{"id":3727,"date":"2023-11-21T12:03:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T04:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/?post_type=kb&p=3727"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T04:23:19","slug":"smartmontools-check-hard-drive","status":"publish","type":"kb","link":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/kb\/smartmontools-check-hard-drive","title":{"rendered":"SMARTmontools: 7 Ways to Check Your Hard Drive Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SMARTmontools<\/p>\n

SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a feature built into most hard drives that allows the drive to monitor its own health and report any errors or issues that it detects. SMARTmontools<\/a> is a free and open-source software utility that can be used to read and interpret SMART data from hard drives.<\/p>\n

Installation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To install smartmontools on Debian\/Ubuntu, use the following command:<\/p>\n

\n
apt update && apt install smartmontools<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
To install smartmontools on CentOS, use the following command:<\/p>\n
\n
yum install smartmontools<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Checking Disk Label<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Before using smartmontools, you need to determine the label of your disk. To do this, use the following command:<\/p>\n
\n
fdisk -l<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
The output of this command will show you a list of all connected drives and their labels. For example, the output might look like this:<\/p>\n
\n
Disk \/dev\/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes\r\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 19457 cylinders\r\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes\r\nDevice Boot Start End Blocks Id System\r\n\/dev\/sda1<\/span> * 1 19269 154778211 83 Linux\r\n\/dev\/sda2 19270 19457 1510110 5 Extended\r\n\/dev\/sda5 19270 19457 1510078+ 82 Linux swap \/ Solaris\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
In this example, the disk label is \/dev\/hda<\/code>.<\/p>\n
Checking Disk Health (Using SMARTmontools)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Once you know the label of your disk, you can use smartmontools to check its health. To do this, use the following command:<\/p>\n
\n
smartctl -a \/dev\/hda<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
The output of this command will show you a detailed report of your disk’s health. The following are some of the important values to look for:<\/p>\n
    \n
  • Reallocated_Sector_Count:<\/strong>\u00a0This value should be 0.\u00a0If it is not,\u00a0it means that the disk has had to reallocate sectors to new locations on the disk.\u00a0This is a sign that the disk is failing.<\/li>\n
  • Current_Pending_Sector:<\/strong>\u00a0This value should also be 0.\u00a0If it is not,\u00a0it means that there are sectors on the disk that are pending reallocation.\u00a0This is another sign that the disk is failing.<\/li>\n
  • Offline_Uncorrectable:<\/strong>\u00a0This value should also be 0.\u00a0If it is not,\u00a0it means that there are sectors on the disk that have uncorrectable errors.\u00a0This is a sign that the disk is failing.<\/li>\n
  • UDMA_CRC_Count:<\/strong>\u00a0This value should be low (less than 100).\u00a0If it is high,\u00a0it means that there are problems with the data cable connecting the disk to the motherboard.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n
    If you are concerned about the health of your hard drive,<\/span> you can use smartmontools to check its health.<\/span> SMARTmontools is a powerful tool that can help you to identify and troubleshoot hard drive problems early on.<\/span><\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a feature built into most hard drives that allows the drive to monitor its own health and report any errors or issues that it detects. SMARTmontools is a free and open-source software utility that can be used to read and interpret SMART data from hard drives. Installation To install smartmontools on Debian\/Ubuntu, use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"kbtopic":[1099],"kbtag":[1188],"class_list":["post-3727","kb","type-kb","status-publish","hentry","kbtopic-tutorials","kbtag-smartmontools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/3727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3727"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/3727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6293,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/3727\/revisions\/6293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kbtopic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtopic?post=3727"},{"taxonomy":"kbtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtag?post=3727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}