Troubleshoot S.M.A.R.T hard drive error

🕔 6 minutes read

SMART Hard Drive Error is an unexpected error message signaling your hard disc drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) failure, regardless of what Operating system you are using on Windows or Mac system. Learn what triggers that error, and ways to resolve it. But before you go ahead, we recommend that you recover data from the failed hard drive before proceeding. In order to avoid data loss or further harm to your files or the disk drive.

What is S.M.A.R.T Error?

S.M.A.R.T. stands for (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) which acts as a warning system for you. It is mainly responsible for monitoring, detecting, and reporting the state of your hard drive and detecting drive failure or bad sectors.

It looks like this on your computer screen:

 What Does “This Disk has Smart Errors” mean?

The SMART Status informs you that your hard drive has accumulated bad sectors or your files might have gotten corrupt. Which will eventually damage your hard disk. The SMART hard drive detects an imminent failure. As someone rightly said “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” so take a backup of your data and replace your hard disk as soon as feasible.

If you have a Mac Hard Drive we suggest you use Time Machine to take a backup.

As discussed earlier in the article, if an error called smart pops up on your screen that means your hard drive will sooner or later eventually fail and renders your data inaccessible. In order to prevent your data from getting damaged or lost. Here’s an easy guide to recovering data from Windows or Mac systems with absolute ease and various ways to repair SMART disk errors on Mac and Windows.

Table of Contents:

How to Recover Data from a SMART Error Hard Drive?

How to Resolve SMART Disk Error on Mac?

How to Fix the Error on Windows?

How to Recover Data from a SMART Error Hard Drive?

The easiest and probably the safest way to recover data from any hard drive that is about to fail is by making use of Remo Recover. A powerful data recovery utility that is specifically built to locate, identify and retrieve any type of data from any hard disk (HDD) or Solid-state drive (SSD) that has gotten corrupt, damaged, or is accumulating bad sectors.
Download and try the tool for free now!!!

How to Retrieve Data from a Hard Disk that has been Detected by S.M.A.R.T?

Follow the steps carefully to get back your data.

Step 1: Download and install the Remo Hard Drive Recovery Software if you are a windows user and Remo Mac Data Recovery if you are a Mac user, on your system.

Step 2: Launch the tool from the main screen and select the drive from where you want to recover data, Hit the Scan button. if you didn't find your drive, click on the Can't find the drive? option.

click on the corrupt drive

Step 3: You can also make use of Dynamic Recovery View to see the files that the tool has recovered as and when the scan progresses.

click on the dynamic recovery view

Step 4: Once, the scan is complete, the tool will display a complete list of all recovered files.

list of recovered files will appear on your screen

Step 5: You can preview and verify the efficacy of the tool by tapping twice on the files.

preview the recovered files

Step 6: Select the files that you want to recover. Click on the Recover button and also decided on the location to save them. click the OK button to start the data-saving process.

save the recovered files on any safe location of your choice

Recovering data is just a part of the solution, follow the next section to find out ways to clear smart hard drive errors and make your hard drive fit for reuse.

How to Fix SMART Errors on Mac?

Method 1: Repair the Disk to get Rid of S.M.A.R.T Error from Mac OS-

Step 1: Insert your Restore disc and start the computer holding down the "C" key

Step 2: When the screen appears, select the language

Step 3: Click on the Installer tab and select Open Disk Utility from the menu

Step 4: Click the Utilities option followed by the Disk Utility option.

Step 5: Next press the Repair Disk button and wait until the repair process gets complete

Step 6: After completing the repair process, reboot the computer.
This method will only fix minor issues in the disk. If the error still persists then try the next method.

Method 2: Run an antivirus scan to find and get rid of viruses-

As discussed earlier, the main reason why you might be getting the smart error is your system might have been infected by a virus. The easiest way to get rid of viruses is by running a scan. 

Method 3: Format the Disk-

The sure-shot way to resolve the smart error or fix “this disk has SMART error mac” is to completely erase the disk. Once you are sure that you have successfully recovered and saved the data onto any safe location (device). Then kindly follow the steps to know how to format the disk and reinstall a new file system.

Step 1: Run Disk Utility on your computer. Hit CMD and Spacebar at the same time and type in Disk Utility in the search bar.

Step 2: Select the drive that needs to be formatted.

Step 3: Choose Erase option from the options bar.

Step 4: Give the partition a name and choose exFAT as the file system format.


Step 5: Hit the Erase button to complete the formatting process.

Hopefully, the above methods have helped you to repair smart errors on Mac

How to Fix SMART Hard Disk Error on Windows?

Method 1: Use Check Now option to scan and Repair S.M.A.R.T Error on Windows-

Step 1:  On your Windows desktop, click on the Computer icon.

Step 2:  Select the drive and click the Properties option.

Step 3:  From the Properties window, select the Tools tab and click on the Check option.Click on check option to start the scan

Step 4:  Check the Automatically Fix File System Errors option and the Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors option.

Step 5:  When you click the Start button Disk utility checks the drive for errors and attempts to repair the errors.

Step 6:  After completion, reboot the computer.

Method 2: Run CHKDSK to Fix Minor issues with the Disk-

CHKDSK is an inbuilt tool that is designed to find and fix minor issues with the internal hard disk of your Windows system.

Follow the steps to run CHKDSK to repair SMART errors on Windows.

Step 1: In the search box, type cmd and click on Run as Administrator.

Step 2: Type chkdsk c: in the command prompt window and hit enter. (replace C with any other drive letter to scan the matching disc).

Step 3: The following information is displayed after completing three phases of the scan on the HDD.

Step 4: If the final report looks like the one below, your hard disk is in top form.

Method 3: Format the Disk-

The most effective way to get rid of the “this disk has s.m.a.r.t errors” issue is by formatting the smart error hard drive. 

Step 1: Search for Disk Management in the Start menu.

Step 2: The Disk Management application will run once you select the search result. Your hard disc and partitions should be visible in the left sidebar.

Step 3: Choose the disk on which you wish to create a partition. Select Shrink partition from the context menu when you right-click the Windows partition.

Step 4: Select the desired file system under File System in the Format dialogue box (NTFS). To finish the formatting process, click OK.

A Quick-Recap:

So, with these methods, you can reset or get rid of the SMART error on your computer. These errors indicate mishandling of your drives. 

However, you can avoid these errors just by using the drive in a proper way and monitoring it on regular basis. Remo Optimizer tool will help you in that way as it keeps track of your hard drive stats. Also, monitor / manage data on the drive and keep your hard drive far away from failure. Thus avoiding the unwanted hard drive errors and lessening the chances of failures. 

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John Harris

Senior Editor, Content Analyst and a fan of exceptional customer service. John develops and publishes instructional and informational content regarding partition management, Windows hot-fixes, data management and computer troubleshooting.

As a tenured data recovery specialist, John shares exceptional insights and blog posts about data loss and data recovery across any storage device. With 8+ years’ experience in writing for Data Recovery for both Mac OS and Windows OS computers, he is an avid learner who always wants to polish and simplify the data recovery process. John passes his free time playing Chess and reading Science Fiction novels.

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