On 11/10/2010 11:05 PM, Bill Broadley wrote:
> On 11/08/2010 07:33 PM, Rick Moen wrote:
>> Quoting Alex Mandel (tech_...@wildintellect.com):
>>
>>> Good Call, I did look a little at finding a drive case that was both
>>> eSata and usb. The drive case was the cheapest part by far but esata/usb
>>> isn't so common. I'm not sure if the board in between would still be an
>>> issue. If I happen to come upon a good deal on such a case I might try
>>> it. Anyone have an external eSata they could try to get SMART data on?
>>
>> All libata drivers support SMART -- which is what one would expect,
>> given that libata leverages the kernel's SCSI layers.
>> https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Libata_Feature_Table
>> (The particular SATA interface, internal vs. eSATA, is not an issue.)
>
> While technically true, often eSATA is combined with a multidisk chassis
> and has a lame/broken chip that multiplexes a single SATA connection to
> multiple drives. Said lame/broken chip often hides the SMART data. I
> find is similarly frustrating when the RAID controller does the same
> thing. It's really really annoying to have to pull a failed drive to
> get it's model and serial number so you can RMA it.
>
> It's also worth mentioning while SMART is cool, I like the idea, and it
> sounds really useful. The studies that I've seen show SMART is useless
> for predicting failures. Sure you can get various interesting metrics
> but there's little relationship between any of the numbers it gives you
> and losing your entire disk in the near future.
>
> The largest of said studies was the Google paper which covered an
> impressive number of disks across all major brands.
>
Good news, that particular case does pass it through so yay SMART data
and HDDtemp. I think just knowing the temp on the drive is going to be
useful(and I can test if keeping the fan on is worth it) and getting a
report of how many bad sectors will give me a little piece of mind.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173043
I also no longer have to use a custom udev rule to get the drive mounted
in the right spot. Downside being I'm not sure the eSata is
hot-swappable so I'll have to take the system down anytime I want to
hook the external up to something else.
Thanks,
Alex
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