S.M.A.R.T.: IT conspiracy theory of the week →
https://marco.org/2007/12/10/s-m-a-r-t-it-conspiracy-theory-of-the-week
From Dan[’s Data] Rutter:
…the hard drive manufacturers’ marketing departments just overruled the engineers and made them, in essence, secretly turn off S.M.A.R.T.’s early warning features, to make the drives look more reliable.
Plausible.