Which SMART column matters most for actual errors?

• A. RAW_VALUE — the real physical count
• B. VALUE — normalized value
• C. THRESHOLD — failure threshold
• D. IDENTIFIER — attribute ID

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that SMART separates what is measured from how it’s reported for monitoring. For actual errors, you want the raw counts, because RAW_VALUE stores the real number of events that have occurred (such as read/write errors, reallocated sectors, etc.). That raw count shows you the true amount of problems the drive has logged.

The VALUE column provides a normalized, vendor-specific score used to determine health against a predefined THRESHOLD. It’s useful for quickly assessing risk, but it’s not the direct measure of how many errors happened. The THRESHOLD sets the point at which the normalized score signals a failure, not the actual error count. The IDENTIFIER is simply the attribute’s name or ID and doesn’t convey error data by itself.

So, when you need to understand how many errors have actually occurred on the drive, the RAW_VALUE is the best source.