[SOLVED] How to Disable SMART Hard Disk Error 301? Top 3 Fixes [MiniTool Tips]

What Is SMART Hard Disk Error?

The issue SMART hard disk error may occur when you are trying to turn on your computer or enter the operating system.

And the detailed information of this SMART hard disk error 301 is shown in the below.

The SMART hard disk check has detected an imminent failure. To ensure not data loss, please backup the content immediately and run the Hard Disk Test in System Diagnostics. 

From the above information, you can get the information that the hard disk is about to be failed. Or some worse situation is that the hard disk has failed.

Meanwhile, what are the causes of SMART hard disk error?

Reasons for SMART Hard Disk Error

As a matter of fact, there are many reasons that may give rise to the SMART hard disk error 301. The hard disk error may be caused by the following reasons:

• SMART hard disk check failure;
• Physical damage to the hard drive;
• Unexpected shutdown;
• Broken IDE/SATA controller chip in the Motherboard;
• Outdated or Misconfigured BIOS;
• Virus attack;
• More…

No matter what the reason is, the most important things are to back up all your files to avoid data loss as the error message indicates and to fix the SMART hard disk error.

Thus, in the following part, we will show you how to back up the hard drive and how to fix the issue step by step.

Related article: SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk? Quickly Fix It Now!

Back up Content to Avoid Data Loss

So, when you encounter the SMART hard disk error 301, please back up contents firstly. As to back up the hard drive or files, a piece of professional backup software is required.

Thus, MiniTool ShadowMaker is strongly recommended. MiniTool ShadowMaker is a professional backup tool which can help you to back up the hard drive, files, folders, and the operating system.

So in order to back up content of your hard drive, MiniTool ShadowMaker is competent with its powerful Backup feature and Clone Disk feature.

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Now, get MiniTool ShadowMaker to protect your data immediately.

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And we will show you how to avoid data loss in two different ways.

Back up Hard Drive

First of all, let’s look at how to back up hard drive with the professional backup software.

The SMART hard disk error always occurs when booting the computer. Thus, the bootable media is required to boot your computer. Thus, you can create bootable media on a normal computer.

And if the hard disk 301 error occurs on a data disk and your computer can boot normally, you can ignore the step to create bootable media and just back up hard drive directly.

Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker

1. Install and launch MiniTool ShadowMaker.
2. Click Keep Trial.
3. Click Connect in This Computer to enter its main interface.

Step 2: Create Bootable Media

1. Go to Tools page.
2. Click Media Builder to create bootable media.

Step 3: Boot your computer from Bootable Media

1. Connect the bootable media to your computer which has hard disk error 301.
2. Boot the computer from the bootable media.

Related article: How to Boot from Burned MiniTool Bootable CD/DVD Discs or USB Flash Drive?

Step 4: Select backup source

1. Enter the main interface of MiniTool ShadowMaker.
2. Go to Backup page.
3. Click Source module and choose Disk and Partition.
4. Select the disk encountering the SMART hard disk error and click OK to go on.

Step 5: Choose the backup destination

1. Click Destination module on the Backup page.
2. Choose a backup destination to save the backup image. It is recommended to choose an external hard drive.
3. Click OK to continue.

Step 6: Start to back up

1. Returning to the Backup page, click Back up Now to start backing up immediately.
2. Or you can click Back up Later to delay the hard drive backup task.

When you have finished all steps, you can successfully back up all your files and content of the hard drive. So if you encounter the SMART error hard drive, you will not come across data loss.

As we have mentioned in the above part, we will introduce two ways to keep your data safe. So we will introduce the second way to keep your data safe when you encounter the error the SMART hard disk check has detected an imminent failure.

You can go on the following instructions step by step.

Clone Hard Drive for Data Backup

In this method, you can clone a hard drive to aviod data loss with the issue hard disk 301.

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Step 1: Boot your computer and choose Clone Disk

1. If your computer fails to boot when encountering SMART hard disk error 301, you can boot your computer from the bootable media with the same method in the above part.
2. Enter the main interface of MiniTool ShadowMaker.
3. Go to Tools page and choose Clone Disk to continue.

Step 2: Select disk clone source

1. Click Source module.
2. Choose the source disk. Here you need to choose the hard disk which has the SMART hard disk error.
3. Click Finish to continue.

Step 3: Select the target disk

1. Click Destination module.
2. Choose a target disk from the drop-down menu.
3. Click Finish to go on.

Step 4: Start to clone the hard drive

1. Wait for a few minutes for MiniTool ShadowMaker to perform the disk clone process.
2. Do not interrupt the disk clone process and read the warning message carefully when disk clone process is completed.

This warning information has the following means.

• The source disk and the target disk have the same signature.
• Disconnect either of those two hard disks when you boot the computer for the first time after the disk clone.
• If both of them are connected to your computer, one disk will be marked as offline.
• You need to change the BIOS order if you want to boot your computer from the target disk.

When the disk clone process is finished, you have successfully backed up all contents of the hard drive so as to avoid data loss due to SMART hard disk error.

Now, you have backed up all your important files. And it is time to fix the SMART hard disk error.

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How to Disable SMART Hard Disk Error 301?

To disable SMART hard disk error, you can try to the following instructions. And we will show you the solutions step by step.

Solution 1. Run Test in BIOS Menu

In order to disable SMART hard disk error 301, you can try to run test in BIOS menu. Now, follow the instructions to fix this problem.

Step 1: Remove and reconnect your hard drive

1. Remove your hard drive from your computer.
2. Reconnect the hard drive encountering SMART hard disk error.

Step 2: Enter BIOS menu

1. Start your computer.
2. Once the system starts booting, keep pressing F10 key to enter BIOS menu. Here you need to know that the BIOS key may be different depends on different computer brand.

Step 3: Run hard drive test

1. Choose an option to run hard drive test. It may be under the Advanced or Diagnostic tab.
2. Wait for the hard drive test to be completed.

When the hard drive test is finished, you can reboot your computer to check whether the SMART hard disk error Windows 10 is solved.

However, if this solution is not working, you can move on to the next SMART hard disk error fix.

Solution 2. Run Chkdsk Command

The SMART hard disk error may be caused by bad sectors on hard drive, directory errors on hard drive, or lost clusters and so on.

Thus, you can try to run Chkdsk to fix SMART hard disk error 301. Follow on the step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Enter Command Prompt

1. Connect the Windows installation disc to your computer.
2. Boot your computer from it.
3. Then go on based on the instructions and click Repair your computer.
4. Click Command Prompt to continue.

Step 2: Type the command

Type the command chkdsk /f/r c: and hit Enter to continue.

When the scanning process is finished, you can exit the command window and reboot your computer to check the SMART hard disk error is solved.

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Solution 3. Check Hard Drive

If your computer can still boot when encountering SMART hard disk error, you can try to check your hard drive whether there is a physical issue leading to the hard disk error 301.

And in the following part, we will show you how to check hard drive for errors step by step.

Step 1: Enter file explorer

Click Start on your computer and choose Computer or This PC to continue.

Step 2: Begin to check hard drive for errors

1. Select the SMART error hard drive and right-click it.
2. Choose Properties to continue.
3. Go to Tools tab and click Check to go on.

Step 3: Check hard drive

1. If there are errors found on the hard drive, you will be asked to check the disk.
2. If no errors are found, you will see a message as shown in the following picture. And if you still want to check the hard drive, you can click Scan drive to continue.

Step 4: Wait for the hard disk checking process

1. After a while, the hard drive checking process will be completed.
2. If there are some errors found on the hard drive, Windows requires you to reboot the computer to fix the errors.
3. If no errors are found, you can close the check window.

At last, reboot your computer to check whether the issue is solved. If you have encountered the SMART hard disk error, this solution would be available.

All in all, as for how to disable SMART hard disk error 301, you can try these three solutions. So when you encounter the SMART hard disk error 301, please back up files firstly so as to avoid data loss.

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Bottom Line

In conclusion, we have introduced three ways to fix the SMART hard disk error and two ways to back up files when coming across this problem. If you are looking for hp laptop SMART hard disk error 301 solutions, try these ways.

And if you have any better solutions to disable SMART hard disk error 301, you can share it on the comment zone.

In addition, if you have any better problems of MiniTool ShadowMaker, please feel free to contact us via the email [email protected] and we will reply you as soon as possible.

SMART Hard Disk Error FAQ