Detect SMART data from USB external drives?

[bodhicoyote]

Hi all,

Does anyone know of a tool that can read the SMART data from an IDE or SATA drive that's in an external enclosure, connected via USB or FireWire?

I've googled but can't find anything. :(

Thanks!

PS - I'm talking about actual hard drives, not USB pen/stick drives.

[Pikey]

I was searching about a month ago now for just this sort of thing!

As far as I can tell, a USB connection is not capable of reliably transmitting SMART information .. unless anyone else knows differently of course.

[+BudMan MVC]

http://www.hdsentinel.com/compat.php

Information about USB hard disks and USB-ATA bridges

USB Hard Disks, Enclosures

The latest versions of Hard Disk Sentinel supports the following external hard disk enclosures and can display temperature, health, S.M.A.R.T. parameters for such external hard disks:

A.C.Ryan AluBox e-Sata Yes Yes 2.50

Chieftec CEB-35S Black Box SATA Yes Yes 2.40

Cooler Master - RX-3HU (-LUB1-GP) (3.5") IDE No No

Cooler Master - RX-3HU-S (3.5") IDE Yes Yes 2.02b

Cooler Master - RX-3SB (3.5") S-ATA Yes Yes 2.02b

Coolink HDIUB2A4 No No

Coolink HDIUB3ASS Yes Yes 2.40

Coolink HDSUB3A4 Yes Yes 2.40

Enermax Vanguard EB206U-B (2.5") Yes Yes 2.02b

Fujitsu-Siemens Storagebird 35EV821 Yes Yes 2.50

Healing HSR999 Personal Video Recorder Yes Yes 2.40

ICY BOX IB-250StU Yes Yes 2.40

IOI ESU2-DSATA10 (eSata) Yes Yes 2.40

IOI FWBU2DSATA01 (USB, eSATA) Yes Yes 2.40

IOI FWBU2DSATA11 (USB, Firewire) Yes Yes 2.40

IOI IDE-SATA01 Yes Yes 2.40

IOI IDE-SATA04 Yes Yes 2.40

IOI SATA-IDE03 Yes Yes 2.40

IOI U2-EIDE01P Yes Yes 2.40

IOI U2-PSATA03SD Yes Yes 2.40

IOI U2FW-DSATA02 Yes Yes 2.40

LaCie 1 TB drive Yes Yes 2.50

Mapower MAP-KC31U2 / USB 2.0 No No

Mediagate MG-45 Yes Yes 2.40

MegaDrive200 (Plus) (3.5") Yes Yes 2.02b

NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter Yes Yes 2.40

Noontec GS3380 Yes Yes 2.60b

Noontec GS4382 Yes Yes 2.40

Noontec GV3621 Mediaplayer Yes Yes 2.40

Noontec Noontec SH35JB SATA EIDE Yes Yes 2.40

Noontec SU25B (2.5") PATA Yes Yes 2.40

Packard Bell Save & Store USB 2.0 (3.5") Yes Yes 2.02b

Pleiades Super S-Combo Yes Yes 2.70

RaidSonic Icy Box IB-250U (2.5") Yes Yes 2.02b

RaidSonic Icy Box IB-351U (3.5") Yes Yes 2.02b

Revoltec Alu Guard 3,5" SATA to eSATA + USB 2.0 (RS047) Yes Yes 2.50

Seagate FreeAgent Desktop (USB) Yes Yes 2.40

Sharkoon Rapid Case 3.5" SATA Yes Yes 2.60b

Spire GigaPod II (3.5" IDE) Yes Yes 2.02b

Spire GigaPod III (3.5" IDE) Yes Yes 2.40

Spire GigaPod SP222 (2.5") Yes Yes 2.02b

Spire GigaPod VIII (SP 166SU-SL-EU) Yes Yes 2.70

Thermaltake Max4 A2294 (2.5") Yes but not yet confirmed Yes Waiting for reports

Thermaltake Max4 A2295 (3.5") Yes but not yet confirmed Yes Waiting for reports

Thermaltake Max5 A2296 (5.25") Yes but not yet confirmed Yes Waiting for reports

Thermaltake Muse A2291 (2.5") Yes but not yet confirmed Yes Waiting for reports

Thermaltake Muse A2292 (3.5") Yes but not yet confirmed Yes Waiting for reports

Thermaltake Muse A2293 (5.25") Yes but not yet confirmed Yes Waiting for reports

USB-to-IDE+SATA adapter (cable with connectors) Yes Yes 2.40

VP-9208 + VP-9054 (Smart cable and enclosure) Yes Yes 2.40

WD My Book Studio Edition II Yes Yes 2.50

Western Digital Mybook Essential (3.5") (USB) Yes Yes 2.11

Western Digital Mybook Home Edition (3.5") (USB) Yes Yes 2.11

Western Digital Mybook Pro (3.5") (USB) Yes Yes 2.11

Western Digital Passport (2.5") Yes Yes 2.05

If you enclosure is on there -- your in luck, if not -- not so much ;)

Here is more info.

http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/faq.html#testinghelp

Smartmontools for FireWire, USB, and SATA disks/systems

Some USB device based on cypress chips support a proprietary protocol (ATACB) that allow to send raw ATA commands (i.e. SMART support).

Another tool

http://hddlife.com/

HDDlife? will:

* Control the health of your hard drives with the S.M.A.R.T. technology and warn you about potential problems the moment they start developing

* Monitor all your hard drives in the background - all the time!

* Support external USB disks.

* Display the drive's health, temperature, resources and free space.

* Display hard disk activities in the system tray, Windows Vista Sidebar and Google Desktop.

etc.. Not sure how you people google for stuff -- but took like 2 seconds to find this info.

[bodhicoyote]

Awesome, Budman. :) I'll give that a go.

[Pikey]

Not sure how you people google for stuff -- but took like 2 seconds to find this info.

Thanks .. I was looking in the wrong place obviously ..