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smartctl - SMART control utility for Linux
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smartctl controls the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System(S.M.A.R.T.) build into ATA-3 and later IDE Hard Drives. This is used to check the reliability of the hard drive and predict drive failures. smartctl is command line utility designed to perform simple S.M.A.R.T. tasks. 

To install:

smartctl require linux kernel 2.2 or greater in order to run. 
 
use make to compile and make install to install. It by default installs it self in /usr/local.


to run:

./smartctl [options] [device]  

options are 

i	Check if the device supports S.M.A.R.T
c	Check if device has any S.M.A.R.T. Warranty Failures
g	Prints only the generic S.M.A.R.T. attributes 
v	Prints only the vendor specific S.M.A.R.T. attributes
t	Prints only the vendor specific S.M.A.R.T. thresholds
l	Prints only the S.M.A.R.T. error log
a	Prints all parameters for c,g,v,t,l
e	Enables S.M.A.R.T. on device
d	Disables S.M.A.R.T. on device
t	Enables S.M.A.R.T. automatic offline self test timer which scans the drive every four hours for disk defects. 
T	Disables S.M.A.R.T. automatic offline self test timer 
O	Runs S.M.A.R.T. Immediate off-line Test
S	Runs S.M.A.R.T. Short Self Test ( usually under ten minutes)
s	Runs S.M.A.R.T. Short Self Test in Captive Mode. ( WARNING this test holds will busy out drive for length of test )
X	Runs S.M.A.R.T. Extended Self Test ( tens of minutes)
x 	Runs S.M.A.R.T. Extended Self Test in Captive Mode. ( WARNING this test holds will busy out drive for length of test )
A 	Aborts Non-Captive S.M.A.R.T. Tests.

devices are IDE devices which usually are:

/dev/hda 	Primary Master
/dev/hdb	Primary Slave
/dev/hdc 	Secondary Master
/dev/hdd 	Secondary Slave	


examples:

smartctl -e /dev/hda   - enables SMART on hard drive

smartctl -c /dev/hda   - checks status of hard drive. 

