SMART - Please shut up!!

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 10:41:25 -0400,
  David <dgboles at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> I thought that the OP was using real diagnostics. The BIOS or the
> testing software from the HD manufacturer. Not some cute little utility
> from 'some one out there' in Cyber-Space.

SMART is a real standard and the smartmontools application has been written
to take advantage of the standard. And in most situations is more useful
than the manufacturer provided tools. There are some cases where you need
the device specific tools, but those cases should be rare.