Compaq Computer Corp has added Western Digital Corp and IBM Corp to the list of hard disk drive makers that will support its drive diagnostics specification, Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, SMART, which warns users if a hard disk drive is in danger of failing. It already has the backing of the companies from which it usually buys its drives – Conner Peripherals Inc, Quantum Corp and Seagate Technology Inc, and the latter two have either launched or announced drives that incorporate the technology, which is designed to give users warnings of impending disaster so that they can take evasive action (CI No 2,627). The system, which monitors seek error rates, spin-up times and throughput performances among other things, will be used in AT/IDE disk drives. Although hard disk drive reliability is far higher than that of floppy and CD-ROM drives, Compaq believes increased hard disk capacities have spurred companies to find ways of ensuring that users’ data is secure so they are not tempted to try other storage devices.
