How to Check a Mac's S.M.A.R.T. Status
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) is built into your Mac's hard drive to constantly monitor its condition. It's very easy to check a Mac's S.M.A.R.T. status to be sure your hard drive is in good health.
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Instructions
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Check a Mac's S.M.A.R.T. Status
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Log on to the administrative account of your Mac computer. Open the "Applications" folder and then go into the "Utilities" folder.
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Open up the Disc Utility program. Select either the product name (such as 76.6 GB Hitachi HD) or the name of your hard drive from the list of available discs.
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Click on the "Info" button or press the "Command" and "I" keys while the drive is highlighted. Both of these commands will open a new window with more information about your hard drive. Read the Mac's S.M.A.R.T. status in this window.
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Close and quit Disc Utility without worry if your check of the Mac's S.M.A.R.T. status is "verified." If the status is "failing," then your hard drive is getting ready to die and you need to take steps to back up and replace the drive as soon as possible.
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Dispose of any failed hard drive properly. You cannot throw a drive into your general house trash. Contact your local dump or Apple Store to find out where to send or drop off the drive for disposal and recycling.
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Consider installing software to check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive for you. There are a few different free programs which check the status automatically, such as SMARTReporter (see Resources below). The ideal program will send you an email or make a window pop up when a drive starts to fail.
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Tips & Warnings
You should get into the habit of checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of your Mac every few months. Most hard drives will last for 4 to 5 years without any issues.
Disc Utility may not be able to check the S.M.A.R.T. status of an external drive.
You may need to use a program other than Disc Utility to check the S.M.A.R.T. status of a drive if you are running Mac OS 10.2 or earlier.
Avoid shutting down your computer if the S.M.A.R.T. status is "failing." You may not be able to get the computer to run properly again depending on how close the drive is to failure. There is no way to tell how much longer the drive will last.
