SMART questions especially "Unsafe Shutdown Count"

[idata]

I installed a new 510 series 120Gb SSD to my DH67GD in the last several days, and am alarmed to look at the SMART attributes via the SSD Toolbox, where it says ID C0 Unsafe Shutdown Count is 6. Six unsafe shutdowns? I have been babysitting this thing since birth, having installed W7 HP 64-bit from scratch, and I have yet to experience anything at all that would account for a number like this. No BSODs or power interruptions at all. What am I to think of this? I've in fact only shut the PC down completely a couple of times, the rest of the time it's been placed into S3 Sleep mode.

Anybody?

Another question: it was suggested in this thread /message/106050# 106050 http://communities.intel.com/message/106050# 106050 that SMART should be turned-OFF in BIOS, but then refers to a link where contradictory advice is given. For the DH67GD, with an SSD and the Toolbox, should I turn OFF SMART in BIOS?

[idata]

The explanation they provide in the Toolbox User Guide is absolutely accurate. The reasons for the attribute increasing in RAW_VALUE I explained in an earlier post.

[idata]

Very good explanation koitsu, even if it wasn't appreciated. Rather than having an agenda, IMO koitsu was frustrated that tom did not get the point he was trying to make. koitsu's explanation dove right in to the technical explanation, when what was also needed IMO was an overview of what SMART is and where it came from. That would have given tom the general information that he also needs, IMO.

Intel did not create SMART, nor do they own it or control it, it is used by most if not all computer data storage drive manufactures. The SMART standards were created by the SFF (Small Form Factor) committee, which is composed of people from many companies, including Broadcom, Dell, Foxconn, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Molex, Pioneer Samsung, Seagate, Sun Micro, TI, Toshiba, and others. The basic idea is simply to provide information about the health and usage statistics of a storage drive, usually a HDD or SSD, with the intent of allowing users to see if their drives are fine or are approaching or at the verge of failure.

Hardware that uses disk drives like mother boards may have software that reads the SMART data from a drive and displays it. The usefulness of the display and the format of the data is questionable, and as with anything as complex as a computer, one must learn to interpret the data in order to make meaningful conclusions. In other words, if you don't truly understand it (I don't), glancing at it tells you nothing. IMO, SMART is one of the worst "standards" since there seems to be no true standard, or at least one that most manufactures adhere to. Add to that the fact that a manufacture can create their own SMART data attribute, whose numeric value must be interpreted by their rules. If the reader or program that reads the data is not aware of the translation or interpretation, how do you use the data? That's why you see the SMART table data column titled "Raw", which is the number read but not interpreted. The reader is left to interpret the data, which takes effort and research. That is not Intel's fault, that is just the nature of SMART (insert sarcastic comment about this being not-SMART here.)

Regardless, it is a valid question why one would see a count beyond 0 or 1 in the Unsafe Shutdown attribute... or is it? How many times during building and starting a PC do we have an "oops" moment? More than we remember. Also as koitsu states, who knows what conditions that we consider to be normal occurrences that are reported as unsafe to the SMART database? I'm not smart enough to know that.

The unsafe shutdown counts for my drives are all in the 10's - 40's, and I very generally know why that is the case. They don't bother me at all.

[idata]

Glad parsec you have the spare time to read all this and make your own "War and Peace"-length post expressing your opinion.

Some of us prefer "clear and concise"!

Marking this "answered".

[Ddraig64]

6? My SSD says 12884901981 unsafe shutdowns. I've had the drive for about a year, heavy usage, still reports as 100% healthy.

[n_scott_pearson]

You are responding to a conversation from 2011. Please open a new conversation for your issue. Make sure you document the brand and model of PC and SSD.
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