On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 2:05 PM, William L. Maltby <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com> wrote: > > > IIRC, the seatools just run the smart tools that come on CentOS/Linux. > Not the same as those on the DOS tools version. It's been several > months, but barring memory failures (mine, not the computer's ;-) I > ended up downloading the DOS ones so that I could do the repair and run > the "real magilla". > I'm not so sure about that, but I'd have to check. It was the Seatools program, not smartctl (at least not directly). And it's "megilla," ya goysiher kopf! > Try the DOS version. I bet the lack of that support is in the standard > *IX smart tools, not the drive. > I don't think so - it only commented on these from the Seagate, not the WD, and it explicitly states that the DST is not supported on the drive (although that is /just/ ambiguous enough...). > If all drives left the factory in great shape, it is natural that the > older ones would show an error first. Often just a "weak" spot or two > that passed mfg tests and finally failed as they aged. That's why I > don't worry about them (I don't have data center servers to the world > here at home) as long as the repair utilities run successfully and then > no more show up for a long time. If they start coming in frequent > bursts, then it's time to act. > Well, yeah, of course, but why would my Max 160 be error free and the Seagate have 4 billion when the latter is (a year or so) newer? (Rhetorical question!) > BTW, most warranty replacements are "reconditioned" drives that have > nothing more than diagnostics run and bad sectors reassigned. As long as > total capacity still meets advertised and the mechanics/electrics and > media (high %) are still good, they'll ship them. > I've noticed that - really annoying, but then, what're ya gonna do when there's no will to enact laws requiring manufacturers to provide quality products to begin with, and then replace them appropriately under warranty? Ciao. mhr