I once read a Western Digital White Paper that said you
can only plug and unplug a drive cable 20 times before
it needs to be replaced as "too old"...
The tiny little connectors in the drive cables are known to
get quite loose, and that is easy to "feel" as you put a cable
on and off...
                                                  Rick Glazier

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Shkabara" <[log in to unmask]>

> At the suggestion of the Maxtor tech support, I replaced the IDE
> ribbon cable. Problem went away!
>
> The cable that I removed appears to be good, and worked fine with several
> drives. Apparently, there can be a subtle defect or variation in the cable
> that will trigger an S.M.A.R.T. error. Though this might help others.

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