What is S.M.A.R.T Technology?

Do you fear losing your data to an untimely system crash? Do you dread the very thought of having to face an unexplained PC shutdown when you are in a middle of an extremely important task? These are among common situations which an average computer user would never want to encounter. However, just like any other comfort, technology too is accompanied by many shortfalls. You never know when your computer may start behaving abruptly or your hard disk might begin to trouble you. This is where S.M.A.R.T. technology is helpful.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. It is an advanced technology which is in great use today and serves as a warning for any expected problem with the hard disk of a computer. S.M.A.R.T. is a monitoring system, developed by contemporary hard disk manufacturers. This technology comes incorporated in the modern hard drives to forewarn the user of any problem relating to the hard drive failure in future. The system monitors and reports various hard disk parameters on a regular basis. Analyzing these reports about hard disk parameters keep us informed about the status of our hard disk health. Based on this, we can judge its reliability and predict any failure scenario.

Your hard drive is the essence and storehouse of all the vital data of your PC. Any problem with this can ruin your data, information and the PC completely. Therefore, we need advanced systems to judge its status. Generally, two kinds of failures may affect a hard disk- predictable and non-predictable. Predictable hard disk problems are the ones which occur on account of physical wearing of the hard disk, until it crashes. Whereas, non-predictable failures occur due to situations which occur suddenly, such as abrupt power surge.

We can avoid and save our data from predictable disk failures with the help of S.M.A.R.T. technology. Parameters like fly height of head above magnetic media, soft error rates, etc. are monitored by S.M.A.R.T. enabled hard drives. Certain third party data loss prevention tools are also S.M.A.R.T. enabled to ensure complete data revival in a variety of data loss situations.

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