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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Hardrive install! SMART Not verified

Trivial808 - Aug 26, 2008 - 1:35 am

Just got a maxtor 120gb from ebay and I tried to install tiger OSX on it and it always fails into the install I repaired disk varified permissions and it says the SMART is not verified like I said I tried in stalling more thaen once and it just fails. I have a g4 powermac gigabit all other hardrives I installed have had no problems but the SMART was verified do if you could send me in the right direction that would be great can I verfy the SMART to make it work or what?

DeltaMac - Aug 26, 2008 - 8:23 am

Boot to your Tiger installer DVD, then go to Disk Utility (under the Utilities menu), and select your Maxtor hard drive. Try to Repair Disk (different from Repair Disk Permissions, which has no purpose in this situation).
Do you have that hard drive installed in the G4? Or, is it installed in a FireWire external case? A FireWire drive usually will not verify the SMART test.
SMART is the built-in self test that is part of most hard drives. If the SMART won't verify, it doesn't always affect how the hard drive works, and doesn't necessarily mean the hard drive is bad. If you cannot install OS X on that hard drive, and the installer stops, as you say, because the SMART will not complete the verification - then your hard drive is failing, and should be replaced. The SMART failure means that you have an impending hardware failure inside the hard drive. There is nothing you can do except replace the drive. Check with Maxtor support, as some hard drives may still be in warranty by Maxtor.

- Dale