Here's how a hdsentinel report looks like (the red lines are my doing):
HDD Device 1: /dev/sdb HDD Model ID : ST3250410AS HDD Serial No: 9RY3E558 HDD Revision : 4.AAA HDD Size : 238475 MB Interface : S-ATA II Temperature : 41 °C Health : 30 % Performance : 100 % Power on time: 603 days, 9 hours Est. lifetime: 109 daysYou can get even more information nicely formatted by using the -r switch (report).
And here's how a normal smartctl report looks like:
smartctl version 5.38 [x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 family Device Model: ST3250410AS Serial Number: 9RY3E558 Firmware Version: 4.AAA User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: 7 ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated Local Time is: Sun Nov 28 23:37:14 2010 EET SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity was completed without error. Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled. Self-test execution status: ( 40) The self-test routine was interrupted by the host with a hard or soft reset. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 430) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. No Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 64) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x0001) SCT Status supported. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 253 006 Pre-fail Always - 0 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 098 098 000 Pre-fail Always - 0 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 13 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 049 049 036 Pre-fail Always - 2045 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 086 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 436557316 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 084 084 000 Old_age Always - 14482 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 15 187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 061 056 045 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 21/44) 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 039 044 000 Old_age Always - 39 (0 21 0 0) 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 061 048 000 Old_age Always - 228084472 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0 202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error # 1 Short offline Interrupted (host reset) 80% 14481 - SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.I think hdsentinel is well worth giving a shot, if only for the time it will save you in the data centre when doing batch checks.
Read more about the linux version here.
Download from here (just download, gunzip and run as root - yeah, it's not open source, but oh well...).
There are also versions for Windows Server if you're interested in such alternatives.