SMART Short Test Failed

[Betsy61]

Running Hardware Diagnostic Maintence and it is telling me that the SMART Short Test Failed what does this mean and how do I fix it

[Malygris1]

Hi there @Betsy61,

May the Forums be with you!  I understand that you are seeing a SMART drive error, and want to know what it means.  I am happy to give you a hand with this.

In general, any SMART drive message is bad news. It is intended to be a predictor of a hard drive failure based on self test trends. The hard drive may not have failed yet, and this is just a warning, but you will want to replace the hard drive ASAP.  If it is still functional then you have been given enough warning to save data and I would recommend that you back up your data, and if possible make recovery media, if you do not have any yet, from the recovery partition.  This document can shed some more light on this type of error. HP Notebook PCs - Hard Drive Failure Errors: Imminent Failure, Smart, BIOHD, HD535, etc

Please let me know whether that helps, and if it does resolve your issue, please mark this post as a solution. Kudos would also be appreciated.  

[Betsy61]

I defraged computer as I was told to do. Now I would like some suggestions on where to go to get a hard drive and the approximate cost or would I be better off just trashing this computer and buying a new one.

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

I think that trying to DEFRAG a "failing" disk-drive is the wrong thing to do.

Compare to driving a dirt-road with bald tires -- while the bald tires may be OK on a dry, paved road, working them "hard" will result in a failure of the tire.

Similarly, moving a lot of files around on the disk-drive when it is predicted to be soon to fail, is also a bad idea.

Any owner/operator small computer store can sell you a brand-new disk-drive, and can try to "clone" 100% of the disk-drive from the "old" drive to the "new" drive.

Price?  It depends on the capacity (250 GB? 500 GB? 1000 GB? 2000 GB?).

About $100 US will get you a new disk-drive with a larger capacity than your current drive.

Add $50 to $100 US for the technician to:

* open the computer-case,

* check the physical size and capacity of the old disk-drive, to recommend a "compatible" replacement,

* temporarily attach the new disk-drive,

* run the "disk-cloning" software,

* remove the old disk-drive (and return it to you, so that you can literally sledge-hammer it, so that nobody will ever be able to read any of your files from it -- think "security"),

* permanently connect the new disk-drive,

* close the computer-case,

 * test it.

It also depends on the "age" of your computer.

If it is still running  Windows XP or Windows Vista, it will be over ten years old -- REPLACE such a computer,

rather than spending over $150 US to keep it going until something else dies from "old age".