What is S.M.A.R.T.?
S.M.A.R.T. or Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology allows the drive to report about certain types of degradation or impending failure. This allows the operating system to take the necessary precautions and warn the user. The OEM release 2 of Win95 and the next OS/2 version (Merlin) will be SMART aware. The utility of this feature will initially be quite limited, though, because many failure modes (including the infamous Monday morning failure) can’t be sensed in advance. At present only few utilities exist to examine the S.M.A.R.T. status of a drive. These include Micro House EZ-S.M.A.R.T. and Symantec S.M.A.R.T. Doctor. 10.10 What is PRML? The Partial Response Maximum Likelihood or PRML read channel is quickly replacing the ordinary peak detection channel as a mass market technology.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for “Self Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology” and utilizes a series of your hard disk’s built-in sensors and diagnostic systems to monitor its mechanical and electronic status. Parameters such as temperature, effective operating time or data throughput are monitored and can be very useful in determining the “health” of your hardware. This is where O&O DriveLED enters the picture. O&O DriveLED keeps a close eye on those parameters and predicts when upcoming hard disk failures could occur. For example, if the distance between the hard disk head and the data disk decreases steadily, this could be an indication that your hard disk is probably facing an upcoming head crash. Whenever O&O DriveLED detects a critical value, you’ll be immediately warned.
smart gmbh (www.smart.com) is a business unit of Daimler located in Böblingen, Germany. As a premium small car manufacturer, the company is part of the Mercedes Car Group and has more than 2,000 employees. In 2002, 122,300 smart cars were sold with total sales of 1.1 billion euro. smart is currently available in almost 30 markets throughout the world. After launching the smart city-coupé in 1998, smart is now on its way to becoming a multi-product brand. In 2004 the new four-seater smart forfour will be launched and a SUV version will be produced in the Brazilian facility, Juiz de Fora, start of 2006. This unique smart vehicle, developed for the American market, will go on sale in the United States in 2006.
