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Compaq Professional Workstation SP700 Reference Guide
Writer: kmosby Project: Compaq Professional Workstation SP700 Reference Guide Comments: 320280-002
File Name: D-CH03.DOC Last Saved On: 1/18/99 11:43 AM
COMPAQ CONFIDENTIAL - NEED TO KNOW REQUIRED
SMART III Hard Drive Fault Prediction
SMART III is an extension of SMART II capability. A SMART III hard drive is
able not only to monitor and report on its own health, but to fix problems before
they become failures that result in data losses. The SMART III drive
periodically executes read scans of the entire disk. These read scans take place
during periods of inactivity. During the scan, the disk drive will determine the
“health” of each data sector and move data from any questionable areas of the
disk to known good areas of the disk. To determine the health of the data during
the scan, the drive uses sophisticated methods of Cyclic Redundancy Codes
(CRC) and Error Checking and Correcting (ECC) codes to flag potentially bad
areas of the disk. With today’s multi-gigabyte hard drives, there are areas of the
disk that are not read or written by applications for long periods of time. The
SMART III technology will patrol the entire disk so that when unused or
infrequently used parts of the disk are called upon, the data will be available.
ECC Fault Prediction and Prefailure Warranty
When the workstation encounters an excessive number of error checking and
correcting (ECC) memory errors, the screen displays a Local Alert message.
This message contains detailed information about the errant memory module,
allowing you to take action before you experience non-correctable memory
errors. The Prefailure Warranty for ECC memory modules allows you to replace
these modules free of charge, before the modules actually fail.
The Professional Workstation SP700 has support for processor prefailure
warranty.
Proactive Backup
Proactive Backup software initiates a tape backup upon receiving notice of an
impending SMART III hard drive failure. Third-party products that provide this
feature include Seagate Backup Exec SMART Client and Cheyenne SMART
Drive Agent.