PRTG Manual: WMI HDD Health Sensor
The WMI HDD Health sensor connects to the parent device via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and monitors the health of integrated development environment (IDE) disk drives on the target system using Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.).
WMI HDD Health Sensor
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
- Dutch: WMI HDD Status
- French: État du disque dur (WMI)
- German: WMI Laufwerkszustand
- Japanese: WMI HDD 正常性
- Portuguese: Funcionamento do HDD (WMI)
- Russian: Работоспособность жесткого диска WMI
- Simplified Chinese: WMI 硬盘健康状况
- Spanish: Salud HDD (WMI)
- This sensor requires Windows 7 or later on the target machine that holds the hard disk drives you want to monitor. The sensor might not work reliably if the target machine runs on Windows 2003, Windows XP, or Windows Vista. Because of a known bug in those systems, the sensor might not detect available hard disk drives.
- This sensor requires credentials for Windows systems in the settings of the parent device.
- This sensor requires WoW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit) for target systems that run Windows Server 2016.
- The values that this sensor shows can vary depending on how a vendor handles S.M.A.R.T. values. See the respective vendor's documentation for more information.
- This sensor only supports the IPv4 protocol.
- For a general introduction to the technology behind WMI, see section Monitoring via WMI.
- This sensor has a medium performance impact.
You cannot add this sensor to the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. If you want to use this sensor, add it to a remote probe device.
The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.
The settings that you select in the Add Sensor dialog are valid for all sensors that you create when you finish the dialog.
S.M.A.R.T. Specific
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
IDE Devices |
Select the IDE target device. PRTG creates one sensor for each IDE device that you select.
|
Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.
Basic Sensor Settings
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
Sensor Name |
Enter a name to identify the sensor. |
Parent Tags |
Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe.
|
Tags |
Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
|
Priority |
Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority ( |
Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.
S.M.A.R.T. Specific
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
Serial Number |
Shows the serial number of the disk that this sensor monitors.
|
Size (GB) |
Shows the size of the disk that this sensor monitors.
|
Name |
Shows the name of the disk that this sensor monitors.
|
Timeout (Sec.) |
Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer. The maximum timeout value is 900 seconds (15 minutes).
|
Debug Options
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
Result Handling |
Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:
|
Sensor Display
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
Primary Channel |
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.
|
Graph Type |
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
|
Stack Unit |
This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so. |
By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click 
under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.
For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.
Scanning Interval
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.
Access Rights
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
The channel names indicate the ID of the S.M.A.R.T. attribute, followed by a colon, and the typical meaning of the channel. The sensor can also show other attributes that the target device returns, but some channels have the name Unknown Channel. This happens if PRTG cannot match the ID of a found attribute with an internally defined channel name.
Some vendors do not agree on attribute definitions and define meanings other than the common ones.
Every attribute of a disk assumes a value. PRTG shows these attributes as channels with their last, minimum, and maximum value. These channel values change over time and indicate the disk health. Higher values correspond to a better health. The disk's attributes come with a threshold, defined by the manufacturer of the drive. If a channel value is lower than this threshold, the sensor automatically shows the Warning status. This indicates that the S.M.A.R.T. status of the HDD might break soon.
For some attributes, there are no thresholds defined and because of this, they cannot be categorized for a status other than the Up status. You can define lookups and use them with affected channels to get the desired status for a return value.
Channel |
Description |
|---|---|
Average Erase Count And Maximum Erase Count |
The average erase count and the maximum erase count |
Command Timeout |
The command timeout count |
Downtime |
In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status in percent. |
Erase Fail Count |
The erase fail count |
G-Sense Error Rate |
The G-sense error rate count |
Hardware ECC Recovered |
The hardware ECC recovered count |
Power Cycle Count |
The power cycle count |
Power Loss Protection Failure |
The power loss protection failure count |
Power-On Hours |
The power-on hours count |
Program Fail Count Total |
The program fail count total |
Read Error Rate |
The read error rate count
|
Read Error Retry Rate |
The read error retry rate count |
Reallocated Sectors Count |
The reallocated sectors count |
Reported Uncorrectable Errors |
The reported uncorrectable errors count |
SATA Downshift Error Count |
The SATA downshift error count |
Soft ECC Correction |
The soft ECC correction count |
Soft Read Error Rate |
The soft read error rate count |
SSD Erase Fail Count |
The SSD erase fail count |
SSD Life Left |
The SSD life left count |
SSD Program Fail Count |
The SSD program fail count |
Unexpected Power Loss Count |
The unexpected power loss count |
Unknown Channel |
PRTG cannot match the ID of a found attribute with an internally defined channel name |
Unused Reserved Block Count Total |
The unused reserved block count total |
Used Reserved Block Count Total |
The used reserved block count total |
Temperature Celsius |
The temperature |
Total LBAs Read |
The total LBAs read |
Total LBAs Written |
The total LBAs written |
Wear Range Delta |
The wear range delta |
Knowledge Base
What security features does PRTG include?
My WMI sensors don't work. What can I do?
