What does s.m.a.r.t. mean? (Hardware term?)

S.M.A.R.T Technology (Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology). Currently, the average MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of hard disks has reached over 50,000 hours, but this is still not enough for discerning professional users, as the data they store on their hard disks is what is most valuable, so what professional users need is the ability to predict failures in advance. It is this need that led to the creation of S.M.A.R.T. technology. S.M.A.R.T. technology was formally established in the ATA-3 standard. S.M.A.R.T. monitors the main parts of the hard disk, including heads, disks, motors, circuits and other hard disk, which is monitored by the hard disk monitoring circuits and the host of the monitoring software on the monitoring of the object of the operation of the history of the record and the preset safety value to analyze, compare, and when there is a situation outside the range of safety values, will automatically send a warning to the user, and the user will be able to predict the failure of the hard disk. It will automatically warn the user, while more advanced technology can also alert the network administrator's attention to automatically reduce the hard disk's operating speed, dump important data files to other safe sectors, or even back up files to other storage devices. With S.M.A.R.T. technology, it is indeed possible to effectively predict potential hard disk failures and improve data security. However, it should also be seen that S.M.A.R.T. technology is not omnipotent, the monitoring of gradual failures is its place, and for some sudden failures, such as the sudden impact of the disk, S.M.A.R.T. technology is equally impotent.