MY PASSPORT ELITE
USER MANUAL
CHECKING DRIVE HEALTH – 41
Checking Drive Health
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The data files on your My Passport drive are important to you. The WD SmartWare
software has several built-in diagnostic tools to help make sure that your drive is
performing well. Run one of the following tests if you are concerned that your drive is not
operating properly:
The best time to run the drive diagnostics and status checks is on a regular basis, before
you encounter any problems with your drive. And, because they are so fast, running the
quick S.M.A.R.T. status check and the quick drive test provides a high level of assurance
with minimal inconvenience. Then, run all three whenever you encounter disk error
conditions when backing up or retrieving files.
To run drive diagnostics and status checks:
1.
On the Drive Settings screen (see Figure 16 on page 29), click
Diagnostics
to display
the Run Diagnostics dialog:
Diagnostic Tool
Description
Quick S.M.A.R.T. Status Check
S.M.A.R.T. is a failure-prediction function that continuously
monitors key internal performance attributes of the drive. A
detected increase in drive temperature, noise, or read/write
errors, for example, can provide an indication that the drive
might be approaching a serious failure condition. With
advanced warning, you could take precautionary measures,
like moving your data to another drive, before a failure
occurs.
The result of a quick S.M.A.R.T. status check is a pass or fail
evaluation of the drive's condition.
The S.M.A.R.T. status check completes within a second or
two.
Quick Drive Test
Your My Passport drive has a built-in Data Lifeguard
diagnostic utility that tests the drive for error conditions. The
quick drive test checks the drive for major performance
problems.
The result of a quick drive test is a pass or fail evaluation of
the drive's condition.
The quick drive test can take several minutes to complete.
Complete Drive Test
The most comprehensive drive diagnostic is the complete
drive test. It methodically tests each and every sector for
error conditions, and inserts bad-sector markers as
required.
The complete drive test can take several hours to complete,
depending on the size and data configuration of your drive.
