Hard Disk Drive Monitor Version 2.0 (C) Copyright IBM Corporation 1996. All rights reserved. ˑ Description ˑ The Hard Disk Drive Monitor uses Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) to monitor the status of physical drives in the computer. A hard disk drive must be SMART-compatible for the Hard Disk Drive Monitor to be able to detect potential failures in that drive. If the Hard Disk Drive Monitor indicates that a drive has a potential failure condition, you should back up that drive immediately, to avoid losing valuable software and data if the drive actually fails. However, the Hard Disk Drive Monitor is not to be used as a substitute for regular backups of the drive and might not detect all predictable failure conditions. Hard disk drives can fail for reasons that are not predictable by the Hard Disk Drive Monitor. In some situations, the Hard Disk Drive Monitor will not detect a potential failure condition soon enough to allow you to back up the drive before it fails. The Hard Disk Drive Monitor works with SMART-compatible hard disk drives. The Hard Disk Drive Monitor screen displays a Drive icon for each hard disk drive being monitored. The colored indicator on each Drive icon indicates the status of that drive. A green indicator means that the drive is reporting a good status. A red indicator means that a potential failure (Alert) condition has been detected. A gray indicator means that the drive is not SMART-compatible or is not controlled by the correct device driver (see "System Requirements"). If an Alert condition is detected, the Alert panel is displayed, and an Alert beep sounds. You should immediately back up the drive to avoid losing data that is more recent than your most recent periodic backup. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Important: You should always perform regular backups of data to avoid data loss. The Hard Disk Drive Monitor detects only possible failure conditions that can be detected by monitoring certain hard-disk-drive components. Drives can fail for many reasons other than those that can be predicted by the Hard Disk Drive Monitor. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Installation ˑ Both the Windows 95 and Windows NT installation process are included below. This disk can be used for the installation of either version of the Smart application. WINDOWS 95 ----------- The Installation program (SETUP.EXE) can be started from the START and then RUN on the Task bar. Set the file to A:\SMARTW95\SETUP.EXE and select OK. The install will add a program icon for HDMON under Start-Programs on the Task Bar. Before installing the program, verify that the target drive has enough space for the program files. (approximately 150 KB). To remove the program, select add/remove programs from the Control Panel on your Desktop. Select the program Hard Disk Monitor from the list of software that can be automatically removed. Then select add/remove to removeHard Disk Monitor from your system. WINDOWS NT ----------- Before installing insure that the target drive has enough space to accommodate the program files, approximately 150 KB. Insert the Window's version of the Smart Application Installation diskette in diskette drive A:. Begin the installation process (SETUP.EXE) by selecting RUN from the File Pulldown on the Program Manager Window. Enter A:\SMARTWNT\SETUP to initiate the setup process. The installation process will require that the user choose a destination path as well as a Program Folder group name. Default values are provided. NT Ver 3.5x ----------- For NT Ver 3.5x, after the setup process is complete a new folder will be added to the Program Manager desktop. This folder will contain three icons, an icon for starting the application (HDMON), another for browsing this README file, and lastly an UNINSTALL icon. Use this final icon to initiate the uninstall process. This process will remove the Program Folder as well as the files installed during installation process. NT Ver 4.0 ---------- For NT Ver 4.0,the install will add a program icon for HDMON under Start-Programs on the Task Bar. To remove the program, select add/remove programs from the Control Panel on your Desktop. Select the program HDMON from the list of software that can be automatically removed. Then select add/remove to remove HDMON from your system. Operation ˑ The Hard Disk Drive Monitor monitors the status of SMART-compatible hard disk drives in your computer. The Monitor performs this operation at a regular, user-specified time interval. To set the interval, click on "Options" from the menu bar, and then click on "Configuration." In the Configuration panel, click on the up arrow or down arrow to select an interval between 1 and 60 minutes. The new interval will take effect when the next monitoring cycle begins. Enabling the APM Scan option allows the Hard Disk Drive Monitor to wake up the computer every four hours to monitor the hard disk drives, regardless of whether disk activity has occurred. To enable the APM Scan option, click on "Options" from the menu bar, and then click on "Configuration." In the Configuration panel, click on "Enabled" button for "Monitoring during APM standby". SMART status of the SCSI drives ( if present in the system) can be optionally monitored. TO enable this option, click on the "Enabled" button in the Configuration panel for "Monitoring of SCSI drives". System Requirements ˑ WINDOWS 95 ---------- For proper operation of the Hard Disk Drive Monitor, the hard disk drives in the computer must be controlled through the IDE Hard Disk Driver supporting SMART commands. Following drivers support SMART commands : 1) Intel PIIX Bus Master IDE device driver, version 2.61 or later. The file for this driver is IDEATAPI.MPD. The version of the driver can be determined by the SEEVER.exe program supplied with the driver. The SMART support VXD must also be installed from that driver package. The file for this VXD is PIIXVSD.VXD. It should be in the sub-dir C:\windows\system\iosubsys. 2) Microsoft default driver for IDE drives. SMART support VXD for driver must also be installed. The file for this VXD is SMARTVSD.VXD. Note : Selection of IDE Hard Disk Driver for the computer will also involve other factors beyond scope of this document. Troubleshooting ˑ Appropriate VXD for the driver as described in System Requirements section must be installed. It should be in the sub-dir C:\windows\system\iosubsys. The text file HDMON.TXT contains the configuration settings. If this file is replaced, the monitoring interval and APM Scan setting will return to their default settings (monitoring interval of 10 minutes, APM Scan disabled).