Re: [smartmontools-support] conveyance tests

[Geoff K. <ge...@ge...>]

On 26/07/2010, at 7:40 AM, Trevor Hart wrote:

> Geoff,
> 
> What about an offline versus the long test? The ATA specification is very vague on this point. I'm curious to know know if the offline is generally the most comprehensive, exceeding the long test.

This depends on the drive firmware.  The offline routine might do things that the long test does not do.

> My laptop drive supports the offline test but I get an error when issuing the command to start the offline test. Selective is also is accepted but never started, failing when the command is issued (Captive mode or not). I assume the drive was reporting false capabilities rather than the OS being a factor as well.

Darwin only supports manually running the long and short tests.   Nothing else will work.