SMART Functionality Not Available in Clean Windows Installation (265854)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

This article was previously published under Q265854

SYMPTOMS

With a new (or "clean") installation of Windows 98 or Windows Me, programs that monitor Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) drives cannot report SMART drive status. This issue does not occur with upgrades from Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2).

CAUSE

Smartvsd.vxd is the driver for monitoring SMART drives. This driver must be located in the Windows\System\Iosubsys folder to be loaded at startup and function correctly.

The default location for the Smartvsd.vxd file in a new installation of Windows is the Windows\System folder. Because of this, the driver is not loaded at startup.

In Windows 95 OSR2, the Smartvsd.vxd file is placed in the Iosubsys folder by default and is loaded at startup.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, move the Smartvsd.vxd file from the Windows\System folder to the Windows\System\Iosubsys folder, and then restart the computer.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The SMART system is a technology that monitors and predicts device performance.

The SMART IOCTL API specification version 1.1 or later, published by Compaq Computer Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, describes the API used by a program to issue SMART commands to an IDE drive in Windows 98. In Windows, the API is implemented in a vendor-specific driver named Smartvsd.vxd.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	12/20/2004
Keywords:	kbenv kbprb KB265854