This message is from the T13 list server.
Subject: RE: [t13] Automatic ATA device / host mode sync
...
> > > Once you start having problems with a drive, the most secure
option is to throw it in the trash (or RMA it).
Yes.
When is SMART going to be standardized so that recovery / security
tools have one standard to work from to get key information like
relocation table size, number of bad sectors relocated, which sectors
have been relocated to where, ability to enable/disable relocation,
sectors that are starting to encounter errors, device level problems
like temp, spin up problems, etc. Right now, it's not standard.
...
>>They don't want to give out their secrets to the other guys which
is fine. I'm saying just give out a standard for some of the basic
information that is useful to software companies. Which sectors are
relocated, where to, how many spares left, which sectors are starting
to act up, disable/enable relocation so software can access both the
bad and new sectors, is the drive starting to act up or have an issue
that the computer itself could take care of. Shouldn't be anything
secret in that type of information<<
Remember ATA != SCSI. :)
This is chicken-and-egg, irreconcilably stuck, no?
Neither the host folk nor the device folk want to be the first to say
precisely what additional diagnostic info will be useful how. The
device folk have a history of giving out raw info to host folk who then
naively misinterpret it. That history of pain teaches the device folk
to say nothing, now, in fear of encouraging baseless reseller
disqualification and expensive no-defect-found customer returns.
Even something as basic as the "inject ECC read error" that SCSI once
made easy is growing more difficult, across devices.
"Inject write error" is now virtually inexpressible: the closest I see
is turning off recoveries and then writing enough to stumble across
frequent random failures, by luck.
