Which command would you use to display only the health status of a drive?

• A. sudo smartctl -A /dev/sdX
• B. sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sdX
• C. sudo smartctl -H /dev/sdX
• D. sudo smartctl -i /dev/sdX

Answer: (A)

The main idea is to get a concise, at-a-glance check of whether the drive is healthy. Using the SMART health indicator flag provides that direct answer. Running the command with the health option prints a simple result like SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED or FAILED, which is exactly what you want when you need a quick health verdict. The other commands serve different purposes: listing all SMART attributes gives you a lot of detailed numbers, not a single health verdict; showing self-test logs reveals test results but not the current overall health; and showing device information provides model, firmware, and serial data rather than health. If you need to automate checks, you can parse the health output for PASSED/FAILED, but the direct health flag is the fastest way to display only the health status.