Predictive Failure Analysis

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Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) is a proprietary IBM technology for monitoring the likelihood of hard disk drives to fail. It was introduced in 1992 in IBM 0662-S1x drive (1052 MB Fast-Wide SCSI-2 disk at 5400 rpm), and was industry's first such technology.

The technology is based on measuring several key (mainly mechanical) parameters of the drive unit, for example heads flying height. The parameters are compared against predefined thresholds and the health status is evaluated by the drive firmware. If the drive is likely to fail soon, a notification is sent to the disk controller.

The major drawbacks of the technology were the binary result and the unidirectional communications - notification is sent by the drive firmware, and the only status visible to the host was presence or absence of a notification.

The technology was merged with IntelliSafe to form the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology.

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