its already failed so yes it will fail sooner rather than later.
Time to get a "new" one.

So what's your alternative for S.M.A.R.T. values - asking the HDD god if the HDD has good karma or time traveling to the future returning with the knowledge of what will happen?

The values are no forecast, no tool says that the HDD will be broken in x seconds, it's all about probabilities (not about trust) and the user has to interpret on his own what the best choice could be...

kind regards
soggi

HDTune Pro is the only way to go when it comes to HDD/SDD's, i used to work for a company building systems that used it, thats when i first found out about it, brilliant program. read my post here with picture
Re: Windows XP: "Please insert the disc: 1" error during installation

soggi wrote on 2024-11-29, 07:38:

So what's your alternative for S.M.A.R.T. values - asking the HDD god if the HDD has good karma or time traveling to the future […]
Show full quote

So what's your alternative for S.M.A.R.T. values - asking the HDD god if the HDD has good karma or time traveling to the future returning with the knowledge of what will happen?

The values are no forecast, no tool says that the HDD will be broken in x seconds, it's all about probabilities (not about trust) and the user has to interpret on his own what the best choice could be...

kind regards
soggi

Why would you need an alternative?

When you use a drive you keep backups. When it fails you restore.
It really is that simple.

Then it doesnt matter if SMART works or if it doesnt does it?

DudeFace wrote on 2024-11-29, 17:50:

HDTune Pro is the only way to go when it comes to HDD/SDD's, i used to work for a company building systems that used it, thats when i first found out about it, brilliant program. read my post here with picture
Re: Windows XP: "Please insert the disc: 1" error during installation

That can also be done with the free non-Pro version - the only problem is that the latest version is from 2008, so it misses support for newer HDDs and especially SSDs.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2024-11-29, 23:46:

Why would you need an alternative?

Because that was the question! The TO asked for tools to check component's health, he didn't ask for Backup software. To quote you: "It really is that simple."

It is correct that it's a good idea to have a backup but this isn't the topic here.

kind regards
soggi

soggi wrote on 2024-11-30, 03:27:

That can also be done with the free non-Pro version - the only problem is that the latest version is from 2008, so it misses sup […]
Show full quote

DudeFace wrote on 2024-11-29, 17:50:

HDTune Pro is the only way to go when it comes to HDD/SDD's, i used to work for a company building systems that used it, thats when i first found out about it, brilliant program. read my post here with picture
Re: Windows XP: "Please insert the disc: 1" error during installation

That can also be done with the free non-Pro version - the only problem is that the latest version is from 2008, so it misses support for newer HDDs and especially SSDs.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2024-11-29, 23:46:

Why would you need an alternative?

Because that was the question! The TO asked for tools to check component's health, he didn't ask for Backup software. To quote you: "It really is that simple."

It is correct that it's a good idea to have a backup but this isn't the topic here.

kind regards
soggi

You dont need an alternative to it, you use it like I said.
It tells you when its moribund. Its at that point you buy a replacement.

Simple really.
No replacement required.

No, you're on the wrong topic.

kind regards
soggi

Marvelous. Just before I got chance to try Crystal Disk, the HDD is acting up again. This time, it's getting worse. It keeps trying to 'rev up' and struggles. Before I had to force it to shut down, the fan/sound of it completely died out again. Just to make sure the PSU isn't the cause, I'll have to try disconnecting my D drive and see what happens.

You might want to consider switching to an SSD. Any mechanical hard drive, especially a used one, is going to be a gamble.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-11-30, 16:50:

You might want to consider switching to an SSD. Any mechanical hard drive, especially a used one, is going to be a gamble.

Is an SSD even going to work in my system? Or is there some wizardry that can get them to work with IDE cables etc? Surely it would be crazy fast for a lot of things in Windows 98? 😅

Disconnected the D drive, which was originally the C drive when I bought it, and apart from some slow response times at loading Explorer, everything seems fine. No crashes or fans stopping. I ran through Crystal Disk Mark 2.2 and these are the results:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-30, 17:04:

Is an SSD even going to work in my system? Or is there some wizardry that can get them to work with IDE cables etc? Surely it would be crazy fast for a lot of things in Windows 98? 😅

You can get IDE-to-SATA adapters: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Drive-Opt … r/dp/B00EOJNGC2

It won't be crazy fast. You're still limited by the IDE bus.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-11-30, 17:17:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-11-30, 17:04:

Is an SSD even going to work in my system? Or is there some wizardry that can get them to work with IDE cables etc? Surely it would be crazy fast for a lot of things in Windows 98? 😅

You can get IDE-to-SATA adapters: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Drive-Opt … r/dp/B00EOJNGC2

It won't be crazy fast. You're still limited by the IDE bus.

Oh, awesome. Definitely something I’ll have to look into at some point. Thanks for sharing. 😄