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From: bbbl67 on 14 Dec 2008 18:17
On Dec 11, 1:52 pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> The point tho is that it makes more sense to just pass the SATA thru it than to do anything else.
>
> The main market with that chip is still the single drive enclosures.

Okay, so we've been able to run a thorough test using Everest, now. So
the result is Everest did not even bother to look for SMART data when
connected through either Firewire or USB. And while in eSATA, it
presented a SMART panel for the drive, but it was completely empty.

So it's likely that the utility that comes with the MyBook, DLGDIAG,
has a special proprietary method of obtaining SMART data through USB
for its own drives. DLGDIAG isn't able to obtain SMART data for the
MyBook in either Firewire or eSATA, as stated before for the eSATA
case.

Yousuf Khan
From: Arno Wagner on 14 Dec 2008 19:18
Previously bbbl67 <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 11, 1:52 pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> The point tho is that it makes more sense to just pass the SATA thru it than to do anything else.
>>
>> The main market with that chip is still the single drive enclosures.

> Okay, so we've been able to run a thorough test using Everest, now. So
> the result is Everest did not even bother to look for SMART data when
> connected through either Firewire or USB.

That is normal. There is no standardizes way to access MART data over
these interfaces. The only non-vendor tool I know that can do it
in many cases over USB is "Hard Disk Sentinel":

http://www.hdsentinel.com/usbharddisks.php

The creators program each way the learn about into the tool.

> And while in eSATA, it
> presented a SMART panel for the drive, but it was completely empty.

Pretty bad. eSATA is full SATA, which means the disk does not
have working SMART support.

> So it's likely that the utility that comes with the MyBook, DLGDIAG,
> has a special proprietary method of obtaining SMART data through USB
> for its own drives.

More likely a special, proprietary way of obtaining special,
proprietary data. Or the USB bridge fakes something for
DLGDIAG. That would be even worse.

Arno

From: Yousuf Khan on 15 Dec 2008 02:32
Arno Wagner wrote:
> Previously bbbl67 <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Dec 11, 1:52 pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>> The point tho is that it makes more sense to just pass the SATA thru it than to do anything else.
>>>
>>> The main market with that chip is still the single drive enclosures.
>
>> Okay, so we've been able to run a thorough test using Everest, now. So
>> the result is Everest did not even bother to look for SMART data when
>> connected through either Firewire or USB.
>
> That is normal. There is no standardizes way to access MART data over
> these interfaces. The only non-vendor tool I know that can do it
> in many cases over USB is "Hard Disk Sentinel":
>
> http://www.hdsentinel.com/usbharddisks.php
>
> The creators program each way the learn about into the tool.

Very good tool, well worth buying it.

>> And while in eSATA, it
>> presented a SMART panel for the drive, but it was completely empty.
>
> Pretty bad. eSATA is full SATA, which means the disk does not
> have working SMART support.

Either that or SMART is forwarded through the USB bridge chip, but not
the eSATA or Firewire bridges.

>> So it's likely that the utility that comes with the MyBook, DLGDIAG,
>> has a special proprietary method of obtaining SMART data through USB
>> for its own drives.
>
> More likely a special, proprietary way of obtaining special,
> proprietary data. Or the USB bridge fakes something for
> DLGDIAG. That would be even worse.


That would be pretty bad considering DLGDIAG is supplied by the
manufacturer (Western Digital) with the unit as part of its support utils.

Yousuf Khan
From: Rod Speed on 15 Dec 2008 03:40
bbbl67 wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed....(a)gmail.com> wrote

>> The point tho is that it makes more sense to just pass the SATA thru it than to do anything else.

>> The main market with that chip is still the single drive enclosures.

> Okay, so we've been able to run a thorough test using Everest, now.
> So the result is Everest did not even bother to look for SMART data
> when connected through either Firewire or USB. And while in eSATA,
> it presented a SMART panel for the drive, but it was completely empty.

That's interesting. If it decides that the drive doesnt support SMART, you dont
get a SMART panel at all. So presumably the passthru when in eSATA mode
has some sort of glitch that prevents the SMART data getting thru properly.

> So it's likely that the utility that comes with the MyBook, DLGDIAG, has a special
> proprietary method of obtaining SMART data through USB for its own drives.

Yes.

> DLGDIAG isn't able to obtain SMART data for the MyBook in
> either Firewire or eSATA, as stated before for the eSATA case.

Maybe the problem with eSATA is just the same glitch that prevents Everest from seeing it too.

What does smartctl from a bootable linux CD show ?


From: Arno Wagner on 15 Dec 2008 09:50
Previously Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> Arno Wagner wrote:
>> Previously bbbl67 <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Dec 11, 1:52 pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> The point tho is that it makes more sense to just pass the SATA thru it than to do anything else.
>>>>
>>>> The main market with that chip is still the single drive enclosures.
>>
>>> Okay, so we've been able to run a thorough test using Everest, now. So
>>> the result is Everest did not even bother to look for SMART data when
>>> connected through either Firewire or USB.
>>
>> That is normal. There is no standardizes way to access MART data over
>> these interfaces. The only non-vendor tool I know that can do it
>> in many cases over USB is "Hard Disk Sentinel":
>>
>> http://www.hdsentinel.com/usbharddisks.php
>>
>> The creators program each way the learn about into the tool.

> Very good tool, well worth buying it.

>>> And while in eSATA, it
>>> presented a SMART panel for the drive, but it was completely empty.
>>
>> Pretty bad. eSATA is full SATA, which means the disk does not
>> have working SMART support.

> Either that or SMART is forwarded through the USB bridge chip, but not
> the eSATA or Firewire bridges.

There are no eSATA bridges, just non-intelligent bus-drivers.
eSATA and SATA are the same logically.

>>> So it's likely that the utility that comes with the MyBook, DLGDIAG,
>>> has a special proprietary method of obtaining SMART data through USB
>>> for its own drives.
>>
>> More likely a special, proprietary way of obtaining special,
>> proprietary data. Or the USB bridge fakes something for
>> DLGDIAG. That would be even worse.

> That would be pretty bad considering DLGDIAG is supplied by the
> manufacturer (Western Digital) with the unit as part of its support utils.

Indeed.

Arno
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