David Greaves wrote:

Hi

I just bought a usb/sata adapter like this:
  http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/a7ea/?cpg=ab
lsusb -v is below

Works OK as a hot-plug SATA disk so I can check what's on that old disk in the
corner; but smartctl doesn't work so I can't see if it has any errors, run
selftests etc.

So, for the record since I had no luck on google, I had an off-list reply that
pointed here: Smartmontools for FireWire, USB, and SATA disks/systems
  http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/faq.html#testinghelp

It's an odd URL target - it's actually about the fact that the usb/sata bridges
built into the docks don't fully support the scsi command set in their hardware;
so my SMART doesn't work and has no chance of being fixed by software. Future
chipsets (and some current cypress ones) may have various developments in
hardware to fix this.

HTH someone else.

David


-- 
"Don't worry, you'll be fine; I saw it work in a cartoon once..."