[Dclug] Hard disk health

[Przemek Klosowski]

   Nope, was the first thing I tried.  I was surprised as well.  BTW, they are
   being accessed from an external USB enclosure, so they show up as a SCSI
   device, but I don't think that should matter.


Try 
       smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sda

because by default, smartctl treats your drives as SCSI and uses a different 
encoding of SMART.

If that doesn't work, it may be because some USB interfaces do not
pass the SMART protocol. You may need to crack it open and hook the
drives directly via your PATA cable.