What is S.M.A.R.T.?
S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is a disk monitoring technology which can predict many disk failures. This technology is implemented on the most modern hard drives.
Why S.M.A.R.T. may be unsupported on my drive?
Most likely, S.M.A.R.T. is internally supported on your drive. However, in some cases Acronis Drive Monitor may be not able to read S.M.A.R.T. parameters. The reason for such behavior is because many I/O controllers and software drivers either do not support transferring of S.M.A.R.T. information from the attached drives, or require driver-specific implementation of accessing the S.M.A.R.T. interface, which may be not yet implemented in Acronis Drive Monitor.
With the first version of Acronis Drive Monitor, the level of support may be described as following:
Vast majority of internal drives attached to internal I/O controllers are supported.
Most USB-connected drives are supported, too.
Many software RAID controllers are supported.
Most hardware RAID controllers are not yet supported.
How to report hardware not supported by Acronis Drive Monitor?
Whenever Acronis Drive Monitor is not able to read S.M.A.R.T. parameters on a drive, a link to report unsupported hardware appears in the program. Accessing this link will automatically report unsupported hardware to Acronis, anonymously sending hardware IDs of unsupported hardware to the Acronis website.
Acronis uses information submitted through these reports to increase hardware support in upcoming Acronis Drive Monitor updates, and support for the most popular hardware will be added first.
Troubleshooting of S.M.A.R.T. support
In certain cases, it may possible to enable monitoring in Acronis Drive Monitor, even if the S.M.A.R.T. interface is initially unavailable.
To enable support, try the following:
Make sure S.M.A.R.T. support in BIOS is enabled
Try to update the driver of your I/O controller. Sometimes a newer version of the driver may enable S.M.A.R.T. support
If you plan to upgrade your operating system (OS) soon, be sure to check S.M.A.R.T. support in your new OS. Sometimes S.M.A.R.T. may be not available in Windows XP or Vista, and available in Windows 7
Write a custom script to support your hardware, or find one on the
Acronis Drive Monitor support forum.