smartctl on CentOS >= 4.3, supports SATA just fine.
Great notice for me! Thanks for info: last time I used smartctl SATA was only supported after apply a specific kernel patch.
why not use the CentOS-4 LiveCD ?
Yes, why not. I supose everybody has their own habits (I use frequently UltimateBootCD to diagnosis hardware).
Althought, I'll try CentOS-4 LiveCD, of course. ;)