1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to failure prediction for disk drives. In particular, the present invention relates to predicting failure of remote disk drives at a central processing facility using an evolving disk drive failure prediction algorithm.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Predicting impending failure of disk drives deployed in-the-field helps protect against catastrophic data loss, for example, by suggesting an end user back-up and/or replace the failing disk drive. Another application of disk drive failure prediction is preemptive maintenance of consumer electronics devices that utilize disk drives, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, personal video recorders (PVRs), and the like. For example, if the failure prediction algorithm indicates impending failure, the end user may return the consumer electronic device to the vendor for repair or replacement.
In the past, failure prediction algorithms have been implemented within each disk drive wherein the disk drive itself issues a warning when failure is imminent. An example of a failure prediction algorithm implemented within a disk drive is the Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART), which monitors a number of quality metric values (e.g., fly-height), and reports an impending failure if any one of the quality metric values exceeds some predetermined threshold. A problem with internally implemented failure prediction algorithms, such as SMART, is their limited degree of sophistication which increases the likelihood that impending failures are not detected leading to catastrophic data loss, or that impending failures are falsely detected (false alarm) leading to unnecessary and costly remedial action.
There is, therefore, a need to improve upon disk drive failure prediction so as to increase the failure prediction accuracy while minimizing the number of false alarms.