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. International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... Media:rofl. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, r/min, or min-1) is a unit of frequency, commonly used to measure rotational speed, in particular in the case of rotation around a fixed axis. ...

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. Microphotograph of a hard disk head. ... In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. ...

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. Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, or S.M.A.R.T., is a monitoring system for computer hard disks to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures. ...